Tonight I had great plans for a productive
Sunday evening. We spent the first part of the evening shopping, a pint at the
pub and then headed home
It was just me and my laptop.
As I settled in for a few minutes on
#BlogChat, the big plans of a productive night on social media inclusive
of a new blog post
slipped away into never never, never tweet land.
As I Google +’d stumbled, Triberred, Twittered
and Pinterested… time escaped, my night and almost this blog post
escaped right with it.
Anyway, as I tweeted, posted, planned
tweetups, meetups, tweetchats, answered questions, networked with folks across
the globe it reminded me why I love social media so
much. It wasn’t time wasted and it’s definitely not the first or last time it
will happen. I’m considering writing off Sunday nights to any productive online
work and instead fully embrace the social aspect of it.
Anyone who follows me knows I believe plans
are required, not optional when it comes to social media for business. I
also believe that “being social” is a requirement for success in social media.
Yet “being social” all by itself won’t bring real results. You must have a plan
that includes objectives, goals, and knowing your audience. A plan to
inspire and connect with your audience, and of course build a conversion funnel
to monetize it at some point (if that’s your goal.)
Chances are slim that you can simply grab a
Twitter account, setup a Facebook page and spend every day tweeting out
randomness and see results unless there is a method to your social madness.
At the same time, you need to go with the
flow. You may set aside 30 minutes in an afternoon to “be social,” yet
you may find that your community of followers and fans are busy doing other
things.
On the other hand, you may have big plans like
I did this evening to write blog posts, and catch up on other work. On these
days or nights you may feel like the whole world is being social and you are
being left out.
So what is a social tweeting, Facebooking,
Googling, Pinteresting, Linking addict to do? How do you know when to tweet,
blog, pin, post, talk, chat or turn off all of the above and hang with your in
real life friends and family?
Here are 21 tips to help you manage time and
balance the many different roles and responsibilities you have as a business
leader and social media addict. Please add your tips and thoughts in the
comments!
21
Tips to Balance Social Media Engagement, Addiction with Real Work
1. There is only one way to do social media
and that is the way that works for YOU and your business. My opinion is it all goes back to YOUR plan.
Only you know your objectives, goals, audience, and what it is going to take to
inspire and connect with your community. On some days your community may need
information that educates. Other days they may need friendship, advice or
advocacy. The key is to know your community, get in their head and connect with
them!
2. Have a plan. The only way to social sanity combined
with results is to establish a solid plan which integrates with your business.
It must include goals, objectives, a plan to inspire and engage your audience,
conversion funnels, content plans and more. I don’t have time to dive deep on
this topic for this post. If you need help check my numerous other posts.
3. Acknowledge that “being social” by itself
is not going to enable you to quit your day job or retire to the Bahamas this
year. Yes, you must engage
as a real human being. Give without expecting anything in return.
However, without a plan you are destined for many wasted cycles and little real
benefit in regard to brand awareness, community building, achievement of
business goals and objectives or return on investment overall.
4. Know your community. Know your audience of partners, clients,
prospects, evangelists, friends and colleagues. Get in their heads. What do
they want to know, do, hear, talk about? How can you help them meet their
business goals? How can you bring value to their life? The better you know your
audience and community the easier you can connect with them with less time
spent. When you know them then there can be benefits to even a short five or
ten minute session on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn!
5. Don’t over think everything. If you spend too much time over thinking
everything you do and every minute you spend in social media you could be
wasting what little time you have to actually engage and be social.
6. The heart of social media is people. At the heart of social media are people.
People that laugh, tweet, post, sing, post tweets, share good, share bad and
are looking for real people to do all of the above with. Take time to embrace
the people, their minds and hearts. You can never go wrong investing in real
people.
7. Have your ears open more than your
fingers typin’! Listen more than
you talk. Join a tweet chat, use a social media listening tool, logon to
Twitter or Facebook for 30 minutes and say nothin’ at least one a week! I dare
ya’!
8. Do the five minute twitter follower mood
test. If you are an
avid tweeter this tip can do wonders for maximizing your tweet time! I can
usually tell within 5-10 minutes at the tweet deck how engaged my
followers are and what they are in the mood for.
I will often times tweet a quote,
link to quality content, and a simple coversational or question style tweet.
Within just a couple minutes I can tell what kind of mood they are in. I look
for retweets, comments and subscriptions to our newsletters. I may try another
or send a conversational yet inspirational style tweet. I’ll watch close to how
they respond, what content they are responding to, etc. Often times it is
obvious if they are in a business mood and want serious data, tips or other
types of content. I’ll test a variety of content based upon what I have
available and what is available and being shared across the web.
