Social media is hot and its important to build a social media presence. But, it can be a time suck and a huge distraction to otherwise productive business owners when not managed properly.

Learning to manage your social networking time will help you leverage all the great benefits and help you get rid of those unwanted side effects. My top 8 tips are:

1. Make A Plan Before Logging In

Having a clear idea of what it is you want to accomplish with your participation in social media will help you stay on track to reach your goals.

Balancing Social Networks

Social media is a big market but it is also very distracting if you don't have a plan before you log on. Whether it's political stuff that gets you all fired up or a funny meme of a cat saying something hilarious, we've all been there.

I'm also talking about knowing what you want to accomplish on both a small and large scale.

Plan for what you want to accomplish in the long term, for instance,  get more loyalty from your audiences, expand your reach, etc. That way you can plan what you need to do on a daily basis, such as post a new video, respond to comments, etc. to get you to your goal.

Whether you use a mind map, paper and pen or voice memos to yourself, you need to record your ideas and to devise a solid plan for what you want to do.

2. Complete Business Tasks First

Work on core business tasks first and then make time for social networking. That way, you can ensure everything that needs to get done gets done. This strategy also allows you to do more exploration on social networking so you can find new people to follow, interesting information and more.

3. Limit The Number of Networks You Participate In

There are too many social networks to try to cover and you can't be everywhere all at once. It's a recipe for disaster and it isn't likely going to grow your business because you'll be spread too thin. Choose a one to three primary social networks and get busy building relationships. If you're just getting started with social networking, simply start with one network and move on from there.

Of course, finding out what works best for your business will take some experimentation. Just don't rush to do everything at once because you need to dedicate the appropriate time and effort to seeing what produces the most benefit.

4. Limit Notifications

There's nothing more detrimental to productivity than being interrupted all day long with emails telling you about new likes, comments or retweets. You can limit these interruptions in a few ways:

  • Have your notifications go to an email address you check less frequently, so you aren't constantly distracted by the new updates.
  • Some networks, like Pinterest, allow you to get a daily digest of notifications, instead of receiving an individual notification of each update.
  • Just turn notifications off completely. Rarely, is there a social media emergency. You don't need to get an email notification for everything, especially if you're already checking in regularly.

5. Set A Time Limit

Know how much time you are going to spend and what you're going to do before you log into any of your accounts. Limiting your time is important, particularly if you have other tasks to attend to when you're done. Outlining your tasks to be completed also helps you stay on track – instead of following that link to a YouTube video of an amazing 5 year old opera singer.

And always remember, when you log in, serve your audience first. You can't go wrong by focusing on your audience.

6. Use Tools

I'll cover various tools that can help you with managing your social media accounts in a later post, but there are plenty of tools that can help you compile analytics, allow you to view your chosen network streams all in one place, schedule updates and much more. These are very useful tools to help you participate effectively and efficiently and ensure you keep tabs on your interactions. Using the proper tools will help you stay on track with your social networking strategy as well.

7. Keep Your Personal and Business Accounts Separate

While you may share some personal information on your business accounts, it's easiest if you keep your business social networking activities separate from your personal ones.

A few benefits of keeping them separate are:

Eliminate distractions. Your personal account should be for friends and family only. So if your aunt sends you a private message and your friend posts a funny picture of her toddler, you won't distracted from your to-do list. Of course, your friends and family can follow your business accounts as well but if you have both they will tend to post personal stuff on your personal page rather than your business page.

Be the Source. Keeping things separate also helps you stay informed about your niche and makes it easy for you to be a useful source of information for your readers. Keep personal connections personal and follow information providers and industry leaders on your business accounts. That way, your news feeds will be relevant to what you are working on.

Make it Relevant to Your Followers. Many online business owners broadcast business related information to their family and friends when it doesn't really make sense. And the reverse is also true. If you're posting a lot of personal information, it may not be of interest to your business followers. You can avoid this, by separating your social media activities.

8. Get Some Help

There's no reason you have to do all your social networking yourself. Even if you're a solopreneur, you can have someone help you – maybe and intern or outsource it.

You can have someone help you with:

  • Posting updates
  • Scheduling updates you've prewritten
  • Creating and collecting images and other useful content you'd like to share

Building a team that represents your brand can relieve a lot of pressure and allows you to focus more on strategy and business building.

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