A common complaint I hear among small business owners and solopreneurs is that they just don’t have enough time to keep up with it all. There are so many items competing for our attention on a given day that social media can seem like one more overwhelming thing we don’t have room for on the schedule.
Admittedly, social media can be time-consuming in the beginning. There are platforms and tools to get familiar with and learn how to use. Not to mention all the talk about needing to “build relationships” while you are there.
Add to this its seductive nature of being both immensely fun and a handy way to procrastinate…oy.
So how do you keep from wasting your precious time but still take advantage of this world in order to benefit your business?
The answer is to be selective. Pick one or two networks–in my case it is Twitter and Facebook–and focus on those. It’s impossible to be everywhere and besides–it’s not necessary to be everywhere, which should offer you a bit of relief.
Now because social media is a piece of what I do in my business, I check out many of the new tools that come along, poking around to see how they work and how they could help my clients or myself.
I don’t explore most social sites in depth unless suddenly there is a good amount of chatter around them. I like to keep track of those occurrences along with lots of other information through Google Alerts, RSS feeds and Twitter.
But even I have limits! While tempting, I do not have Tweetdeck open all day. I check in a few times as a break from doing other work. For the other sites I experiment and set goals. Basically, you want to avoid participating in low-priority topics and conversations, just as you would in your offline life.
Let me know how you (try to) manage your time when it comes to social media. Care to share any helpful tips for others? Stay tuned for Part 2.
Photo Credit: fdecomite
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Very good topic and i like your take on it.
I have few rules to cope with social media information avalanches:
- Say NO more often than YES to it.
- Adopt subscription model – RSS, alerts. I am huge fan of it. And it works very well for me.
- DELETE button is your best friend. If the content cannot grab my attention just by looking at its title, then first line I just delete – no mercy. Time is the most scarce resource
Alik Levin | PracticeThis.com’s last blog post..Consultant Writes Proposals That Sell
Hi Christine – I’m like you. I’ve picked Twitter and StumbleUpon, although most of my time is on Twitter. What I like about that is I can jump in during a short break, then turn it (TweetDeck) off and check it again later in the day.
I know I can’t be in all places all of the time, and quit trying. I set my priorities and go from there. Life is better when it’s a little more simple.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Let’s Hear It For The Boys