There is no denying it. Social media has become an integral part of our lives. Whether you use it for personal reasons like catching up with friends and old school mates, stalking your crush or as part of a marketing strategy; today almost everyone and their neighbour has a social media account.
There are an estimated 1.23 billion active Facebook users! *The following are monthly stats of the top 5 popular Social Networking sites:
Facebook is the irrefutable king with a whopping 900 million users monthly
Twitter reports 310 million monthly users (with 500 million tweets sent daily)
LinkIn has 255 million users monthly
Pintrest 250 million active monthly users
Google+ reporting 120 million active users monthly.
*Source ebizmba
That´s a whole lotta people! And savvy marketers are not oblivious to what these figures mean. Any serious business person or company without some sort of Social Media presence is missing out on free monthly brand exposure, to millions of potential clients globally. (To find out how I can help you with your Social Media marketing let’s talk here.)
For all of us desiring work – life balance, keeping up with Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest et al can turn into a part-time job. Especially if you have a business fan page, or you are the administrator of groups. The digital age comes with pro and cons, and as always I endeavour to share simple tips to help you design the life and business of your dreams.
Here are 3 tips for Social Media management:
#1) Schedule Your Posts – Either on Sunday evening or Monday morning, schedule them ahead for the full week or more. There are management tools like Sprout social, Buffer and my favourite – Hootsuit that can automate your social media presence on various platforms simultaneously. Facebook even has an internal scheduling option for fan pages. By pre-scheduling you avoid the “I´ll-just-do-a-quick-log-in-to-post-this” trap. I don´t know about you, but I find it challenging to just log onto a social network and resist the urge to see what everyone is up to or click around some interesting links. You know how it is…3 hours later – you are deeply engrossed in the 497 comments of some juicy or controversial post. You intend to read all 496 comments. Plus the replies! Yep, I’ve been there too.
#2) Hire Someone – Did you know Social Media manager is a real job title that puts bread on the table for lots of folks? Many companies hire them to manage accounts interaction and monitor followers. If you are a micro or solo-preneur stop trying to be Whitney Houston’s “I´m Every Woman” or Clark Kent. Attempting to do it all is a sure way to overwhelm and burn-out. On a reasonable budget you can hire a Virtual Assistant to manage tasks like scheduling post, creating images, researching quotes, updating headers other delegatable, time consuming TO-Dos.
If you’re not a control freak you can share administrator roles or give complete access to your Social Networking accounts. Hootsuite allows you to add a team member who can post on your behalf across the major social platforms. You can choose specifically which profiles to hand over to the VA, that way you still get to keep your personal profile´s privacy.
Bottom line, by outsourcing to a virtual assistant you don´t have fixed overheads as you only hire based on workload and need. This one tip has released me from the DIY syndrome that bogs down many freelancers, solo-preneurs and small business owners because we are not ready to hire full-time staff. It´s allowed me to be more effective, accelerating progress with my goals because I’m free to do things that have a higher ROI (Time is money that you’re either investing or spending.) Be wise and make the best use of it. When aimlessly scrolling through some newsfeed, asking yourself “Is this the best use of my time right now?” helps set priorities straight. Unless of course that IS the best use of your time. I have those days too…
#3) Shut Down Social Media – Yes, literally log off. Just like you I love connecting with old and new friends on Facebook. Viewing someone’s Kenyan holiday photos at Mombasa beach, while am wrapped up in Eskimo attire as winter comes knocking in Germany. Salivating over photos of delicious recipes from StellasMeza cookery. Or just joining in on a friend’s post or group conversation. Interaction is fun and cannot be scheduled. To catch up with your peeps, answer questions on your business fan page, or tweet away, you can plan and block out specific days and/or times to “get social.” That way you don´t get sucked into the deep newsfeed hole that is a thief of time.
On some weekends I take a break from the Internet completely to get away from the noise and be present with people I can touch and smell. Now if you are a heavy social media user, you may have some withdrawal symptoms and even suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out) It’s a real syndrome – Google it. But am willing to bet there are more exciting things happening in your life besides refreshing the newsfeed every 10 minutes.
Some moments in life are better cherished privately. Precious memories may be blurred if you are not 100% fully present in an intimate moment. I´m happy when my date looks deeply into my eyes over dinner, :-) instead of whipping out his latest iPhone 6 to take pictures and post on Instagram. It’s either my 2 warm eyeballs OR 200 pairs of virtual eyeballs. Not both. Unless he basks in 100 impersonal “LIKES” from virtual friends on social media. Some of whom we may not even know, many who don´t even care. If 5 minutes later we posted “OMG! We just got food poisoning!” Some would notoriously LIKE that post as well. Oh well…
Same goes for girls night out. Or PJ party’s; bing-watching Scandal over more than one ice cream flavour. Girlfriend! Quit taking countless pictures. It´s our time to bond over a glass of wine and soul food. While am all for sharing statuses and photos, our private moments are not for everyone on Facebook´s public settings. OK, maybe am being territorial here, :-) but there is something called oversharing…
So then, since technically we can´t manage time, what tips do you use to manage yourself on social media?
By Nancy Gathecha
Copyright © Nancy Gathecha – Visit –  http://www.LBSuccess.com
