“Our non-profit would benefit from social media!” was the last thing anyone heard from Arthur Dent. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, WordPress pulled him into a social media space-time continuum that eventually imploded inward on itself, leaving us only his Backtype comments and his sweaty bathrobe.
How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck
Even incremental time management improvements with your social media efforts can add up to huge gains in long-term productivity – without the wasted time. Here are a few ways to manage your time with social media:
1. Make a list – and check it twice
Simply having a written list of the social media sites I want to focus on saves me about 10 hours a week. All of my sites are on one index card. Each social media site on my list has a business reason behind it:
- Amount of traffic from that site in my Google Analytics Report(Twitter, StumbleUpon)
- How the site relates to my niche (LinkedIn Groups, Techsoup Forum)
- Professional networking (particular blogs, LinkedIn Answers)
- Blog Partnerships (Yahoo groups, Authority Blogger forum)
- Just plain fun – an important business reason!
2. Pick the big stones
On my index card, I’ve put an asterisk next to the social media sites that are absolutely important to my business. I’ve asked myself, “If I only had time for three sites each day, which ones would I focus on?”
Chris Brogan puts it another way: “Triage is the art of quickly looking at everything that needs doing and knowing what will either make the most impact or relieve the most stress.”
3.Budget your time
Next, I’ve written down how much time I’d like to realistically spend with each site on a daily basis. Like anyone else, I have need time for family, friends as well as “regeneration” time. I’ve budgeted more time for the big stones, and less time for the other sites.
4. Carve out your time
I spread my social media time throughout the day in 30-minute chunks. I work well with short “sprints” of activity. Some folks need to “warm-up” so two-hour marathons are better for them. Know yourself. Plan around who you are. And no, you’re not Tim Ferriss.
5. Use a timer
Because it’s easy for me to get distracted by Youtube videos and Flickr photos, I’ve had to force my self to set a 30-minute alarm. Knowing that I have limited time puts me in a state of heightened attention – I stay focused. I’ve gotten more done in 30 minutes with an egg timer than 2 hours with no timer.
6. Praise yourself
If you don’t think I’m mental yet, you will now. When my 30 minutes are up I say out loud: “Great job!” I’ve found that this is the second best way to make myself feel good 
7. Give new sites 30 days
You have to consistently work a new social media site for at less 30 days in order to determine it’s value.
8. Cut bait on dead weight
If you’re networking on sites where no one is biting, pull up your line and go find another fishing hole. “And do not feel any guilt about it”, says Chris Garrett, founder of AuthorityBlogger.Com. “There are no rules that say you have to follow everyone who follows you!”
What are your tips to avoid the time suck? Or are you Arthur Dent?
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Aw man! Now I’ve gotta buy a timer??
I fall victim of the Social Media Black Hole waaaaaaaaay too much. I needed this article and will try the tactics. Thanks!
Thanks John. This post actually gives me some idea on how I can manage my time on Social Media Sites. Lately, I’ve been spending a bit of time on Twitter when I need to be working on another browser. Ditto with Amy, “Aw man! Now I’ve gotta buy a timer???” OR use my cell phone alarm clock.
Carmen
@digitalfemme
great tips! I have a timer, now to actually USE it!
Visually seeing your purpose for being on the site is a great idea. For most, we haven’t even really thought through why, it just is. So it may take some upfront time to figure out “Why am I on Twitter all the time?”.
When I am working on a project, blog post or anything else, I usually just ignore email, RSS feed and TweetDeck. The one thing I have done is shut off all notifications from all of them. I don’t know if I have a new email until check. Nor does TweetDeck ding me when I get a new tweet.
Perhaps the biggest time saver has been TweetDeck. Because you can organize it into columns, I have my All Friends column and a list I call A-List. I follow way to many people to keep up on all their tweets all the time. What I do is put those in my A-List who I don’t want to miss. And this list is a living list. What I mean by that is I add to and take away from this list when I feel I need to.
Social media can be a huge time sucker if you allow it to be. So we have to be careful.
