In this fast paced, busy world, we all have to make decisions on how to best spend our time. We prioritize our lives based on several factors, including: the most ‘bang for our buck’, the urgency of the situation, and the level of scrutiny by people to whom we are held accountable.
Often, we hear that the number one reason why social media isn’t a ‘main focus’ is the time involved. That is why we are sharing this e-book from HubSpot that we read: How to Monitor Your Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day
In the article, your 10 minutes of social media monitoring starts with 3 minutes to check the Twitter chatter about your company and your competitor (set up a search and save for your own and competitors names); next, take 2 minutes to scan Google News and Blog Alerts for important articles; third, use 3 more minutes filtering and flagging industry related questions so that you can be the first to correctly answer them in a timely manner; finally, use the last 2 minutes to check your Facebook wall and comment where appropriate.
In order to be successful with this strategy, you must set very specific goals: ask yourself what you want to accomplish and which of the social media platforms will help you reach those goals. Then see if you can use any of our ideas below to further decrease your time investment and increase your productivity while on social platforms.
Blog Integration
If you post a blog, you can save a lot of time (and energy) by setting up your blog to feed directly to each of your social media platforms. This level of integration across your platforms will not only save you time, it will also show that you understand how the various social media platforms work together.
Social Media Management Software
Rather than taking the time to log in to each of the platforms you wish to review or post on, you can set up one of the many free Social Media Management tools (HootSuite, TweetDeck, TweetMe, Seesmic, etc.) to do all the heavy lifting for you. These platforms do essentially the same task – they compile your accounts from the various social media platforms in a way that allows you to see what you are most interested in, comment, post, tweet, retweet, search, etc., from one tool! How great is technology?!
Manage Your News
Rather than going to each blog you appreciate to read their newest posts – why not use a tool that will bring all that information to you?! This tool, usually called a “reader”, works much like the social media management tool – but it pulls information to you from other websites and blogs. These tools (Google Reader, Netvibes, among others) are fantastic ways to pull in the most recent and relevant information automatically.
