Implementing an effective social media strategy takes a commitment of time and resources. So tips on how to manage your social media productivity are very useful for the New Year! Here are 15 strategies to maximize the efficiency of your time in social media from practical experience and crowdsourced from Q&A sites and across the web:
1. Create a blog calendar (a Google calendar is ideal) to plan social media content across all your social networks. Use Hubspots social media tools to plan your activities. Download a social media posting schedule here
2. Use natural keywords in tweets and other social media content. Theme your content around top keywords for your events/industry /topics and key calendar dates.Use Google Keyword tool to find keywords
3. Use Tubemogul to upload a video to just about all social media platforms
4. Social media management dashboard like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck or Twhirl are great to manage, schedule and syndicate content across different social media sites.
5. When you come across someone interested in topics related to your blog, ask them to do a guest blog post and do a complementary post on your blog pointing followers to it.
6. Use answers you’ve created for Yahoo Answers, Quora or LinkedIn Q&A or other discussion groups as starters for blog posts.
7. Use what people are talking about on Facebook, Twitter, or riveting sites like www.ted.com as inspiration for social media content.
8. Keep up to date with SEO & social media trends. Sitevisbility’s Internet Marketing Podcast is a good place to start. Download podcasts on your iPhone or android and listen to them on the hop.
9. Use social book marking – Stumbleupon, Digg, delicious etc to filter through the noise and find new sites and ideas
10. Use blog aggregators like Google Reader, Blogging.com or Alltop etc to see what’s trending online in specific topics
11. Use RSS Feeds to share lots of information in least amount of time. Find tools like Ping.fm or Twitterfeed to spread your reach without eating up your time.
12. Blog using a flexible tool like WordPress that has a range of plugins to make your life simple. The WordPress Editorial Calendar makes it possible to see all your posts and drag and drop them to manage your blog. Search the WordPress plugin directory for more golden nuggets.
13 Use Google Analytics to track the condition of your website or blog. It’s a completely free management and web tracking plugin. Spend your time on sites that are brining referrals or converting clicks into sales. Assigning discrete blocks of time to a particular task.
14. Use time management techniques like the Pomodoro technique to assign discrete blocks of time to a particular social media task and use a timer. Chris Brogan suggests spending two hours a day for best results and splitting time into listening, commenting and creating content tasks.
15. Schedule time in the day for creativity, be a human being and not a human doing. Yoga? A visit to the museum? Meditation? Or a coffee shop? Your body and mind will thank you for it.
Useful links
• Social media time management
• How To Boost Your Social Media Productivity – A Guide For Busy People
• Social Media Productivity – 13 Tips to Maximize Your Time
• Time Management Tips for Nonprofit Social Media Professionals
• Todd Schnick’s strategy for allocating your time
• Guiding principles for social media time management
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By Yvette Bordley
@webyogi