Posts Tagged ‘time management’

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Social Media Time Management

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

People frequently ask me, “How much time do you spend on social media?”

It’s a fair question, but I’m not the best person to ask. Social media is part of what I do for my business, so I spend more time on it than the average business owner.

That said, I spend two hours or more each day on social media. But before you have heart failure, remember that I’m a blogger. We spend more time than average because we have to write our posts, and we probably read more blogs than non-bloggers.

So how do I do it? And what can you learn from me to help you?

Simple. It’s all in the tools and time management.

I don’t keep up with social media in one or two long blocks of time. I spread it out over the day with short blocks of time that fit between meetings or larger tasks.

For example, in the morning, I check Twitter and catch up on blog posts. Mostly, I do that from my phone, sometimes before I’ve even gotten out of bed. Very luxurious, I tell you.

I do most of my Twitter and Facebook interaction from my phone because I can be anywhere. Waiting on a meeting, waiting on a phone call, as a short break to clear my mind. Sometimes, like today, while I’m eating lunch.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might think I’m on it all day. But I’m not. I use scheduling on Hootsuite for iPhone to space out my tweets. That means I can do a 20 minute session and have tweets and RTs going out for the next couple of hours.

Twitter recently added a new feature, which has been great. Whenever I receive a Twitter @Mention, I get a text to my phone. So I can reply to those as they happen instead of a couple of times a day.

See why I love my smart phone so much?

What about blogging? I write each post the day before. Then in the morning, I just need to do a quick edit and publish. Again, I use Hootsuite to schedule the tweets about my blog. 7:00 AM isn’t a big time for US Twitter people, so I’d rather have the tweet go out in the late morning. Scheduling makes that happen. It also means I’m never sitting in the morning, staring at a blank screen, thinking, “What to write about today?”

As for reading blogs, I use Google Reader mostly. All the blogs I’m subscribed to all in one place. If I have a few minutes, I go to my Google Reader page and see what’s new. I also use an iPhone app, Byline, to check blogs on my phone.

So it’s all about using good tools and finding those few minutes a day when you can dip in, read some stuff and then get back out and on with your next task or meeting.

Anyone else want to share how they time manage social media?

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Task Management Idea

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Shame on me! I realized it’s been months since I posted on time or task management. Sounds like I need a better system, doesn’t it?

Well, as it happens, I am trying a slightly new task management system this year, and I thought I’d share.

I’m basically working three jobs this year: 1 to 1 Discovery, writing/publishing and volunteering for Homeward Deployed. It would be easy for me to spend my time disproportionately, and all of them are important. My coach challenged me to come up with a way to keep track of all them, and I can’t stand not responding to one of her challenges.

So I started this system last week, and so far it’s working well.

Each morning I spend a few minutes looking over my day. I’m still using Pocket Informant as my calendar and task management app. I see how much time I have devoted to meetings and how much time I have left over for other things.

Then I look at the tasks I (sometimes optimistically) have due that day. I prioritize them, and reschedule ones that don’t make the cut that day.

My final check is that I’m representing at least two of my “jobs” each day. If I can fit in all three of them, great, but some days that’s just not realistic.

Planning done, I go about my day, keeping track of which tasks I’ve accomplished.

At the end of the day, I’ve scheduled another few minutes. That’s when I go back and look at what I did. I created a template for an “All Day Event” where I can track what I did for my three areas of focus. I write down exactly what I did to advance the three big goals I’m working toward right now. Mostly, it’s just cutting and pasting completed Tasks, but it’s a way to hold myself accountable.

For you visual people, here’s what that daily event looks like.

As you can see, I did pretty well on the writing goal that day!

On Friday, I go back and look at each of those events and make certain each goal was advanced.

On Monday, I add another extra step. I look at all my Projects (ala Getting Things Done) and make sure I have a task assigned to each of them.

