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7 Time-Management Strategies For The Social Networking Professional

Guest post by: Jessica Swanson

Article Overview: One of the most common problems for new business owners is managing their time when using free marketing strategies. Many individuals feel that free marketing, specifically social media marketing, is too time-consuming and overwhelming.

7 Time-Management Strategies For The Social Networking Professional



One of the most common problems for new business owners is managing their time when using free marketing strategies. Many individuals feel that free marketing, specifically social media marketing (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, etc), is too time-consuming and overwhelming.

Individuals aren't sure what to focus on, where to spend their time and how to balance all of their varying marketing platforms. As a result, many individuals end up spending hours and hours every day marketing their business.

It does not need to be this way! Of course, free marketing is going to take some time and energy every day but, it should only take you between one and two hours if you work smart and strategically.

Here are 7 time management strategies to help you work smarter, as opposed to harder.

1) Narrow Your Focus

There are hundreds of free marketing platforms to choose from. You can't possibly market on all of them. My rule of thumb is to pick five free platforms and focus your marketing efforts there.

You will never succeed if you try to conquer too much. Remember, you do not want to be a "Jack of all Trades, Master of None!" You want to master a few marketing strategies well.

2) Spend Time Each Day on "Creation" and "Maintenance"

Every day you should "create" new information. This can be accomplished by writing an article, shooting a video, creating a group (FaceBook, LinkedIn), etc. The new information that you create doesn't have to be long and time-consuming. For instance, you can shoot and 3-minute video and upload it into YouTube all under fifteen minutes time.

In addition to creating information, you should spend time each day maintaining your sites. This can be accomplished by making MySpace friend requests, writing on Facebook walls, adding LinkedIn connections, posting to Twitter, etc.

If you divide your time between creating information and maintenance, you will be working smarter.

3) Set an allotted amount of time for marketing each day.

You want to approach your marketing with a plan. And that includes a plan for how much time you will devote each day to marketing your business.

If you simply "start marketing" without any sense of how much time you will devote, you will be extremely non-productive.

I generally recommend spending 1-2 hours every day actively marketing your business.

However, you also do not want to spend more time than necessary on marketing. If you log into Facebook and begin "to market" without a plan of action, you might still be there six hours later. So, decide how much time you will spend on marketing and stick to it.

4) Use a Timer

Using a timer might sound silly, but it is certainly a trick that I have always relied on. When I am writing an article, I set my timer for 30 minutes. I give myself exactly 30 minutes to write my article. If I don't finish, then I will have to finish tomorrow.

You'd be surprised how much more efficient you are when there is a timer clicking away in the background.

5) Connect Your Accounts

Make sure that you connect all of your social media and information accounts that you can connect.

As an example, you can add your Twitter account to your EzineArticles account. Then, whenever you publish an article, your Twitter account will be automatically updated with your newest article.

Again, you can add Twitter to your FaceBook account, so that your "Twitters" appear on your FaceBook profile. Take some time to investigate all the ways that you can integrate and connect your accounts together. This will save you valuable time in the long-run.

6) Recycle Your Efforts

Whenever I write an article, I reuse it in many different ways. Here is an example:

Imagine that I write an article titled, "7 Ways To Market On FaceBook." I, of course, publish that article in multiple article directories.

However, it doesn't stop there. Then, I post that same article to my blog. After that I use the basic concept from my article for a YouTube video. After that, I Twitter about that concept as well.

The point is that when I have a new concept, I reuse that concept as many times as possible.

7) Track What Works and Focus Your Efforts There

You will soon find that when it comes to free marketing and social networking that it's often difficult to accurately track your marketing statistics. For instance, when using PPC (pay-per-click) it is simple to add a code to your website and find out exactly how many people are visiting your website, opting-in to your form and making purchases.

This isn't as simple when it comes to social marketing.

However, there are activities that you will notice add to your business success and activities that don't do a thing for your business.

As an example, I found that managing all the "application requests" from FaceBook was becoming quite a chore. So, I decided that I just couldn't take the time to respond to every Christmas ornament, Starfish, etc. that I received. I had to begin to "ignore" those application requests.

You will need to make the same decisions.

Remember, free marketing work. In fact, I truly believe that free marketing often works better than paid marketing.

However, if you are going to optimize your free marketing plan make sure to implement these seven tips to help you effectively manage your time and energy.

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Article Tags: free marketing, Small business marketing, social media marketing



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Re: How can a social networking site make serious money? - Hi There, It is quite interesting, that some Social Networking do produce an income. I think testimonials are always a benefit to share. See one below: This Social Network has changed my life! Every night is a Friday night and everyday is a Saturday!! Because of it, I have been able to leave the workforce 10 years early.It has given me back my life. Many of us would like to retire early. I am sure there are many more. The point is of focusing with great determination. The ongoing challenge is to stay focussed and not be sidetracked into a newer scheme or so. Also I have read, during this financial turmoil, more people turn to Social Networking for various reasons.
Marketing 2012 - I am interested in what works for you in 2012, Social Networking, Search Engine traffic, Blogs, Articles, Forums, what? This is a quote from a 2009 Topic "Twitter, Social Networking, What is your Method? From my experience, social networking traffic (Twitter included) also converts at a far lower rate than search engine traffic. Evan Is this still true, or do you use something that gives us better returns and conversions
Re: Marketing 2012 - [quote="drdony":2y0daolc]I am interested in what works for you in 2012, Social Networking, Search Engine traffic, Blogs, Articles, Forums, what? This is a quote from a 2009 Topic "Twitter, Social Networking, What is your Method? From my experience, social networking traffic (Twitter included) also converts at a far lower rate than search engine traffic. Evan Is this still true, or do you use something that gives us better returns and conversions[/quote:2y0daolc] Great question Don! I'll create a video reply!
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Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!


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