So I get it, social media can be a ridiculous time suck. You go on Facebook, you go on Instagram, and all of a sudden, you’re bogged down with cat videos and somebody playing Pokemon and Candy Crush and it just feels like sometimes you go on to Facebook and you’re standing on the side of the freeway and you’re just watching cars whizz by. So how do you make the most of your time?
I’m a big believer, as you guys know, if you’ve read #GetSocialSmart or you’ve seen any of our videos in this series, it’s about not spending 24 hours a day on social media, but really getting smart with your time. I am a big believer that if you’re going to do something, it’s got to be on your calendar. I don’t know about you, but I live and breathe by my calendar. If its not on the calendar, it doesn’t happen.
So I encourage you to time block social media on your calendar. And what I would recommend is, a little bit in the morning, a little at lunchtime and a little bit in the evening. So for me, it’s typically in the morning. I usually spend maybe 20 minutes or so, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on what I have going on, but 20 or 30 minutes in the morning. It’s usually my time as I’m drinking coffee and before I check email. Because once you check email, email is like a black hole!
So 20 or 30 minutes in the morning. I check my notifications, and I get really intentional about posting one or two things on social media. Then later in the day, right around lunchtime, I’ll pop in again. I’ll check my notifications, maybe again time block, maybe 10 minutes or so, where you’re checking notifications, maybe commenting and engaging in a few things on social media.
And then again in the evening, again maybe while you’re watching TV, you’ve got your phone. And you take 5 or 10 minutes to again, be really engaging.
And I have to say, when it comes to time blocking, it’s not necessarily about posting at certain times of the day, it’s about taking the time to be on social media, to engage and to connect with what other people are posting.
I’m a big believer in the idea of focus five. When I hop on social media, I try to engage with at least five people, whether that’s clicking like on five things, or being engaging and saying, you know, “Great picture,” or whatever that might be, in an authentic way of course. Not just clicking like for the sake of clicking like. But really being intentional, not getting sucked in to the time suck that can happen on social media.
So I recommend time blocking a few minutes in the morning, a few minutes at lunch, a few minutes in the evening, at least five days a week. I’d also recommend once a week, maybe even more, setting aside about an hour or so, where you can create content.
Now that might be Facebook Live content. That might be video content, like this where you’re recording. Maybe some videos, maybe that’s your time to write, if you want to create blog content. But remember when it comes to social media, it’s not enough to just be there and check in and pop in and share a link here and there.
The people who are getting business from social media in 2017, are creating content. So if you don’t put that aside in your schedule to happen, it’s not going to happen, right. When I sit down to create these videos, it’s in my schedule and if it’s not in my schedule, it’s probably not going to happen.
So I recommend a few minutes in the morning, a few minutes in the afternoon, a few minutes in the evening and then once a week, set aside about an hour. And maybe even once a month, set aside maybe even a little bit more time to really look at your analytics.
Look to see what’s working and what’s not working. That’s what I’d recommend. Use your calendar, use the system, block it off and have a strategy and get smarter about how you’re using social media.
I’d love to hear what you think about this. Are you time blocking? Are you using any kind of schedule to really get smarter about how you’re using social media? Leave us a comment below and if you like this video, we would love if you would like and share this with your friends and colleagues here on social media.
