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Martin Lindeskog 7 August, 2009 at 1:25 am

Cindy,

So how many hours per day are you spending online? I will use this post when I am talking to a new client and future business partner and show how much time and energy you should dedicate for this type of work. My role will be cultivate an ongoing online conversation with different social media tools as a new type of marketing of their different products and brands, especially for a new international market. I will also be active in collecting business intelligence, data, information and other stuff, so the owners could get a overall picture, using for example a SWOT analysis.

I will mention your expertise to the small business owners. I think we could work together somehow in the future…
Martin Lindeskog´s last blog ..POKEN SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS CARD My ComLuv Profile

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Cindy 7 August, 2009 at 7:44 am

Hi Martin,

Your first question made me laugh! My system is flexible. It has to be, because some days I just get too busy.

Search is one that never gets put aside. On really busy days I will always do at least one first sweep across the search tools I have set up – that is the very first thing I do everyday and is now a well established habit. Some days it only takes me a few minutes in the morning, other days my keywords seem to buzz much more… and if I’m busy I usually catch up the next day :)

The second priority is my blog. Then Twitter. And the rest fall in place after that. I do tend to work in small chunks in between normal work – so in between tasks when I appreciate a short break. Social bookmarking was one of the last things I’ve added to my daily routine, I do this at the end of the day and when days get too busy it does not get done.

Also, there are some activities that I leave for the weekend – working on profiles and setting up the communities – and I don’t use every of my weekends for this.

Social networking and building up good friendships & communities online is very important. It can help you save time on social media – get better results – and it makes it all fun.

Getting your content right is critical – otherwise you won’t get any results from your social media effort. And I do spend a fair bit of time analyzing feedback, checking how things work for me, working on content strategy and revising the content I put on social media. I do this every 3-6 weeks, depending on my schedule and what I feel needs to be done. I can spend several full days working on this to make sure it fits with my business.

You know, I recently listened to a webinar promoting social media services that said that businesses should expect to invest 32 hours a month for each social media profile. That may be an exageration, and there are some platforms that take up more time than others… and to be honest, some days it takes me longer to “connect” on a certain platform than others because my mind is busy elsewhere. But people do start out small and then build up progressively on the social media platforms that work best for them.

You know I like what I heard Avinash Kaushik say – when you get your social media set up and you start running with them, you think you are driving fast on the social media highway. And then you realize that your windows have black paint on them, and when you scratch some of this black paint off you realize that everyone else is going much faster than you. The trouble is that you need to take things in steps. For small business owners, I do think it is a good idea to start doing some social media yourself, to learn how to connect with your audience, but you will probably need to think of outsourcing some tasks at some stage. There is a lot to do if you want to do it right.

Looking forward to speaking to you more about this :)

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