Note, this all ties back to plan, knowledge of
my audience etc. Many people probably think I am just a crazy tweeting
marketing nut. Yup, I am a crazy marketing nut. However, few know that I really
do have a method to the madness. Well at least on most days that is! 
9. Go with the flow. Be flexible. Be dynamic. As I explain
above, if you take the time to know your audience, do the 5 minute tweet test,
and listen more than you type, then going with the flow will become quite easy.
There are some days you have no choice but to throw out the rigid plan and dig
in to the heart of the people of social media.
10. Don’t throw out the plans, goals and
objectives. At the same time
I tell you in #9 to go with the flow, it’s also important you don’t forget your
plan. You must not forget the reasons why you are engaging, leveraging social
in the first place. Be careful of the consultants and agencies that tell you
just to engage, tweet and post and not worry about the details. It’s perfectly
alright to go with the flow and throw out the plan for an hour or two here and
there. It’s not alright to do it all the time.
11. Create an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar filled with
content that will help you inspire and connect with people in a way that will
help you meet business goals has multiple benefits. It will help keep you
on track and maximize the time spent simply being social. It helps provide
context to your tweets, inspiration to your audience and build relationships
that run deep and wide.
12. Use time blocks. If you struggle with controlling your
time enjoyed (or wasted) on social media then set time blocks for engaging,
writing blog posts and other tactics. I started setting solid time blocks each
day for engaging in social media with no objective but to “engage” in early
2011. Doing such has had tremendous benefits on my personal enjoyment in
social as well as business results.
13. Art before science in social media. The learning of the needed tech will
come. Knowing the basics is plenty for most people just getting started.
Relationships are the life raft to enduring technology evolution and change. If
you have an engaged community sitting on the edge of your every tweet or blog
post, it doesn’t matter what happens to Facebook or Twitter. When the tools and
tech evolve, your community will be going right there with you! Embrace the art
of inspiring, connecting and engaging with real people.
14. Increase efficiency with tools. At the same time that you focus on the
art of social, you also can’t completely forget the tools and tech. Make
sure you are taking time to research, select and use the right tools that will
help bring efficiency to your efforts in social media. Some of my favorite
tools include TweetDeck, Hootsuite, TweetChat, my iPhone and iPad, Evernote for
writing blog posts and ideas on the go and numerous other programs. Experiment
and find what works for you.
15. Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale or
send a link to your blog. During a long or even short block of engagement on the social
networks don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a couple tweets that bring folks back
to your homebase
blog or website. However, make sure your tweet fits within the context of the
conversation and of course adds value to your community.
16. Don’t spend too much time comparing
yourself to others. We all had a
first tweet, first Facebook post and blog article published. Even if I
have tweeted thousands of time more than you, it doesn’t make me any better
person than you. It simply means I hopped on Twitter before you did. If you
spend all your time comparing yourself to others, you’ll miss the point of
engaging with people who want to speak to, hear from and learn from you. Even
if you have only been on Twitter for 30 days, I guarantee there are people who
are just hopping on Twitter today and want to learn from you.
17. Don’t forget the in real life (IRL)
friends, family and community. Don’t forget about the people in your life who you see,
touch, walk by, meet or live life with you every day. They need your dedicated
time, attention and focus too. You need them too even if that crazy blue bird
is whistling your name!
18. Blend all of the above. The goal is not to have a separate
online and offline life. The real ROI comes when all of these activities start
to blend together. When real life friends become online friends, when online
friends become offline friends. When tweets turn into friendships, business
partners and even clients.
19. Remember what really matters in life.
There may be days
where the kids are screaming, the dog needs food, hubby is out of town, laundry
needs done and your favorite worship service starts at 7:00 pm. You know the
chances of you getting all of the above completed before midnight are zero. For
days like this find time saving tricks, tools and a pen to cross something off
the list.
20. Social media is real life. Even though there are some people that
still tweet behind the logo or behind double personality and duo Twitter
profiles, the truth is most people are honest. There is only one you so be that
person. The more you can be you, the better you are going to connect with
others who are also being them. Make it a goal to take relationships offline, to
find business partners and service providers who can help your business go
zoom.
21. Breathe! As one of my favorite tweeters and best friends on and
offline always
says, “breathe!” We must take time in life to breathe. If we don’t breathe and
have fun then what’s it all for anyway? At the end of the day if you are
engaging with real people, building relationships, tweeting about life’s ups,
downs and happenings, then it should be enjoyable. A session at the tweet deck
shouldn’t feel like a root canal. Embrace the people aspect. Embrace the
learning. Embrace the heart of social and the people in it.
