The cost of social media isn’t in the hard costs, it’s in the time costs. Creating a process for yourself will help save time and also make social media activities a part of your routine. If you missed Tip #1, check out my advice on setting up an RSS Feedreader here.
I find it challenging to share my personal process because I’ve developed it over more than four years. So take what you think will work and modify the rest to work for you. The point is to have a process, not replicate my process.
My process basically breaks down into three categories – making time to track, time to write and time to play.
Time to Track
You’re doing all this great monitoring with your feedreader, but you have to give yourself time to track – time to read and browse your feeds, your Twitter stream, your Facebook news feed. Input is crucial for good output (see the next section).
Your process may mean scanning as you have time during the day or in the evenings or maybe between tasks. Or it may mean setting aside a specific block of time during the day. I do recommend finding time every day so you can create a habit of using social media to track news and trends. I tend to scan a little here and a little there, using Twitter as my most common “input.” Through Twitter lists and columns on Tweetdeck, I can filter out some of the noise.
Time to Write
Creating content means spending at least some time being thoughtful and some degree of focus. I find the best times to blog for me are either a) on Sundays or b) when the spirit moves me. Sundays have just turned into my “surf the Internet, mentally prepare for the week but don’t work too hard” days. Blog writing me fits into that bucket. I enjoy writing. I enjoy blogging.
But your time to write may be different. Figure it out for yourself – and it may take some stops and starts. You may have to try a few different things. That’s ok!
Even if you’re not blogging, you’re still updating, tweeting (or whatever) and that means you’re creating content. Give yourself time to do it well.
Time to Play
If you’re not doing some fun stuff with social media, it’ll quickly become a chore. Fashion, gossip, design, sports… whatever you enjoy for fun, find a way to incorporate that into your social media “process.”
What’s worked for you? Do you have a process? Share it with us here.
mindmap photo by sirwiseowl
Comments
6 responses to “My Top 5 Shortcuts: #2 Create a Process”
New from PRos: New from PRos My Top 5 Shortcuts: #2 Create a Process http://dlvr.it/4R75F
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stellar reading to be efficient on SNN RT @kmatthews New from PRos: My Top 5 Shortcuts: #2 Create a Process http://dlvr.it/4R75F
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
stellar reading to be efficient on social media RT @kmatthews New from PRos: My Top 5 Shortcuts: #2 Create a Process http://dlvr.it/4R75F
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No. 2 in the series of my favorite social media time management shortcuts – creating a process: http://bit.ly/926uyx
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Hi Kelli! Thanks for the fantastic tips. With practice and organization, I’m finding it easier to focus on one social media task at a time. I write out a few blog entries at once(usually on a Sunday)and then time them for publication in weekly intervals. The down-side to this method is it only works with informative posts not news-worthy articles.
Also, I’m going to PR my dad and share a great article he wrote regarding time management during the work day: http://bit.ly/csfg9x.
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