If you’re like most small business owners, you’re busy. Without a large staff (or sometimes any staff), you don’t have the option to delegate various tasks to someone lower down the food chain. The question is, while you’re busy wearing numerous hats, how can you add social networking into your already overwhelming ‘To Do’ list?
The nice thing about social networking is, although it could easily consume your day, it doesn’t have to. Instead of spending a chunk of two hours signing on to Facebook or Twitter, spend 5-10 minutes chunks throughout your day. Did you get off a phone call earlier than expected? Hop onto Twitter and see if anyone you’re following has said anything interesting. Is the person you’re meeting for coffee late? Log in to Facebook on your phone and scroll through status updates.
Although it could take you over an hour to look through every single post, remember you don’t need to see it all. If someone direct messages you on Twitter or interacts with you on Facebook, you’ll be notified. Get in the habit of clicking the @[username] link to see if anyone has replied or retweeted you on Twitter, too. If they have, respond to them. Thank them for the retweet, or ask them a question about their post.
A good way to keep your account active without much time expended is to pay attention – especially when you read through news. I generally spend 20-30 minutes in the morning looking through online newspapers and blogs and collect links of articles I find interesting. Make a note of stories you want to share, and link to them throughout the day.
If you know you’re going to be too busy to update your status during the day, I would recommend a site like MediaFunnel. This service allows you to schedule tweets throughout the day, so you can spend a couple of minutes all at once, and the updates post to your Twitter account later on when you’re busy.
Facebook has applications that allow you to update your status with your Twitter updates, too, which gives you one less thing to do. Personally, I recommend “Selective Tweets” because it gives you the freedom choose which Twitter updates post to Facebook.
The important thing to remember is that, although it is easy for social networking to consume your life, it doesn’t have to. By breaking up your Twitter and Facebook time into smaller time chunks, you can effectively use social networking to your advantage without a huge impact on your schedule.