It doesn’t take much time. The daily planning and reflection takes less than 15 minutes. The recap and planning on Friday and Monday take about 30-45 minutes total. But spending those couple of hours each week is making me more productive by ensuring I’m working on exactly what needs to be done.

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“I Didn’t Want To Waste My Time”

Friday, September 17th, 2010

I overheard a conversation a couple of days ago that reconfirmed my iPhone decision.

A couple of guys were talking about a networking event.

Guy 1: “Did you go to that event last night?”

Guy 2: “No, the meeting I had beforehand was canceled. I didn’t want to hang around a coffee house and waste an hour and a half, so I went home.”

So sad to miss a networking event because he didn’t have a way to productively spend time. With my iPhone, I could have done any or all of the following in an hour and a half:

1. Checked Twitter and Facebook
2. Written a blog post
3. Edited The Case of the Haunted Vampire
4. Written 500-1000 words in my current story
6. Checked and answered email
7. Caught up on other people’s blog posts
8. Read a book

And failing all that I could have

Played Plants vs. Zombies!

Okay, I wouldn’t really shoot zombies on work time, but you get the idea.

Having productive work with me all the time is part of how I can juggle the many projects I’m working on. If someone’s late for a meeting or cancels last minute, it’s never a problem. With a glass of iced tea and my trusty phone, I can be productive anywhere and anytime. (Um, don’t take that to mean I am encouraging people to cancel last-minute. Wanted to be clear on that.)

How about you? How do you stay productive on the go?

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Social Media Roles: Be a Brand Monitor

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Last week I wrote about creating a buzz through social media. Today I want to talk about the other side of creating a buzz, monitoring your brand through social media.

Someone’s probably already told you that there is a conversation going on about your brand. You can ignore the conversation and hope it goes well, or you can listen and join in. It’s your choice, but obviously I believe that joining the conversation is the better option.

Where should you monitor? It depends on the size of your brand. If you are a national/international brand, you need specialized tools to gather all the mentions of your brand in one place. I’m test-driving Trakur right now. It’s one tool, and there are certainly others.

If you are smaller, look at where your audience tends to hang out and go there.

I still recommend accounts on most of the major social media platforms because you’ll want to be able to respond when people talk about you. Remember to respond to both the good and the bad. We like to get feedback when we compliment as much as we like to hear from you when we criticize.

How will you spend your time? Listening, mostly. As you listen, analyze and look for patterns. Does one demographic talk about you the most? Is it good or bad? You might want to plan a campaign to address them specifically.

As you listen and analyze, interact with your audience. The more accessible you are, the more you’ll hear, and that’s good, even if you hear the bad stuff. If you are accessible, the bad stuff won’t be as bad. When people feel they are being heard, they are much softer in their criticism and more likely to thank you for addressing concerns.

How do you get business from this role? That’s easy. If you have the reputation of responding promptly, people will naturally come to you. Remember that we like to do business with companies we know, like and trust. A good monitoring program will feed all three of those.

That’s the end of this series. I hope it’s made you think of your role in social media and how you can make it work for you more effectively.

I’ll add to it when I run across new roles. Things are changing so rapidly that I’m sure it won’t be long before I see some new ones emerging.

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Social Media Roles: Be a Buzz Creator

Friday, August 13th, 2010

Most of the roles I’ve written about this week are appropriate for authors, coaches, consultants and professional service people. But what if you have a retail or restaurant business? Or maybe you are a larger company with a product launch? You’ll want a different role, that of buzz creator.

Your goal will be to get people talking about your product or your place of business. What are the best social media channels for you?

If you are a retail business or a restaurant, you’ll want to look at channels like Twitter or Foursquare. Twitter is where people go to keep up with the latest buzz, and Foursquare is where people go as they travel around. A good Foursquare special will bring in impulse business. It worked for American Eagle a couple of weeks ago when I checked in nearby, saw the special and stopped by to buy jeans for my son.

Foursquare check-ins can be posted on Twitter, which is why you need a presence in both places.

