Many people wonder how to spend their time on social media when using it for business purposes.

Many people in the classes I teach and those whom I tutor privately ask me this question. My answer is: Less time than you may think.

When answering this question, I make a distinction between time spent for business vs. time spent for personal reasons.

How much time to spend online for personal reasons will vary a lot from person to person. Some people like to hang out a lot on social media, just like some people like to watch a lot of television.

Depending on the type of business you have and the social sites you use for your business, there is also variance.

Since my main social sites are Facebook and LinkedIn, my tips relate to these sites. My experience is that with discipline, you can limit your business-related social media activity. I suggest that you shoot for 1-2 hours weekly at a minimum and up to 4-5 hours weekly. The amount would depend, in part, on the number of sites where you are active.

 

Do More for Your Business in Less Time on Facebook

• Be sure your business page notifications also show up on notifications for your personal page. Take a couple minutes each morning and each afternoon or evening to check these notifications.
• Respond within 24 hours to comments on a post you made on your business page.
• If possible, post to your business page every day. Use the scheduling tool to set the date and time that your posts appear on your page so you don’t have to be actually sending them at that time.
  • It may make sense to spend 10-15 minutes (or even more) each week to create and schedule these posts.
• Have a list of business pages with great content. Go to one of them each week and share post from that page. It generally takes just a few minutes to find a helpful tip that will appeal to your page’s fans.
• Take a few minutes each day to check in on the business page activity of clients and/or referral partners. Like, comment on, and/or share selected posts to your personal page.
• Total time spent? A lot less than you’re probably spending now.

 

Some Ways to Maximize Your Time on LinkedIn

• As with Facebook, be sure to check your LinkedIn notifications each morning and each afternoon or evening.
• Respond within 24 hours to comments on an update or article you shared.
• In this environment, sharing just one or two updates a week is sufficient.
• Try to publish an article (aka post) at least twice a month, although once a week is better. It might take 15-30 minutes for you to write these articles. The length of time depends on your writing ability and the complexity of the article. (This time is spent offline of course as you will need to be working in a word processing program so you can revise as necessary.) If possible, have someone else review/edit the article before you publish it.
• Have a list of connections who consistently publish interesting articles. If at least some of these folks are clients and/or referral partners, that’s a bonus. Find articles your connections would like and share one or more more of them every week.
• Spend just a few minutes each day to congratulate your connections. Do this for new jobs, work anniversaries, and other milestones, all of which LinkedIn conveniently reminds you of every day.

 

How About You?

Have you taken the time to determine how much time you spend on social media for business purposes each week? If so, how much time are you spending? Do you think it’s too much, too little, or just right? What’s your “Goldilocks” amount? What tips do you offer to others regarding time spent on social media for business purposes?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those ages 45 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, business development professionals, leaders of nonprofit organizations, job seekers, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.