Social Media Time Management for Businesses

How Much Time Do I Spend on Social Media Marketing?

How do you structure your social media time management for your business? This is the most popular question asked of social media marketing professionals. The answer to this question is dependent on so many variables – how fast you can read, how fast you can type, how quickly you get the hang of social networking tools like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, and what kind of social media marketing you’re looking to do. If you plan to do a podcast or create videos for Youtube you’re going to spend a lot more time than if your plan is just to monitor social media mentions and post to Facebook or Twitter.

There is no secret formula. Time you invest in social media has an impact on your success with social media but there is not a direct coloration – there can’t be due to all of the variables. This is why having a social media marketing plan is important. It’s also why tacking and analyzing your social media ROI is important.

Why is Social Media Important?

This is another popular question that I get asked all the time and it’s something that other social media experts report being asked quite a bit. Today having a website is not enough – just as in 2002 being listed in the yellow pages wasn’t enough. Today you need to be sociable – you need to talk to your customers and potential customers.

Why is having a website not enough?

The web is constantly changing. During the first years of the commercial web it worked more like traditional media. The media the world knew was controlled by the message makers – the marketers or the business owners would push their message out to the masses and the masses would buy what they were selling. Gradually the web has grown into what has been named Web 2.0.

The web has evolved from a one-to-many marketing tool to a means of social interaction and two-way conversations. If your company doesn’t offer a way for your customers or leads to communicate with you easily they may go elsewhere. At the very least they are going to think that you are frustrating, backwards, and out-of-touch. Even worse if you are not monitoring what people are saying about you on the social web you can loose potential customers without ever getting a chance to tell them your story.