Planning a product launch? Twitter is ideal. Create a hashtag for your product and get people tweeting about it. Hold a Twitter chat. Create a contest for people using the hashtag. There are lots of ways you can get people talking about you and your new product.

What does your time look like? You want to start the buzz by letting people know you’re there, but mostly you’ll want to let other people do the talking while you chime in to keep the conversation moving.

Want to see a good example? Check out Lounge 201, a club/lounge in Washington, DC. (Yes, they were one of my clients.) If you look at their mentions, there are a variety of people talking about them and promoting events at their location. Then look at their stream. Yes, they talk about their specials. But most of their stream is engagement with their followers: light banter, thank yous and the like. That’s a good Twitter stream. They have attracted some new regulars because of their Twitter presence.

How does this bring your company business? The answer should be obvious. If people are talking about you, they are going to remember and buy your stuff. Social media can lead to impulse purchase like my American Eagle example. And if you engage with your customers, they are going to remember you, like you and talk about you with their friends.

The Millennial Generation is very active in social media. They look to it for recommendations. They use it to ask their friends what’s hot and what’s not. If you aren’t there, encouraging and participating in the buzz, you’re not going to be hot.

By the way, a colleague of mine wrote an excellent post on engagement in social media. Read it for some more perspective and ideas on social media engagement.

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Social Media Roles: Networker

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

The last two days, I wrote about roles that would be good for fairly small business owners and sales people in particular professions. Today, I’m heading in a slightly different direction.

What if your goal in social media is to meet cool people and build relationships with them? Don’t laugh. I have a client who told me that was his goal, so we’re working toward that.

Traditional networking can be done effectively through social media. Choosing the right channels can extend your reach more easily than can face to face networking, and social media can be used to maintain relationships begun face to face.

Who would fall into this role? Job seekers are the most obvious. Owners of multi-level marketing businesses could also use this role effectively.

What are the best channels for the social media networker? Facebook and LinkedIn are the best, though Twitter could also be considered.

LinkedIn is the foundation channel for this role. Using LinkedIn, you can get a detailed view of someone’s contacts. Are you targeting a particular person? Use the Search function to see if you are connected in any way. Targeting an industry? Search again. Once you have found your target(s), request an introduction.

The Friend Finder and Search features of Facebook can do something similar, but they aren’t as powerful as LinkedIn’s.

Once you’ve found someone and been introduced, I’d suggest moving to another social media channel for building and maintaining the relationship. Twitter can be good for this because there’s no awkwardness about “friending” on Facebook. A new contact might not want that level of engagement but mutual following on Twitter allows for communication and staying in touch. If the relationship grows, moving to Facebook makes sense.

What about time management? Depending on the size of your network, the time commitment can be manageable. You’ll want to join a few targeted LinkedIn groups, keeps tabs on Facebook updates and monitor your Twitter stream with some regularity. A tool like Nutshell Mail, which sends updates from multiple channels to you via email might be all you’d need. As your network grows, upgrading to a tool like TweetDeck might be prudent.

Your “content” will mostly be conversation and perhaps promoting links. You’ll also want to post updates about what you are doing, keeping them professional and pertinent. If you need help, especially with finding a job, ask for it. You’d be surprised how often requests for help finding a job get forwarded.

If you are a multi-level marketer, how do you get business out of this? Remember that we refer people we know, like and trust. Your social media activities will lead (I hope!) to all three of those. Sprinkle occasional mentions of your ideal clients in your stream, and if you’ve done it right, you’ll get referrals.

Sound like you? Great. Now, you have a place to start.

Are you a business looking to build and maintain a brand? The next two days are for you.

I’d love some feedback on this series. I’ve not seen anyone in the social media sphere writing about roles quite this way. Is it working for you?

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Social Media Roles: Be a Content Filter

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Yesterday I wrote about Content Creators, and how they can effectively use social media to build a following for their ideas. But what about those of you who can’t or don’t want to create content on a schedule? Are you out of luck for being known as a go-to person in your field?

