As explained in a recent article, updating your social media can be done in as little as 20 minutes to half an hour, 3 times a week, depending on your business requirements.
Hands up though if you feel like you spend way more time than that on there?
Anyone? Everyone? Thought so!
While there’s no doubt it can be incredibly beneficial to your business, it can also suck a big chunk of your precious time from your already overcrowded schedule if you don’t use your time wisely.
Here’s 3 big ways that it can eat into your time:
- Mobile access 24/7 – does your mobile or tablet provide you with constant updates, invites, feeds, etc, etc, etc? And do you feel you just have to check it every single time?
- Failure to plan – if you don’t have a plan or a schedule, then you’re likely to spend way more time then you need to trying to figure out what you need to post, researching etc.
- Is it personal or business? – if you’re checking your personal Facebook or Twitter account or playing games when you’re supposed to be posting to your business account, you’ll notice the time really ticks away!
So what can you do about it?
Here’s 6 key ways to avoid wasting time and to make sure your social media minutes are time well spent.
Plan to succeed
One of the key things I tell all of my social media clients, whether it’s those I coach or help get set up – you have to have a plan.
It can be a simple spreadsheet, but it’ll detail what types of posts and activities you need to do each week by day, and will take into account what’s happening in your overall marketing plan, your business as a whole, your industry and community.
Schedule your time
Setting up appointments throughout the week to manage your social media will get you well on your way to only spending that allotted time on it – not getting carried away with reading countless updates on other pages or playing games!
Automate
You can choose to automate and save precious time, using online services such as such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck, Seemic or Socialoomph.
But remember: don’t automate your participation in the conversations your social media posts creates!
Spending a little bit of time across the week participating in the back and forth on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter will help strengthen relationships and get the most out of your social media dollar.
Track your time & dollars
Do you know how much time you spend tweeting, updating your Facebook status, commenting on photos, uploading blogs, etc?
Or how much time you spend on social media as a whole, particularly if you’re getting sucked into combining personal with business!
If you don’t, keep track this coming week using a spreadsheet or sign up for one of the great online time trackers such as yast.com. And don’t cheat!
Then multiply your time spent by your hourly rate – it can be quite the sobering exercise!
There’s a great quote from Rolf Nelson, in The Rational Entrepreneur,
“Putting an explicit monetary value on your time has the advantage of ironing out certain irrational habits.”
Outsource
Now it’s time for a shameless plug…there are plenty of businesses, like myself who can help you with your social media commitments, whether that’s via blogs & online articles or support, coaching and training, or managing your accounts.
And maybe you don’t need someone to do it all of it for you – but once you’ve identified where your time’s going
Turn it off
The final word on time saving – turn it off. You don’t need to be hooked in 24/7 because it’ll only distract you from other activities that will make you money or enrich your personal life.
Out of work hours, turn off your business social media and make use of other better ways to monitor your social media such as automation and RSS feeds.
Don’t forget – time is your most important asset so spend it wisely!
Until next time…..
