Lately, we have been talking a lot about how vigilant our clients need to be on blogging and social media.
A lot of them are worried about getting into it because the common consensus is that there’s not enough time in a day, and if there is – well, their time could be better utilized. We 100% agree. We find ourselves in the same situation all the time, but we know we must to be part of the conversation that is happening.
How? With focus.
We keep telling our clients and partners that blogging or social media is not your job – it is a tool in your job. This is often a big misconception among clients until we actually sit down and go through it with them. We don’t expect people to sit at their computer everyday, constantly updating their profile. Rather, we want people within organizations to use social media as communication tools.
The key is to focus on the reason for engaging in the blogging and social space as well as recognizing the value you can bring to the network. Know what roll you play and play it well. Recognize that you won’t always have something to say, but when you do – it needs to be heard. If you’re really focused, it will take much less time. After 2 years of being a pretty heavy social user, I would say it takes me about 30 minutes on an average day to catch up on news and conversations. All that in the amount of time it takes me to drink my Venti Americano.
Like most good marketing tools, we find the market that works best for our clients. We can set up the tools, we just need a plan. By the way, we’re happy to help with that plan…
All this to say, I read a great article today by blogger Chris Brogan. If you do not know him, you should. His articles are usually short and to the point, (I could learn something from him.) But the concept of his post was to cover off ways to keep yourself focused and get your blogging or Social Media done, but not at the sacrifice of your other, more important, work.
Here is an exerpt form his post, some ways to stay vigilant:
• Use an egg timer. If you’re going to venture out onto Twitter, time it.
• Keep a sticky note of your objectives in sight of your monitor.
• Ask yourself for every blog post what your goal with that post should be.
• Ensure that you’re doing this all with some goal in mind, and can you measure that goal?
• Tend to your main objectives first, and use the secondary time for social media.
Best line of the article was:
“Remember, your job from time to time is to remind yourself what will yield the most value in your day.”