Time Management Tips for Social Media
Social media is full of smart and generous people. I got together with some friends from Google+ and had a fantastic conversation on a Google+ hangout about social media, strategy and how we manage it all. Holly and Megan are both Google+ powerhouses, blogging whizzes and Pinterest fabsters so there's lots to learn. I wanted to highlight a few of the things from our hangout with links to find what we talked about. I'm sure that you'll pick up a few ideas since we all had different plans and activities.
Holly Homer
1. Use Pinterest to test content and if it does well, post it to Google+ and other social media platforms.
2. Next Scripts WordPress plugin cross posts blog content to multiple platforms.
3. Write first, then go to social media.
4. Use Google Drive to share shared content when you work on a team.
5. Holly shares Google+ content to a secret circle that she is the only member of so she can find it later.
Find Holly on Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ as well as her blogs Kids Activities Blog and Business 2 Blogger.
Megan Sheakoski
1. Use a timer. It helps keep you and your family on track.
2. Use Pinterest and Google+ together to save time.
3. Use the platforms that you like the best.
4. Crowdsource content from communities on Google+ or Facebook groups.
Find Megan on Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ and her blog Coffee Cups and Crayons.
My tips
1. Pinterest is a great place to curate content & keep things organized.
2. Schedule your week in advance with the things that you know will be shared like blog content.
3. Use Triberr to amplify your blog content. Find good tribes and you'll get great content from them.
4. Use Buffer to schedule your content out evenly and create a balanced flow.
5. Use Do Share for Google+ scheduling.
Check out the video from the Google+ hangout — get ready to take some notes!
I'm very grateful for this learning experience with Holly and Megan. Thanks for the hangout ladies! I hope we'll do it again to talk more.
Do you have any questions about social media time management? What's your best tip?
Photo credit: BigStock
Great tips Peg! I love that you got others to weigh in, and I hope even more ideas are generated here in the comments on your social media posts. Here are just a few… though I could go on and on!
1. Be selective in who you follow. Your time is valuable, so make sure that when you’re looking through your home stream or news feed, you’re seeing posts from people you want to see, and not mindless drivel.
2. Use HootSuite to “listen” and monitor your branded accounts. The dashboard layout is a real timesaver.
3. Take a moment to go through your notification settings on all your profiles and networks and make sure you’re only getting notifications for the actions you truly need to be notified for. Your computer doesn’t need to explode every time someone Likes a post.
mike_allton Thanks for sharing you tips, Mike.
Do you set up listening streams on Hootsuite with keywords or hashtags?
Your notifications tips are good too! They can make you crazy. I like to get my notifications when I go to that platform and none at all one my phone.
PegFitzpatrick You’re welcome!
That’s right. I have a few permanent tabs set up within HootSuite, though I’m looking forward to the day when that capability is expanded to all networks.
One thing I do as a blogger for sponsored posts is to schedule all sponsored social media at the time of post publication. That way I can make sure I am properly hashtagging it, have done what I promised and remember to include a disclaimer. I then email the client with the post URL, the URLs of all the first social media blasts and a note about what more is to come.
Great post!! It was fun.
Holly Homer Great tip, Holly! There is a whole other load of things that you need to do with promoted content to follow the rules and meet the obligations. Have you written about that on your blog?
Thank for inviting me on the hangout – it was great!
Hey Peggy,
This is great material – sharing it with my team. I think one of the greatest concerns is that sharing is not necessarily caring. In other words how much are we reading and learning from what we’re sharing. I really try to read as much as i can but it’s daunting. And if I’m not reading it’s harder to engage on a deep conversational level. Wondering about your thoughts on that. have a great summer! judyMartin8
judymartin81 judyMartin8 I read a lot of content every day, Judy. Content curation is a big part of my job so I need to make sure that I’m sharing quality content. It is time consuming but I also learn a lot.
