Systems for Social Media Management

There are 2 equally important aspects of social media management systems for entrepreneurs: getting your content out there and managing the time you spend consuming.

Today we’re going to focus on not getting sucked in when those notifications pop up, so our time is well spent on the shit we need to get done.

(Like maybe blogging. Ahem.)

Strategy #1 Cut the Cord

While I may not be able to convince you to give up your smart phone, I would implore you to disable the desktop notifications from social media platforms.

All of them.

Permanently.

Otherwise, it’s just so tempting to check in, read that mention, or see how many likes your latest post received. Step away.

Strategy #2 Set a Timer

One of the “easy” ways to reduce the amount of time you spend checking in online is to simply stop visiting those sites or create a calendar notification for set periods.

The problem is that we’re not wired that way, and it rarely works to just “be more disciplined.” Social media, in many ways, is our little shot of happiness when things are sad or tough to deal with in life.

I discovered this myself several years back when I had a “No Facebook Month Challenge” with a friend. Every time I found myself going to Facebook during the workday, it was because I was frustrated, annoyed, or had a problem that I couldn’t immediately solve.

Not only is social media a great distraction for the things that ail us, but a convenient excuse not to deal with issues in front of us.

Since the urge is so strong, I highly recommend using some technology to make it easier to reduce your time on these sites. RescueTime is one of the most popular, but there is an array of alternatives out there.

Strategy #3 Schedule some content

While I don’t think that 100% of your business-related social media needs to be pre-scheduled, putting the majority of it on autopilot is incredibly helpful and a big time saver.

I’ll go into this more next week, but in the meantime I want to know: how many hours a week do you + your team members spend posting on social media? And, in a given month, how many new leads or clients are you getting from those channels?

What it comes down to is this… if you have goals to achieve in your business and find yourself on social media sites but not getting much out of that investment of time and energy, then making a change to your habits can be a game changer.