This week's Guest Post about Time Management is written by Anita Fiander.
As an entrepreneur in today’s society, you know that social media has to play a large role in your day-to-day efforts. You also know that it can be a huge drain on your time. Let’s face it, social media sites are addictive. They were designed that way and are meant to draw you in and keep you there. The only way around this is to develop good productivity habits, and for this you may find yourself needing some dedicated time management training.
Time management training that is focused solely on creating good social media habits is almost a “must-have” these days. Although you no doubt have decent time management skills when it comes to other parts of your business, when it comes to social media, you have to really take those skills to another level.
Four Things Time Management Training Can Teach You About Social Media
Get in, get out
The hardest lesson to learn when it comes to social media time management is that you can’t afford to stick around. Sure it’s fun to scroll through your feeds and see what everyone else is up to, but if you are going to be productive as an entrepreneur, you will quickly have to learn that the best way to make social media work as a business tool is to get it, make your posts, and then get out as quickly as you can.
Set time limits
Time management training will teach you how to set limits so that you can practice getting in and getting out quickly while still being able to interact with your fans and followers. You can set your limits based on how quickly you get done what you need to do — for example, if your goal for the day is to connect with four people, your limit would be to get in, make your four connections, and then log back out.
The other way to set limits is to use a timer. This is a popular strategy taught by time management coaches. Set your timer for 15 minutes and what you get done is what you get done in that time. As soon as the timer goes off, log out and move on to your next task.
If you don’t train yourself to limit the amount of time you spend on social media sites, you can quickly find the day wasted as you surf aimlessly checking out what everyone else is doing instead of focusing on your own work.
Be consistent
People on social media sites love consistency. Time management training will help you identify the best times to be on various sites and to set a consistent schedule for both posting content and interacting with fans and followers. Once you start to gain a following, people will get used to knowing when you post and will start to look for you at those times. Disappoint them by not being consistent and you will find that they quickly move on to someone else.
Focus on where your customers are
One of the important social media time management skills many entrepreneurs need to learn is to focus on only the sites where your customers are. If you ideal customers don’t hang out on Pinterest, there’s not much need for you to spend your working time there either. When you find out where your customers prefer to spend their time, you can put a higher priority on those sites and either spend less time at the other ones, or eliminate them all together. There’s no rule that says you have to have a presence on every site available.
These are just a few of the habits you will need to develop as a social entrepreneur. Taking advantage of dedicated time management training will help you make the best use of your time on social media sites both in terms of productivity, and in developing relationships with customers, followers, and fans.
