Are You Lost in Social Media Land?
Scenario
You sit down at your computer with the best intentions to make the most of a 20 minute social media marketing session and an hour later there you are – watching kittens jumping through hoops on Youtube. Evil Evil kittens…now your morning is shot!
You have just found yourself sucked into the time warp of Social Media.
It is easy to find yourself blissfully walking down the proverbial garden path. Hopefully you have laid out some proverbial bread crumbs to find your way back! I’ll share some of mine with you;
Clear Goals
Decide exactly what your goal is for the day before you even think about firing up your computer. Educate people about a new product? Promote an upcoming event? Find new connections? The clearer your goals are for the day, the easier it will be to keep your eye on the prize.
To-Do Lists
Okay, I hate To-do lists but they are great for keeping yourself on your mission when dealing with all the distractions out there in Social Media Land (OMG look at Jane’s new puppy!). By writing out your routine in a simple list with check boxes you can be assured that you find those 10 new connections on LinkedIn, add a new link on Twitter and say Happy Birthday to your friends on Facebook.
A Timer
Just knowing a timer is running is usually enough to keep the A.D.D. side of us focused on the task at hand instead of on all those shiny objects a.k.a kittens! I suggest you DON’T use your Outlook Calendar…those pop up reminders are too easy to ignore…kinda like your snooze button on a Sunday morning. I use a kitchen timer which sits in the next room, when it goes off it forces me to physically stand up and walk over to the alarm to turn it off.
What tools and techniques do you use to keep yourself safe while swimming social media distraction infested waters??
Great Post Amy!
I think one of the biggest issues facing people getting into social media is the amount of time that can be wasted by wandering away from the mission at hand, marketing!
I use a todo list (remember the milk for me) and a timer (http://e.ggtimer.com/) to keep track of the time.
Using aggregation tools like hootsuite and ping.fm are also a great way to save time and energy when updating multiple statuses/networks
One of the biggest time savers of all is a new tool called Converse (http://bit.ly/smconverse). It allows me to schedule out messages to sites like linkedin, facebook, tumblr, flickr, and twitter to go out at peak times automatically. This stops me from having to interrupt my other activities and to lost in twitter for a half an hour!
Best of all hootsuite, ping.fm, and converse by socialize your cause are all free!
Just my 2cents. Keep up the great work!