Keeping a tidy and productive digital landscape necessitates a visible online presence with consistency and frequency or your voice will get lost within the noise and fundamental chatter. To build and maintain your networks it requires a great deal of time, energy and focus. There are literally hundreds of social channels to choose from, which can be overwhelming. You need to evaluate and understand your audience, where they hang out, what they want and what they consume. There is no one size fits all solution but if you aren’t putting in the time, implementing a plan and using the resources, then you may be spinning the hamster wheel and simply wasting valuable hours.

Sourcing your infinite online follower audience is a low-cost way to propel your small-business brand into the global digital world. Establish your brand with social media to cultivate relationships as well as strengthen existing ones. Your social media efforts are the architectural structure can lead to brand recognition, credibility, a positive customer experience, brand advocates, increased web traffic, search rankings and word-of-mouth marketing.

A social presence exceeds just a few posts on various channels; it is a two-way conversation. Interaction. Collaboration. Education. Communication. Community. Be strategic and formulate a viable plan that you will follow. We all have the same amount of time in our day but it is up to you on how you will invest and leverage your hours, skills and expertise.

You are the soul master of your time and productivity. If you do not have systems and processes in place, your efficiency and effectiveness will suffer. Design and create the habits geared toward your goals of success and business growth. There will be distractions and obstacles tossed in your path, but if you have a contingency plan, in addition to your ace preparation and planning tactics, you will not be so easily waylaid. Writing out your daily plan of attack and time allotment is more than just an exercise in futility. It is your company’s operation manual to streamline your social media operations, ensuring greater targeted success and focus. While it may feel like drudgery or busy work, it is time INVESTED not wasted. Consider it a vital part of your business plan. The strategies and tactics contained in this document also enable you to turn over the responsibilities of your SMM and take a vacation or a few days off without being tied to your computer or Smartphone. There’s a novel idea!

“So during those first moments of the day, which are yours and yours alone, you can circumvent these boundaries and concentrate fully on spiritual matters. And this gives you the opportunity to plan the time management of the entire day.” Menachem Mendel Schneerson

1. Create your systems and strategies for your business and your online presence.
2. Refine and revisit both to ensure you are on target and meeting your goals.
3. Choose a few networks and ACTIVELY engage in conversations
4. Don’t spread yourself too thin or you will not grow your communities.
5. Have a daily list of activities for each social network
6. Know and work productively at your best time of day.
7. Understand that social media is an investment that will reward you but you must do the time.
8. Find and USE tools that will enhance your productivity and efficiency.
9. Set aside time each day for building relationships and monitoring your social networks.
10. Evaluate small business success tips.
11. Automate some of your content but NOT your conversations with tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Everpost, or Do Share
12. Use an editorial calendar to help keep you targeted on content, networks, themes, posting times and metrics.
13. Learn to unplug and focus.
14. Don’t try and multi-task your way through your day.
15. Write remarkable, valuable content.
16. Curate and share using content discovery tools
17. Use a WordPress Content Curation Theme & Plugin like Curation Traffic™  to save time and add your personal commentary
18. Know where and how to syndicate your blog posts in addition to your social networks; i.e. Triberr, bizsugar, inbound.org, Technorati, Alltop and business2community.com
19. Add your profile to Twitter directories
20. Know your core genius and outsource the low payoff activities.

The key take away is a PLAN to implement and stick to in order to save some time and be more efficient with your social media marketing.

If you find all of this to be a little overwhelming, your day is already full, or you would rather focus ON your business rather than IN it, we are here to assist you with your social media management. Drop us an email, find us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.

Talk to you soon and thanks so much for reading our post. If it resonates with you or you know someone who could use a few tips, please feel free to share.