Yesterday I talked about why you need to engage in social media. Today I want to talk about how you can do without driving yourself crazy and taking too much time.

I highly recommend grouping, lists and filters to keep yourself from being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content out there. Are there particular people you want to build relationships with? Group them in Facebook or create a list in Twitter. Are there particular topics you want to keep up with? Create filters for your email lists. Only read those topics on the forums you follow. Set up Google Alerts for those topics.

When your time is limited, just pay attention to those people and topics that are most important to you. I do suggest wading into the wider information stream when you can. That’s how you find new people to follow and new information to track.

But beyond what to read and follow, what are effective ways to engage?

One of the key elements to success in social media is to share content your audience is interested in. So when your on-line forum links to a good article, post the link on your Facebook page. When you read an interesting tweet, retweet it to your contacts.

Sharing information promotes the source of the information and provides good content to your audience. It’s a way to give back and keep your name active in social media without just endlessly talking about yourself, your services and your specials.

Don’t forget to have conversations in social media. If someone linked to you on Facebook shares a triumph, offer congratulations. If a Twitter friend is having a bad day, offer condolences. Or a link to a funny cartoon to lift spirits. Ask and answer questions.

Does this take some time? Yes. But know that you’ll never keep up with everything. Dip in every day, even if only for a few minutes. Every time you touch social media, set a goal. Share one piece of content and respond to one person. Create and share one piece of your own content. That will give you a 3:1 ratio of engaging with others and promoting yourself.

If you do that every day, you’ll have a presence and be known as someone who gives back to others. And that will come back to you in return.

Tags: communication, Giving, Relationship building, reputation, social media, time management

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 1:17 pm and is filed under social media, Time and Task Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.