If you are like many of us whose business requires them to be online most of the day you probably get asked by those who are not online …How do your manage your time online?
This question usually refers to being online in the social/business networks for what seems to many who follow me like all day. However, there is a rhyme to what seems like madness. Why I am online and what I do online is primarily to test what works and does not work online. This takes up a lot of time and ..yes..I am everywhere at once looking at how things really works online so my clients don’t have to waste their time in places that are not going to get them anywhere. This is part of my PLAN and is what I recommend anyone out here in La-La-Land have before they go too far in their journey down the information highway.
During my training classes for the newbies of social media I spend a lot of time instructing on time management. The key is…yes, get this…to have a PLAN.
What is It You Are Doing?
With anything and for anyone that is going to use the internet for business purposes there needs to be a plan developed on how much time is needed to accomplish their goal. The answer to this resides in what kind of business is being done. Someone in retail may need to spend more time online than someone in a B2B consulting business. However, like everything else established out here in La-La-Land, there are always exceptions.
You need to spend enough time online so more people can connect and if you are in a Live environment like Facebook, being online offers potential customers to connect directly in a chat. The key is to manage your time.
I tell many of the people coming online for the first time to announce on their Facebook page, blog site and/or web-site what time they will be online in a Live environment. This way they have a meter to control their time. I suggest they make the schedule part of the social media manifesto I have them compose and post as a page on their blogs. Knowing what you are doing, why you are doing it and who you are doing it to (you know what I mean) online helps to keep you from going wild and it will squelch the urge to become a Linkster on Twitter (someone who posted one link after another on Twitter and never responds to any reply).
Determining the Amount of Time
The tough part for all business people who head over to Facebook to network is determining the amount of time they should spend on the site. Online social networking can be addictive unless you discipline yourself to spending only ‘X’ amount of time. How much time is enough? That is the tough question which is hard to determine and I usually leave it open until the plan is developed on what it is the person is using social media and the social networks to accomplish.
The bottomline is all businesses need to spend SOME time online. I recommend to even the executives and owners of businesses to also spend time online. Again, how much time?…well, how much time can you afford? To get the most out of a business’ social media plan more time online will need to be spent to produce the most opportunities. However, there are limits to social networking’s productivity. This is why I stress so much on developing a plan, evaluate how much time is available to accomplish the plan online and offline and then scheduled the time. Most of the time it is worth it to a business to hire someone to manage their social networking. It really does work to improve business and profitability. You just have to make it happen.
Let me know how I can help.
