Where Should You Spend Your Time on Social Media?

Time Management can be such a huge issue for us as designers, business owners, consultants … and then you add in another social network and another social network, managing your blog, your website…checking email…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So how do you juggle your social media tasks? One idea is to schedule your posts using a 3rd party app like HootSuite, SproutSocial, 22Social, GroSocial, etc …

There are some challenges in doing that:

1. Facebook doesn't like us using 3rd party apps to post – so not as many people will see your post as if you had posted live or scheduled your post directly on your Facebook Page.

2. Most of the time, you have to pay for the service to get the good perks, like optimum scheduling times — some services like HootSuite and SproutSocial offer the ability to load your posts into a queue from which it pulls and posts on your behalf at your optimal send times, based on response rates to previous posts.

3. You can't post everywhere with just one app – Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, tumblr … either posts can't be scheduled or you'll need a separate app altogether to schedule posts to that social network.

4. When using an app only, you are not on the actual network, looking at your accounts so you might miss opportunities that are not showing up in your newsfeed in the app or opportunities to spice up the look of your account with new graphics or opportunities to spot trends and posts from others, etc.

Here is how I make things happen, in a nutshell:

1. Schedule all my Facebook (FB) posts directly on my FB Pages, or post them in real-time. FB has the most people on it and reaches most of the demographic I am trying to target so I still spend most of my time there.

2. Putt around Google+ for 15-20 mins a day (at least) to connect and build that so I can reap the SEO benefits.

3. Do not auto pub from twitter to FB and vice versa. It is annoying and your content really should be written in a different way for each network. Twitter = 140 characters per post and on FB you can have 5000 — use all 5000!

4. Schedule everything else (that you can = twitter, LinkedIn, G+, etc) on HootSuite or Sprout Social or some other 3rd party, time saving app, like Pingraphy for Pinterest. I still schedule stuff for FB with the app just in case I did not get to posting–better to have something than nothing in case I get too busy.

5. Visit all of your social networks at least once a day — this can take 5 to 15 minutes per network … that is just an hour on your marketing everyday. Sounds like a lot but you can space it out – check twitter on your phone while sitting in the drive-thru at Starbuck's, etc.

Now, what are your strategies, challenges??

Join the discussion in our Social Marketing for Crafters Group on Facebook!

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Happy Facebooking,

Jennifer

Author: Jennifer Priest

It started with jewelry, beading, sewing, home decor, painting, basket weaving, pottery, and cross-stitch. Marry that to an entrepreneurial spirit & at 9 years old a girl is selling her wares at craft fairs as far as her parents and grandparents would drive her. These days, Jennifer enjoys crafts of all genres from sewing to scrapbooking to jewelry with a little dabbling in the mixed media world. Her style is approachable and she wants everyone who sees her work to feel that they too can embrace creativity and make their home and life beautiful.