John,
This post has great advice that I can see working for the lion’s share of people. The most important of these guidelines for me are giving new sites 30 days (even though I only give 2 weeks and then come back in a month, 2 months or more depending on what the buzz for a site is doing) because social media is far from settled. Innovation is abound and you’re only hurting your chances of social media success by not trying everything with potential.
The other important tip here to me is “picking the big stones.” I always advise my clients to pick one social network (preferably the one with thier audience already already within it) and do it well before even thinking about another one. Yes, this seems at odds with what I just wrote about innovation, but the key is that you have to be doing one network expertly before you experiment. Once someone has really devoted time and effort to one social network, he/she will have a better chance at already having an audience built in to any new network he/she joins
Now, I don’t, by any means, want to devalue what you’ve written, but the strategies listed in 3, 4, and 5 simply don’t work for me. As a general rule, I use social media as a “break” between projects. While I’m constantly Tweeting, I use social media communications as a “reward” when I finish something. This works for me because I am constantly switching hats from proposal writer to video editor to media relations guy to event planning to strategist, etc. A few brief online conversations serve as a palette cleanser for my brain.
Welp, you asked for it, those are my thoughts. Thanks, as always, for a great read.
Hi, John! Thanks for the great article on budgeting your social media time. This is a real problem for me; I find myself using way too much time with social media, especially Twitter. And it has limited my use of other services, since I don’t have the time to spend with them!
I actually have a countdown timer that I use for other purposes, and now I’ll use it for social media.
Thanks for a good round up of consise hints and tips! Using a timer seems to be a good option! Several people have recommended a timer to me too. I often have various media running in the background whilst working, some I dip into and others I don’t when concentrating on working. What I don’t do is make a set time for listening which is something which probably could be really useful.
There are many tools/apps out there for many platforms, so finding ones which work best for you often help! (For instance, I use several for Twitter pending on the type of work I am doing at the time! Twhirl (when more able to participate whilst doing other tasks at the screen), FireStatus (for active listening) and the old fashioned web interface too amongst others. Twibble works for mobi well too when out and about well)
thanks for reminding me to get back to work
“The glance reveals what the gaze obscures.” – Emerson
I swiped my kids timeout timer about a year ago ….
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2007/11/social-networ-2.html
Part of the research I did for an article for TechSoup called the Habits of Highly Effective Social Networkers – looks like you hit them!
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page8075.cfm
@Beth – Thanks for the links! I missed the techsoup post. “7. Befriend People Strategically“ helps cut down the time suck too.
John
John, thanks again for your practical ideas to make us all better social networkers. As ever, you hit the target and empathise with the struggles many of us try to overcome!
If we don’t get it under control, then we face the risk of being out of control. I am one of those needing to be more disciplined and your suggestions will help with that.
Cheers,
Graham
@Joe – Thanks for stopping by – see you tonight!
@Graham – You are very welcome my friend! I too am always struggling with being more disciplined.
Some great tips there John.
For me it’s more the time of the day that affects me more than anything else. I am far more motivated in the wee small hours of the morning and seem to get so much more done.
Using a timer might be an option for me. I’ll have to try that as I frequently get caught up in YouTube and Twitter.
@Paddy – Great point – finding the right time of day. Thanks!
John — that’s a good idea! My phone has a timer……..
[...] How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck at Corporate Dollar [...]
The problem is determining what factors make the most impact. A lot of people are simply trying to find out _What Really Works?_ Experimentation is important for innovation – and becoming one of the easier things for a social marketer to do.
But, perhaps just as important are frames of reference. A frame of reference that helps guide your experimentation of what works with these certain set of circumstances from your particular point of view. This post is a great example of one such reference, good work John.
The time-suck thing was a big issue for me. I was sadly Arthur Dent for a long time.
Your idea of the index card is great. It makes sense to sort out them all out and write it down so you remember. It’s all too easy to “forget” what the purpose is and get sucked in again.
I already talk to myself quite a bit, but I could use more “Good jobs” and less “What the hell are you doings?”
Grant Griffith’s suggestion to turn off the stream while you’re on a project is rock solid. That’s the only way I get anything done.
The other danger is when you don’t have a specific project, how do you keep from getting sucked in?
I try to make projects out of my marketing efforts and work on them with clear deadlines and goals (daily). That way I know what I should be doing and at the end of the day what I’ve actually done.
