By Simon Landon, Account Executive
Social media is dominating the Internet at a phenomenal pace. In fact, The Nielsen Company recently found that Americans are devoting almost a quarter of their Internet time on social networking sites and blogs, a 43 percent increase compared to one year ago. You can make great strides for your company and/or clients by writing impactful blogs, running a Facebook page, posting tweets, etc. – but are you using social media time the right way? I have some suggestions to spend your days wisely.
• Check social media sites less – Everyone gets caught in the trap of reading their social media updates too often (some people that I know read them every 5 minutes). This ends up hurting in the end, because it takes away from the time needed to create the valuable content you need. Block off a certain time everyday that works best – whether it’s at lunch, on the train to work, etc.
• Subscribe only to the blogs, newsletters and followers that matter most – While it is very important to subscribe to industry relevant content, many of us overdo it. If your inbox is filled with 25 newsletters every morning, you’ll end up overwhelmed and get much less out of it. The idea is to subscribe to those that you can fully understand, those that relate to your business and those with which you can interact.
• Be a part of the social media sites that make sense – None of us can be everywhere at once, and this works with social media sites as well. It’s important to research where your business should and should not be. You have to learn how to listen, what to say, and how to adapt posts and comments effectively for each site. Popular blogger Chris Brogan has a social media task checklist that is a good place to start.
• Avoid posting automated messages – Every now and then when I follow a new person on Twitter that seems interesting, I will immediately receive a direct message saying: “Thanks for following; I look forward to reading your great content!” As soon as I see this, my interest in the user goes down immediately and I will often remove them from my list. The whole point of social media sites is to interact on a personal level – and users that post the same thing over and over aren’t accomplishing that.
• Remember that this is about business – Sometimes it appears difficult to use a social media site for other reasons than interacting with family and friends. However, you can save a lot of time by making sure you don’t get sidetracked. Focus on your business social media endeavors all at once to get the most out of it. There is plenty of other time for your family and friends.
While the list of ways to “devote your social media hours” can go on and on, these five points area good start to getting the most out of your day. As social media is integrated more into our lives, we will have to continue focusing on how to spend our hours more effectively. What other tips do you have?
