Time is always in short supply. Be a blogger or a small business, some of the “expert” social media strategies take a long time…my own advice included.
Unfortunately there are still some widely held beliefs that social media is simply a place to goof off, or it’s a quick and “easy out” solution for marketing yourself. It’s not. If you interviewed some of the top social media users for marketing and strategy, they’ll tell you that it’s a lot of time, energy, and effort….and it’s hard work!
Then of course there is the other widely held belief that it’s the fastest and easiest way to get your stuff seen. It’s a ME ME ME approach that has generated a lot of poor social habits.
Even if you haven’t fallen into those traps, there are times when you need a routine for when you only have a few minutes. It’s similar to exercise. You want to get that one hour a day walk in your schedule, but sometimes you have to settle for taking the stairs rather than the elevator.
It’s just real life.
If you ONLY have a complicated social media plan, you will burn out. If you ONLY have a quick plan, you’ll spin your wheels. You need both.
I’m going to break down some routines according to the time you have available.
5 minutes a day for all your social streams
If you really only have five minutes to dedicate, your best bet is to not put anything of your own out there. Not to be rude, but it looks like you’re “hitting it and quitting it”. Instead, pick one platform a day- Twitter, Google plus, Pinterest, or Facebook. Depending on how quick you are, you may only be able to get one of these tasks done.
1. Find and follow three new people. {Time Allotted = 2 minutes}
The easiest way to do this is to find someone you admire and respect (and who is in your niche). Jump onto their profile, look at their followers, and find a couple people to follow. Chances are if they are following the person you love, they might be a good match for you too.
2. Retweet someone who said or shared something interesting. {Time Allotted = 1 minute}
Using the same person you admire, find something they tweeted that you liked and retweet it.
3. Like and repin a pin from Pinterest. {Time Allotted=1 minute}
It’ll be helpful if you bookmark a few Pinterest boards you love. This way, you can quickly jump onto the board, see if there is anything new, and repin it. You DON’T want to repin directly from the newsfeed without checking out the source first, and if you only have five minutes, you need to be able to repin from someone you KNOW is vetting all their pins before posting.
4. Jump into a conversation happening on Google plus and add a comment. {Time Allotted=1 minute}
If you have no idea where to start, simply use the EXPLORE tab and click on What’s Hot. You’ll see the most popular posts come up first. Another way is to keep track of someone you love on Google plus and visit their profile.
10 minutes a day for all your social streams
In this routine, you still don’t really have enough time to be sharing your own content without looking like the person who doesn’t care about anyone else.
1. Do the five minute routine first (from above) {Time Allotted=5 minutes}
- Find and follow three new people.
- Retweet someone who said or shared something interesting.
- Like and repin a pin from Pinterest.
- Jump into a conversation happening on Google plus and add a comment.
2. Respond and/or follow people wherever they happen to be. {Time Allotted = 5 minutes}
- You can answer comments on your blog.
- You can go to Pinterest and like a few pins in your feed.
- You can find a tweet you thought was funny and reply and retweet.
- You can jump into a conversation happening on Google plus.
15 minutes a day for all your social streams
Now in this routine I’m recommending sharing your archived (or new) post on Twitter. Notice I’m still not recommending sharing your own stuff yet on Google plus or Pinterest? Over and over again, I see people who are short on time using social media to broadcast rather than to connect. Your investment into other people will pay off. When you have more time to dedicate to social, it’s more acceptable to share and promote your own content, because you aren’t replacing that with the time spent on real human connection.
1. Log on to Hootsuite and schedule at least 4 tweets spread throughout the day. {Time Allotted = 5 minutes}
- 1 tweet should be an archived post from your blog (or a new post if you have one).
- 2 tweets should be from other bloggers in your niche.
- 1 tweet should be text only (be it a quote, saying, joke, etc.).
2. Pick one of those tweets from another blogger and share their post on Google plus. {Time Allotted = 5 minutes }
- If you only have a little time, it’s better to spend it promoting someone else than yourself.
- Make sure you tag the blogger by using the +sign, add a couple of hashtags, and your own introduction.
3. Respond and/or follow people wherever they happen to be. {Time Allotted = 5 minutes}
- You can answer comments on your blog.
- You can go to Pinterest and like a few pins in your feed.
- You can find a tweet you thought was funny and reply and retweet.
- You can jump into a conversation happening on Google plus.
30 minutes a day for all your social streams
I am of the mind that 30 minutes a day is the minimum you need dedicate to social if you want to use it to build your exposure. In this routine, I recommend sharing 2 tweets of your own content and creating a pinnable graphic for one of your posts.
1. Log on to Hootsuite and schedule at least 8 tweets spread throughout the day {Time Allotted = 10 minutes}
- 2 tweets should be an archived post from your blog (or a new post if you have one).
- 4 tweets should be from other bloggers in your niche.
- 2 tweets should be text only (be it a quote, saying, joke, etc.).