Nope. You have another approach. You can be a Content Filter. And we need you!

If you are active in your field or industry, you are probably already spending time reading articles and commentary. Why not use that time to build your reputation? Disseminate the good stuff and occasionally comment on why the bad stuff is bad, and we’ll keep coming back to you. For myself, I’m interested in a lot of different fields, but I don’t have time to read everything. I value the people in my network who read all the crap and direct my attention to just the good stuff.

Who will be comfortable in this role? Anyone in the real estate, financial or health and nutrition fields are naturals. There is a lot of information being disseminated in those areas. Some of it good. Some not so much. If you are willing to filter and comment on what is being presented, you’ll be valuable.

How do you use social media to disseminate information? The good news is that you have lots of choices. You can use any of the major channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube. How?

Facebook: Set up a Business page and use that as the repository of all the links to good content. You can write your own commentary on both good and bad articles, and you’re not limited to just 140 characters.

Twitter: Obviously tweeting links can work. If you want to build relationships with the major players in your industry, that’s easier here than on Facebook. Lots of business Facebook pages are maintained by a PR company, and it can be difficult to interact directly. But many Twitter accounts are maintained by the people, and some of them will respond back to your @Mention.

LinkedIn: Join a Group, participate in Discussions and post links in your status updates. It’s not quite as easy to use LinkedIn for this purpose, but if your industry in more active on LinkedIn than the other channels, then definitely use it.

YouTube: If the content you are filtering is primarily video then YouTube is the natural. You can create a profile and use your “Favorites” as a repository for the content you want to promote.

How do you manage your time? Obviously, the majority of your time will be spent reading and/or watching content. But you should already be doing that, so it’s not a new demand on your time. Other than the time spent reading, you’ll be selecting the content to share and sharing it. You’ll want to leave time to engage in discussions around what you’re sharing. Over time, you’ll want to build and maintain relationships with the major players in your field. And they should want to know you. If you are promoting them, it’s in their interests to be on your good side.

How does this give you business? Go back to who I said were naturals for this role. All of them are in professions requiring a high degree of trust. This role will build that trust and, over time, lead to customers and referrals. After all, if you are the one we’re going to for trusted information, why wouldn’t we go to you when we need your services?

Sound like you? Excellent. You have a place to start. But maybe you’re not all about the content. Perhaps your focus in on relationships. Not a problem. The “Networker” is the role for tomorrow.

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Social Media Roles: Be a Content Creator

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

An important role in social media is to be a go-to person for good content. There are two ways to act in this role. One is to be a Content Creator. The other is to be a Content Filter. I’ll cover Content Creator today and Filter tomorrow.

Let’s start with why you might want to fill the Content Creator role in social media. Probably you want to be known as an original thinker in your field. Or you might want to write a book, and you want to use social media as a way to build content and a future audience. Perhaps you are a free-lance writer or consultant and want to build credibility with your future clients. All of these are good reasons to be a Content Creator.

Where do Content Creators promote themselves in social media? A blog is the obvious place to start. A blog provides a foundation for all other interaction. Much of your time in social media is aimed at driving people to your blog so they can read and share in your content.

By the way, that blog doesn’t have to be written. A video blog or podcast are good options as well, depending on what content you are promoting. Are you a writer? A written blog is essential. Are you a trainer or speaker? A video blog or podcast might promote you more effectively.

Once you’ve set up your blog and decided on the format, what other forms of social media are going to work well to promote the blog? I’m a fan of Twitter for blog promotion. Twitter has better tools for promoting outside of your immediate contact sphere. While Facebook has introduced a “retweet” function, it isn’t used as commonly. Facebook is excellent for maintaining close relationships. It’s not as good at promoting or making something “go viral.”

If you are doing a video blog, YouTube is required. It’s a good place to host the video, and it has excellent search functionality. With the ease of liking or reviewing a video and the tracking of times the video has been watched, it’s a good platform for promoting your content.

