While there are many clever online tools to help broadcast your tweets, newsletters, blog posts and podcasts, it’s still up to you to be disciplined how you spend your time on social networking, just as you would offline!
The most common excuse we hear from people who don’t take part in social networking is that they don’t have time, yet it’s a pretty safe bet that these same people go to local networking meetings on a regular basis. Both are important small business marketing activities and need to be fitted in somehow.
Imagine you decided you wanted to join an evening class, start going to the gym or take up a new hobby. In order to find the time, you may need to give up something else – perhaps some TV viewing would have to go!
It’s time to do an audit of your offline networking commitments. How many groups do you regularly attend? How many meetings do you go to each week? Could you swap one meeting for some online networking?
To attend an offline networking meeting will involve at least an hour (and more likely two) at the venue. By the time you factor in travelling to and from the event, your time investment is probably the best part of 3 hours (if not more). That’s more than enough time to take part in some online networking!
Here are 3 tips to help you spend your social networking time wisely:
- Set a daily time-limit and don’t exceed it
- Have a plan of what you want to do during your allocated time and stick to it
- Decide which 2 or 3 networks are most appropriate for your business and focus on building relationships there.
Do you have any social networking time tips to share? We’d love to hear what works for you!
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As a business coach who specialises in efficiency I couldn’t agree more with your suggestions. Most people can afford to give something up in order to create time for social networking. If you or your readers are interested in more time tips, my 7 Tips to Help Make Time for Social Media are here http://wp.me/p3Q7r-fC
Thanks for sharing your tips Ute – we appreciate your comments. People who say they don’t have enough time to engage in Social Networking might as well say they don’t have time to market their business!