Have you been looking for ways to save time on social media?

Sometimes people find themselves getting far too absorbed in social media when they don’t mean to. They may feel guilty for neglecting the people in their lives. Or they aren’t giving enough attention to important home and professional responsibilities because of time spent on social media.

Other people aren’t that keen on social media and try to avoid it as much as possible. Yet, as business owners or job seekers, they see the value of having a strong presence on certain sites. So, they want their time to be limited yet productive.

Both types ask me for suggestions on how to make the most of the time they spend on social media.

 

Some Suggestions for Ways to Save Time on Social Media

 

  • Limit the number of sites you use.
  1.  Observe your patterns using social media over the next week of two.
  2. If you rarely use a site, then consider closing out that account.
  • Schedule when you spend time on social media and restrict your time for each session.
  1. Avoid the tendency to go in and out of social media sites during all your waking hours.
  2. Select specific times during the day and evening for this activity and don’t go on at other times.
  3. Use the timer on your smartphone to select the length of each session. Then, when the timer goes off, go back to your real life.
  • Determine whose social media activity is most important to you.
  1. On Facebook you can assign people the status of “close friend.” Doing so means you can receive notifications of their posts in your notifications section.
  2. Click on the See First among the following options for selected Facebook friends and business pages. You will see the posts of these friends and business pages toward the top of your news feed.
  3. On Facebook and Twitter you can create lists and assign people to them based on how you know them. Then spend more time looking at the posts in these lists than looking at your news feed.
  • Stop following people who post a lot.
  1. You can still stay connected with this person via the site, but you won’t see their posts.
  2. And the person isn’t notified that you stopped following them.
  3. On Facebook you can even stop following for a set period of time, which is called snoozing. After the time is up, they come back into your feed automatically.
  • Adjust your notifications section of social media sites based on your needs.
  1. Go to settings and review the options. Select only the kinds of activity you want to be notified about.
  2. You can do this for notifications you get on the site itself as well as through email and text.

 

How About You?

How do you limit the amount of time you spend on social media? Have you had times when your relationships suffered due to excessive time on social media? What tips do you offer others who want to make their social media time productive?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 45 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, job seekers, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.