If you are running a business, big or small, you’re supposed to promote the crap out of it if you want any sales. The more you promote, the more smartly you promote, the more your business will grow.
Duh. We KNOW Megan. Moving on.
Online social networks are a great way to reach new customers and fellow professionals to build connections and get the word out there. There are so many to choose from! Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Flickr, Yahoo Groups, Polyvore, WordPress, Tumblr, Community Forums, DeviantArt, LinkedIn, Blogger, and so on… If you tried to use them all you would be spending all 29 hours of the day getting your social networking done and have no time for anything else.
But… there’s only 24 hours in the day, not 29.
Exactly. You can’t afford to be everywhere and doing everything, no matter how big the fuss over the new shiny social network is. Try a few out, pick your favorites, and work off of those. Keeping yourself from spreading too thin will prevent your content from going sour. You want to be reliable to your followers. You don’t want to be that person who posts something fresh everyday, to the point where your followers will start to look forward and count on your updates, only to vanish without a trace.
Pick a few and stick to ‘em.
BUT. <<<<- big but here. Watch how much time you are spending with these tools.
3 hours a day spent promoting on social networks is over 2 hours too many. Time yourself. Limit yourself for no more than an hour (at MAX) to spend on all of your social networking, and that includes e-mail, blog writing, forum discussion, treasury making, ALL OF IT. You may think you are not wasting a lot of time doing your online promotion, but I bet you would be surprised just how quickly that time can fly if you started to pay attention to the clock.
But if I only get to use less than an hour, how am I suppose to get it all done?
Smart planning will allow you to manage your online promotion more efficiently. Personally, I like to write most of my status updates randomly, and keep them stored on a basic Notepad file. This means I’m working on updates without actually being on Facebook (and all of it’s distractions). So when I need to update, it literally only takes a second, as I pop open my saved document, and copy and paste the status to my networks. Less than a minute: done. If you choose just ONE DAY a week to spend your hour on writing updates for Facebook/Twitter/Etc., you can use that time to stalk up for the rest of the week. Spend your next day’s hour on writing blog posts. Schedule and save drafts to be published throughout the week. Done. Spend your next day’s hour making treasuries – if you have any teams that require team treasuries to be made, this is your time to get them done. One hour (or less), and no more treasury creation til next week. Done.
I think you get the idea.
It is possible to cover all of your marketing bases without losing all of your valuable creative time to cyber space. Next time you’re about to log on to YOUR biggest time-suck, check to the clock and start timing. Together, let’s see how much valuable creative time we can save!
Tagged: business, pinterest, promotion, social networks, time management, tome, wordpress
Sage advice! Now, just applying it to ‘real-time’. Clock? I think I have one around here somewhere . . . jk
This is great advice! I find that I often get sucked into social network sites. I may have logged on just to post a sneak-peek photo, and then I can’t get out!
Them suckers are DESIGNED to take up your time! you’re not the only one!
Megan, you are soooo right.
I really like your site, so I think I am gonna just stick here and enjoy your site….
Have a nice day
I’d be happy to have you Debi! :-)
This is pretty smart! I spend ungodly amounts of time doing social media: FB, Blogging, etsy forums, Etc! I should really be spending the time knitting!
Promotion is good, but too much promotion defeats the original purpose, selling your handmade goods! You can’t sell anything if you aren’t making anything. :-)
Wise words, thank you. I actually had to put a stop to creating treasuries for a while because they were taking so much time…even though I know they’re a terrific networking strategy. I’d be curious to know if you have any specific social media efforts you find most beneficial?
Well, blogging (obviously) is my favorite.
I think that no matter the platform you choose, your social media efforts will be most rewarded when you focus on the relationships with your followers, and providing (free) helpful information or entertainment.
No one like to be spammed with product listings, so no matter the platform, keep the links to items and your shops separated by plenty of “goodies” that will keep your followers loyal.
So true. I have the same problem and I think it’s a great idea to time yourself otherwise you don’t have time for your own work!
Thank you for this reminder! I think I have two problems, one being that I need to decide which platforms are most beneficial to my business, and weeding out the rest, and the other being that when I do post something, I tend to get caught up in a bunch of chatty conversation that follows. Although this interaction with my customers is good, it is a huge time sucker! Lately, I have been posting very late at night, when most have gone to bed. That way, they respond the next day, I respond to their post late at night again, so I’m still interacting with them, but it only takes a minute, instead of 30 minutes going back & forth. This has also helped with long posts that tend to wander off-topic cluttering up my page. I love your suggestions for how to use your daily hour, definitely makes sense! Your advice is always good, thanks for sharing it with us!
Glad i could help Tes, thanks for your comment!
Great post! I think just about everyone struggles with this! I’m glad I now use Buffer to post for me like I see you use as well. It saves me a lot of time and keeps posting consistent since when I was doing it myself I was anything but! Now I just have to keep it topped off lol!
My biggest time suck I think is actually reading blogs. Now I’ve limited them to my very favorite (like yours) and those who comment on mine instead of commenting on a whole crap ton in hopes to generate more traffic to mine. Mostly a waste of my time!
Yes, buffer is a LIFESAVER! Plus the limited version is free. And I like free. :-)
This is great advice! Thank you for sharing. I’m all too guilty of spending most of my afternoons jumping from Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest to Tumblr to TheFancy… and then this week I decided to start a WordPress shop blog as well. The advertising is good, no doubt, but if I were to watch the clock and time myself doing it… oh boy, lol.
Beautiful blog, by the way! I found you through The Promotion Team on Etsy. :)
-Maranda
Thanks for stopping by Maranda! Glad I could help!
Thanks for another great post Megan! Social media is very important for marketing and one of the biggest distractions at the same time! I am going to start setting a timer!
Please keep sharing your words of wisdom =)
Thanks for the encouragement Carla! I will certainly keep trying! :-)
Great post! thanks so much!