Happy New Year, everyone.

Since I began work for the Diocese of Trenton in June, I’ve seen several schools, parishes and individuals become heavily involved in evangelization via social media.

Pages whose posts were few and far between six months ago have begun posting prolifically and garnered a lot of interaction from their faith communities. We’ve become social, interacted, we’ve engaged. And it’s been a lot of fun. Well done.

For those of us who post regularly and follow a lot of other people — and on the flipside, those who want to be more connected — the following are seven New Year’s social media resolutions that could make navigating the waters of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and beyond a little bit easier, and I hope more enjoyable. Caveat: Strategies are not one-size-fits all.

• Have a smartphone? If you want to be more active on social media, download social apps. Facebook and Instagram are a good place to start. The apps’ presence on your home screen might encourage you to post.

• Keep your phone off your dinner table and night stand. It is tempting to check your notifications constantly. However, when posting at dinner you could miss out on conversation and connection with loved ones. Socialize with other human beings. Also, checking in before bed can make it more difficult to fall asleep.

• Maybe you’ve gotten tired of Facebook and Twitter, and never really gave Instagram or Pinterest a chance. Try them out. If you don’t like them, delete your accounts. It’s as easy as that.

• Connect with at least one new person/page each week to gain a new perspective. I follow people and pages from whom I learn new things all the time.

• Do you feel like you are too connected? Can’t find a balance? Social media taking away from quality time with family and friends? Unless you are required to be connected for work, delete social apps from your smartphone. If you only are able to access them from a desktop, you’ll automatically create balance.

• Don’t be afraid to mute people. If one brand or person is completely taking over your Twitter feed, press the mute button (Twitter created it in 2014). You’ll still follow them and can turn their stream back on at any time, but you won’t have to sift through 90 tweets about Sunday’s football game – unless you want to, of course.

• Do some research, fact check, don’t spread gossip, beware of malware and keep up-to-date on privacy settings. Your credibility in your online community depends on your due diligence.

The most important thing to remember is that social media might be able to come close, but it cannot replace face-to-face, one-on-one interaction with friends and family. As we learn and grow together in the New Year, finding balance is key to our success.

Brittany Wilson is the Diocese of Trenton’s social media coordinator. She can be reached at [email protected].