Balancing social media with your job, family and day-to-day tasks can sometimes seem like a chore. We’re sure you sometimes find yourself wondering, how do I make the most of my available time? With the average American internet user spending four-and-a-half hours each month on social networking sites (Facebook holds the lead), therein lies a considerable opportunity to both reach and engage with your target audience(s). So how are you expected to stay connected to the world, whether it be business, friends or family, and still have time for everything else?
The first rule of social media is that there are no rules. But, in order to keep a healthy media diet, maybe it's time we put some rules in place. We have created the following tips to help you efficiently manage social networking:
TIMING: Find a time of the day that works best for you to network. Try to set aside at least an hour or two at the same time every day. This will help to form a reliable daily habit and can help eliminate wandering onto posts, tweets and sites that may be off-topic.
ORGANIZATION: If you use a handful of social media sites, it may be time for you to integrate this use into a platform that organizes your different networks and allows you to manage all of your profiles from a single account. My preference is HootSuite (see Top 10 Favorite Features of HootSuite). This platform is capable of swiftly publishing and scheduling posts, tweets and even blogs by allowing you to switch between your different accounts. This is a perfect way to save time!
RATIO: If you market your business on social networks, make sure you maintain a solid ratio of personal to business posts/tweets/topics. We recommend following a 4:1 ratio on Twitter and a 3:1 ratio on Facebook. This allows you to stay up-to-date on industry news while also keeping your posts personal and allowing customers, followers and friends to stay connected. This also helps to weed out information that may not need to be posted and can help you decide which posts are the most important for your readers.
MEASUREMENT: See what posts and topics are most popular by the feedback and comments. Check the stats and click rate through HootSuite’s Summary Statistics. Noticing a trend on your posts? Maybe it’s time to post more about at a specific time or about a specific topic.
BLOG: Because blog posts can sometimes take a bit of time to compose, we recommend designating a folder on your computer or in the cloud where you can keep a list of topics you feel may be relevant to write about. From there, you can begin to grow a database of information and articles as you stumble across them. This will make the writing process smoother, as you will have resources readily available for your next post. When blogging for a business, we recommend sourcing multiple post contributors and creating a blog schedule. This allows for a variety of information to be posted to your blog, covering numerous topics, and takes the stress of blog writing off of one sole person. Having a schedule in place allows each department, division or team member their own voice, ensuring that the content shared is never repetitious or stale.
The next time you find yourself beginning to feel the stress of balancing social media, work, life and family, assess your situation and make a schedule that works for you. If you are looking for a more in-depth plan - or want to outsource the content strategy, execution and response management of the social media accounts for your business - we’d love to help.
What tips do you have for balancing the addition of social networks to your daily regimen?