Effective Social Media Time Management

If Social Media is about meeting new people, products and businesses and developing and culturing new relationships, it stands to reason that a considerable amount of the day can be chunked away on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and more to accomplish this. You know how it is, you sit down to watch a video and that leads to the next one and then the next one and on and on. Before you know it, a few hours have passed and you’re wondering how in the world you will ever get your work done. We’ve all been there and done that! This can be a particularly sticky subject if you are paying an employee to handle your social media presence.

Out of necessity I have developed a very simple plan that works for me. Keep in mind that many automated tools are out there to do postings for you or generate automated responses. However, for me, this is not keeping with my company or personal goals. I use these tools minimally.

So here’s how it works.

First, I have developed my social media strategy. I have determined who I would like to reach and what or who my “target audience” is. For example, for my diner, Crazy Otto’s Empire Diner in Herkimer, NY (thanks for letting me put in a little plug here!) my target audience is different than my target audience for my social media training. For the first, I am trying to reach the traveler across Interstate 90. For the second, I am connecting with small business owners, entrepreneurs and business professionals.

First thing in the morning I send out a personalized tweet for each one of my accounts. I check to see if I have any tweets to respond to or there are tweets that I would like to retweet. This takes 10-15 minutes.

Next, I check my Facebook pages. I make a post on each of my pages which can include pictures, links or just connecting. I respond to any messages, click a few likes and reach out to new connections thanking them for joining us. This takes another 10-15 minutes.

Then I travel to LinkedIn where I request 5-7 new connections a day. I try and personalize my requests and stick to the targets I have set. I don’t just randomly click on connections to build my numbers. I personally respond to any connection requests thanking them for making the connection. This is about 15 minutes.

If my schedule permits, I allow myself 15-20 minutes more to check out any other social media sites I have set up such as magazines, videos, Foursquare and so forth. You get the idea.

In the afternoon I do a very quick rundown of the same, maybe taking 15 minutes. I outline my plan for the next day and I’m done.

So I’ve done all of this in less than an hour and a half. This leaves me plenty of time to craft articles, visit with clients, fine-tune my skills and so forth.

For me setting boundaries and being organized are key.