I don’t have time to run my social media properly.

How much time should I spend updating things?

I seem to spend forever online and don’t get anything useful done.

Does this sound like you?  Here are some tips to make the most out of both your social media and your time.

1.      Information overload

Well first things first – have you gone for an all out approach and have set up every conceivable type, of social media? Well you need to take stock and only concentrate on the ones that help to grow your business and your business network. Look at which ones are engaging people more or the ones that you know bring in more business. These are your real goers and the ones you need to spend your valuable time updating.

2.      Time is tight

These days time seems to get eaten up so quickly. The best thing to do here is to look at how your day is scheduled and how much time you may have for online updates. You may find that the morning is the best time for checking through your social media and websites, so allocate yourself a slot.

Make sure that you don’t post 10 updates, one after the other, on each site though. People may miss it or just ignore it as it’s just a whole block from your company. Make use of available tools and schedule some of your updates. Hootsuite constantly comes out very high in reviews of social media management tools and starts off free. Also don’t forget you can simply use Facebook to schedule your Facebook updates. If you write a blog, most blog sites will also have a scheduling feature. You can also do some shortcuts like linking your Twitter to Facebook so one update shows on both.

3.      Sucked into the online void

It’s very easy to pop online to update your Facebook and suddenly 2 hours later, after following a few links, you find yourself reading a blog about link building. What you need to do is focus on the task in hand. If you are going to pop onto Facebook, then read through your feed and then like and share relevant things and then do your updates. Give yourself, say, 10 minutes. Then move onto your Twitter and so the same. Don’t be tempted to follow any links until you’ve finished your updates!

For my full article, written for the Nottingham Post, click here.