It’s not an exact science because things like Tweetdeck need to just be open sometimes and I need to allow myself the ability to respond to something random. It’s more effective when I do that because I meet more new people and have better conversations.
It’s a balancing act for sure, but it responds well to large amounts of coffee.
Man, did I ever need this article! My husband informed me this last weekend that I was addicted to Twitter and the InterWeb. I don’t even have a blog or website but follow very interesting ppl on Twitter so I HAVE to check out whatever links they suggest. I also have ADD so the timer and cards are a wonderful idea. I forget to use tool for apps that they weren’t originally set up for…
Again, thanks for helping me with one of my resolutions!
@Mary – If I can save at least one marriage, then my hard work is not wasted.
Social Media can be such a HUGE time suck. Not just that, but it can completely encompass your life to the point where your physical life and virtual life are one and the same. This is where I was at the end of 08, but I quickly realized that there is a significant difference between the two.
I made a blog post about my social media diet and would love your opinions!
I will definitely link out to these great points you laid out. Look forward to staying in touch.
- Jun Loayza
[...] Make Use of Social Media Once the exclusive territory of geeks, social media is a now easier-to-use than ever before. Two important ones for connecting with people and creating exposure: Facebook and Twitter. The demographics will surprise you — chances are your customers, buyers, prospects, decision-makers, and champions are active. 2 tips: don’t commit these social media sins, and put a strategy in place to avoid the time suck. [...]
[...] How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck From Corporate Dollar: Even incremental time management improvements with your social media efforts can add up to huge gains in long-term productivity – without the wasted time. Here are a few ways to manage your time with social media. [...]
How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck – http://is.gd/d3p7
How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck – http://bit.ly/83Fv
[...] Make sure you adhere closely to your editorial calender. Here’s a post by John Haydon about How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck, hopefully you will get some ideas from [...]
Very very good list of social networking sites. Probably the best so far i have seen on the internet.
Thank you so much
You're welcome, Stats!
Thanks!
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[...] By Cindy KingPublished October 22, 2009 Many business owners and marketing professionals respond to the social media buzz with what Olivier Blanchard calls the “Social Media Terror Syndrome“—a wait and see approach. The next barrier is often a lack of time. And the focus becomes “how do I avoid the social media time suck?” [...]
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[...] I wrote a while ago called How to avoid the social media time suck received a lot of comments -– proof that social media time management is a constant struggle for [...]
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Thanks John. This post actually gives me some idea on how I can manage my time on Social Media Sites. Lately, I've been spending a bit of time on Twitter when I need to be working on another browser. Ditto with Amy, “Aw man! Now I've gotta buy a timer???” OR use my cell phone alarm clock.
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“Pick the big stones” – Best advice. Just like everything else in life, you have to prioritize.
@Amy – You rock! Actually, I use my cell phone alarm clock.
@Carmen – Thanks for stopping by. In truth, I have massive ADD, so it’s hard for me to manage my time unless I have my index card and my timer.
@Stacy – Let me know how you make out!
@Grant – Thanks for commenting – and sharing your use of TweetDeck. Am I on the “A” list? Uh… don’t answer that.
@Aaron – I knew you’d have a lot to offer here! I especially like how you encouraging your clients to “do it well before even thinking about another one”. The victory they achieve in one SocMed site will translate to others sites. I also like how you view your investment as a reward – very enlightening.
@Mike – I’ve had the same experience with Twitter.
@Laura – Yes, listening is included in my activities, although I’ve automated much of my listening with friendfeed, Google Reader, TweetBeep.com.
@Mitey – Yes – get back to work!
@Amy – Cool – I just saved you $6.79. You can pay me back in May when I come to Chicago.
@SocialMind – Thanks for the comment! Finding out what makes the most impact often involves simply trying a site out and then measuring results. I use a combination of Google Analytics as well as my own intuitive sense about the long term pay-off.
By the way, great post on Google Friend Connect!
@Sparky – I’m a huge Yerba Mate fan… but yeah, people need to find out what works best for them. I happen to have massive ADD, so more structure around SocMed is better.
@Jun – Time to go back to the gym?