- If you have time, you can easily RT people by looking at your stream and turning on the auto-schedule in Hootsuite. This way they won’t all go out at once.
2. Pick one of those tweets from another blogger and share their post on Google plus. {Time Allotted = 5 minutes }
- If you only have a little time, it’s better to spend it promoting someone else than yourself.
- Make sure you tag the blogger by using the +sign, add a couple of hashtags, and your own introduction.
3. Create a pinnable graphic to an archived post (or a new post) and put it on Pinterest {Time Allotted = 10 minutes}
- Log into Canva and grab a beautiful photo that represents your topic.
- Add some text and download it.
- Upload it to Pinterest and attach an archived post to it.
4. Respond and/or follow people wherever they happen to be. {Time Allotted = 5 minutes}
- You can answer comments on your blog.
- You can go to Pinterest and like a few pins in your feed.
- You can find a tweet you thought was funny and reply and retweet.
- You can jump into a conversation happening on Google plus.
45 minutes a day for all your social streams
In this routine, I recommend sharing your content on Pinterest, Google plus, and Twitter. With 45 minutes, you still have time to do the “social” part of social media.
1. Log on to Hootsuite and schedule at least 8 tweets spread throughout the day {Time Allotted = 10 minutes}
- 2 tweets should be an archived post from your blog (or a new post if you have one).
- 4 tweets should be from other bloggers in your niche.
- 2 tweets should be text only (be it a quote, saying, joke, etc.).
- If you have time, you can easily RT people by looking at your stream and turning on the auto-schedule in Hootsuite. This way they won’t all go out at once.
2. Create a pinnable graphic to an archived post (or a new post) and put it on Pinterest {Time Allotted = 10 minutes}
- Log into Canva and grab a beautiful photo that represents your topic.
- Add some text and download it.
- Upload it to Pinterest and attach an archived post to it.
3. Craft a great Google plus post showcasing your latest post or an archived one. {Time Allotted = 15 minutes}
- You can use that pinnable graphic you made.
- Make sure to add either a summary or cliff notes of the post.
- Use relevant hashtags.
- Share publicly.
4. Respond and/or follow people wherever they happen to be. {Time Allotted = 5 minutes}
- You can answer comments on your blog.
- You can go to Pinterest and like a few pins in your feed.
- You can find a tweet you thought was funny and reply and retweet.
- You can jump into a conversation happening on Google plus.
5. Find and follow five-ten new people on any or all platforms. {Time Allotted = 5 minutes}
60 minutes a day for all your social streams
In this case, I would recommend investing in my Fabulous Blogging bootcamp. It’s a comprehensive plan to get you going on Twitter, Pinterest, and Google +, and it gives you all sorts of tips and tricks for using social media tools, creating graphics, finding people to following, and curating content.
Adjusting the routines depending on your niche
The above routines are for people who have accounts already established. If you are just beginning however, I would recommend working on one platform first, especially if you are short on time. Pick the platform that will work best with your niche and substitute some of these extra tasks I’ve listed below.
- If you have a visual blog (DIY, food, photography, organization, parenting, education, tech) – Pinterest is a great place to start!
- If you are an author, psychologist, inspirationalist, life coach, religious, politics, etc. – Twitter is a great place to start!
- If you are a business, a social media expert, designer, photographer, travel blog – Google plus is a great place to start!
- If you are a newsy blogger, reality TV recapper, celeb stalker blog – Facebook might be your best bet!
Extra tasks for Pinterest
- Create a new board and find at least five pins to populate it.
- Use the source URL to see who is pinning you and thank them (type in http://pinterest.com/source/yourblogname.com)
- Bookmark your favorite Pinterest boards.
- Work on more pinnable graphics.
- Find people to follow by following the trail of pins you love.
Extra tasks for Google plus
- Join a community and introduce yourself.
- Flip over all your status updates and thank people who’ve commented or shared.
- Find and follow people by searching relevant hashtags.
- Participate in a hangout.
Extra tasks for Twitter
- Join a Twitter party.
- Find and follow up to 25 people a day in your niche.
- Retweet more generously.
- Create a tweet-ready graphic for some of your tweets using Canva.
I don’t claim to be an expert in Facebook, so you may want to head on over to Post Planner and get some ideas for Facebook!
How do you do this quickly?
You’ll have to find a chunk of time to get the following routines in place otherwise you’ll never be able to complete the tasks in the time I’ve mentioned above.
- Get an account with Feedly. It’s a super easy way to follow your favorite blogs and makes for easy sharing.
- Stockpile a list of at least ten other bloggers you love and are in your niche. Follow them everywhere and curate their content. Once you trust someone, you know what they offer is good and you can share it generously!
- Learn how to create Twitter lists.
- Get an account with Pocket.
- Learn how to bookmark boards on Pinterest.
- Practice using Canva by doing some of their tutorials.
- Get an account with Hootsuite and set it up.
- Get your computer and smartphone organized with the bookmarks and apps you need.
I’d love to hear about your social media routines on Twitter. Let’s chat!