Nice to see you here! 🙂
PegFitzpatrick judymartin81 judyMartin8 Thanks – and that’s why I read your stuff so much. I always learn something that I can generally apply immediately.
judymartin81 PegFitzpatrick judyMartin8 That’s awesome to hear. 🙂
I enjoyed reading this and found many of these tips to be something I can apply to my online life. Thanks!
ShanaNorris Hi Shana – glad you like it! I hope that a few tips will help your social media a little better.
PegFitzpatrick ShanaNorris I actually have a couple questions.
1. How do you create a secret circle in G+? (Like Holly does)
2. How do you use Pinterest and G+ together (like Megan does)
(If the answers are in the video, let me know. I haven’t had time to watch it yet, but I don’t want you to have to answer this reply if the answer is already there!)
I just heard about Triberr last week. It’s good to know you think it’s a valuable tool.
ShanaNorris Hi Shana,
Just create a circle, add only your account and name it. It’s really simple but effective for the people that use that method.
I’m going to write about using Google+ and Pinterest together & also have a hangout scheduled with someone to discuss it. Basically, share your pins on Google+, pin things that you love from G+ to Pinterest. Include Pinterest in your G+ profile and maybe links to your favorite boards. There’s a lot more but too in depth for the comment section here.
PegFitzpatrick ShanaNorris That is what I do. I have a circle that has just me {and one other willing person that wants that stuff too}. I call the circle “stuff I want to read later” so it is easy for me to find quickly when I find a post that I want to share to it.
What are some ways that you can use Pinterest & Google Plus together?
jaredeasley That might be my post for next week, Jared. 🙂
I find content on Pinterest to share on Google+. I organize my content on Pinterest boards so I can find it when I want to share it. My great Google+ content has a longer life when I pin it and there are different people that see it in both places. I use secret boards for projects and content that I don’t want to share yet.
PegFitzpatrick jaredeasley So is it pricey ?
bijutoha PegFitzpatrick jaredeasley Pinterest and Google+ are both free services.
I liked Holly Homer had suggest. When you have some sort of a list or like an activity calendar then it would be easier for your to track the data. A really great strategy for time management as well as it’s effort wise. Well, working smart would be better than spending the whole day in front of the computer and achieve unsatisfactory result. It’s like just using social media during peak hours, that’s when viewers are more likely to see your post. Nice post Peg. Wish you could post about some free tools for social media. Thanks. 🙂
I love the NextScripts idea; I hope it doesn’t screw up the formatting of a post.
Sharing content to a secret G+ group: can’t you see all that content under your profile?
Thanks for the resources, Peg! And just to let you know, I linked to this post from my Marketing Skinny at Traffic Generation Café: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/weekly-marketing-news-august-10-2013/
maeganA Hi Maegan!
I just saw your comment – sorry! I’ll work on a post with free tools for social media. 🙂
Ana | Traffic Generation I’ve used Next Scripts a bit but not too much.
When you share content to a secret G+ circle, you’re the only person that will see it, it helps you to sort it out. I don’t use that method myself. I use Pinterest secret boards or once I share it, I add it to a relevant board so I can find it again if needed.
Thanks for sharing this on your post. 🙂
Great post to read! It is difficult to manage alot of social media accounts with at the same time. However, there are some great time management apps is still there to help us. One of the best way to manage our time is to schedule our priority tasks and stick to our schedule.
I would suggest to use time recording software from Replicon ( http://www.replicon.com/olp/online-time-recording-software.aspx ) to schedule your time. When setting a schedule, allot more time for priority tasks and set remaining time for normal tasks.
This is an excellent article, displaying step by step process for day to day Social Media management. If you are not in the trenches, it is hard to grasp the work, knowledge, and time commitment which social media managers and coordinators are providing to a company (or a solopreneur), thus validating the pay an experienced and skilled social media marketer may ask before commencing work.
It helps hiring managers understand all that takes place, the importance of being technical savvy, understanding the nuances of each channel, what tools to use, interpreting SEO analysis, and understanding big picture marketing goals, and the necessary behind the scenes implementation plan. There is so much to managing social media (whether for yourself or for another person/company/department; the use of tools manage and save a ton of time.