Finding time to spend on social media is a big problem for many businesses, especially small businesses where owners may be already wearing a lot of hats. If you’re the salesperson, the administrator and the person performing the work, where do you find time to socialize? Businesses may be starting to realize the value of social media, but actually using it can be especially difficult. Here are some tips for integrating social media into your day:
- Schedule Content Ahead of Time – The point of social media is engagement, but if you don’t have a lot of extra time, schedule some links and other content to go out in the future. Then you’ll have more time during the day for having conversations.
- Use Social Media as a Break – Working from home or a small office and miss office banter? Take frequent 5 minute breaks during the day and hop on social media to socialize. Use social media as your virtual water cooler.
- Be Mobile – Install applications on your laptop, phone, ipad, etc. so that no matter where you are, you have access to your social networks. When you have a few minutes while waiting in line, check your social networks and chat it up.
- Build Relationships – Social media becomes less of a chore if you have people you like to talk to (just like offline). Look for people in your industry or region and build relationships with them so you have ongoing conversations. When you have people you know online, it makes it fun to spend time chatting with them.
- Break Into Bit-size Bites – Don’t try to do all your social networking at once. It can be overwhelming! Try to accomplish a little bit each time you login. You’ll be more likely to stick with it if it doesn’t feel like you have a ton to do every time you’re online.
- Schedule Time – Still can’t seem to find time to use social media? Mark off 30 minutes each day (or every other day) on your calendar. Now you’ve given yourself the time (and permission to spend some time with social media.
- Do Some Planning – Some people like more structure than others. Use some of your administrative time each week to plan out what you’ll be doing with social media. For example: time on Twitter on Monday, blog on Tuesday, Facebook on Wednesday, etc.
What other tips do you have for integrating social media into the day?
(image by Generationbass.com)