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Create a Social Media Schedule

It’s really easy for social media to take over your life and leave your other business tasks in the dust. One way to deal with this is to simply contain it a little. Start by setting up a regular routine of when you do particular actions and you’ll find you’re more effective. In addition you’ll have the added bonus of being on particular networks at a regular time and you may see your network actually engages with you more!

Take a few minutes to look at your day and identify when you are usually free to be online. For example, I read my blog feeds in the morning while I’m having breakfast or on the treadmill. This is a good time to make note of items you’d like to share or pursue further. This doesn’t mean you have to follow this all up right this minute! Create a spreadsheet or a simple to-do list that you can add links and notes to to go over later. Make a second list of task you can delegate and another of possible blog posts that come to mind as you’re reading. Now you can set aside some time to go over these lists at a scheduled time. It’s quite likely you could set aside 1-2 hours a week to go over the lists and identify what action needs to be taken rather than an hour every day.

Rather than leaving your Twitter or Facebook window open all day–ready to distract you– set aside a few minutes 2-3 times a day to scan posts, respond to messages and collect and share some of the links you collected from your blog feeds. People don’t really expect you to be on 24/7 and responding to a request can wait a couple of hours without upset. How many times have you heard it said “He can’t be working much he spends all day on Facebook!”? Don’t be that guy. Be the guy who responds in a timely manner and people will assume you’re busy working.

If you’re inspired to write a blog post, stay on that roll and try to put together 2 or 3 at a time. You can schedule when they go live and suddenly you’ve got a lot more time for other tasks. Posting regularly is the best way to build your blog readership too, so get the schedule pulled together.

This works even better if you’re part of a team. You can delegate tasks and create a schedule for your team as well. I’ll post on scheduling social media for your team tomorrow.