So most likely, you’ll have your blog on a schedule, and you’ll be using YouTube and/or Twitter to promote your posts. Where does this leave you from a time management perspective?

Obviously, you’ll need to allocate time to write or film your content. For most of you, this will probably be your biggest time commitment. The rest of your time will be monitoring your blog for comments, Twitter for retweets and comments and/or YouTube for reviews.

In addition to monitoring, you need to be engaging with your followers. Perhaps someone in your field has written a related blog post? You can comment on it and link to it. This allows you to engage with other writers in your field and promote them. What goes around comes around. If you promote them, they will likely promote you in return. Over time, you can build a close relationship with your audience and other influential people in your field.

How does this get you business? If you are selling a book or tele-series, your blog allows people to get a feel for who you are and if they might be interested in paying for your content. If you’re a speaker, people can see your style before they book you. Consultants and other professional service providers can build a reputation as a go-to person in their field. Once you are known as the go-to person, people use and refer you.

Does any of this sound like you? If so, great. Now you know where to start. If not, don’t worry. I’m going to cover several other roles over the next week.

Tune in tomorrow for Content Filters, the flip-side of Content Creators.

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Working When You Don’t Feel Like It

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Yesterday, I didn’t want to work. I felt sort of blah all day. But I still got stuff done, and I had a productive day.

Does this happen to you? I’m sure it does. Part of being a small business owner is having to find the self-motivation to work when we don’t feel like it. Without a boss checking to see if we’re playing Solitaire on our computer, it’s easy to fritter a whole day away.

How to manage the problem? I recommend having “Rainy Day” items in your action list. These are things that need to be done but don’t take a lot of creativity. Cleaning up my Twitter followers is a good example. Doesn’t take much brain power, and it’s something I hate to do when I’m at my best, but it’s perfect for “brain dead” days.

I also worked on editing and rewriting my urban fantasy story. It did require creativity, but it was also fun and didn’t feel too much like work.

What kinds of (productive) things do you do when you don’t feel like working?

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Goals and Social Media Strategy

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Several months ago, I wrote a post on how your goals will affect which social media channel you use. Today I’d like to expand on that by discussing how your goals will affect how you engage in social media.

This idea came out of my Netmasters group last month. When I asked about social media goals, I received some interesting answers, all of which dictated slightly different engagement strategies.

1. Become a creator of content

Not surprisingly, a couple of people wanted to be known as experts in their industry. But not all of them were going about it the same way. One attendee was a writer. Obviously she wants to use social media as a way to get the word out about her services. As we brainstormed on her business, it became obvious that she needed a blog. What better way to showcase her talents? So her strategy for engagement was to use social media to promote her blog and to publish a list of short writing/grammar/spelling tips. Self-created content is going to be a significant part of her social media stream.

2. Become an aggregator of content

The real estate agent in the session also wanted to be known as an expert in his industry. But his approach turned out to be different from the writer. His goal was to sift through all the often-conflicting information in his industry and be known as a place to go for the best and most up to date information about real estate. He doesn’t have to create content. He needs to read, filter and promote the best articles he can find. He might also want to discuss some of the bad articles to show people the difference, but he won’t need to do much writing. He can get away with posting links and doing a lot of re-tweeting.

3. Meet cool people

This one was fun, and my favorite. His goal was similar to a face to face networking goal. He wants to meet interesting people who have good stuff to say and build relationships with them. His strategy is going to be to find and follow leaders in the industries he’s interested in. He will see who they find worth following and follow them. It will be sort of a free-form “Six Degrees of Separation” approach. What will his social media stream look like? Lots of re-tweets and back and forth discussion, either through @ Mentions on Twitter or Wall posts on Facebook.

See how it works? Your goals certainly affect which channels you will use. But they also dictate what your engagement will look like. What are you waiting for? Go set your goals now. And share them in the comments. We’ll help you out!

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