Okay, so now that you cannot go a minute without hearing the words Facebook or Twitter, you have given in to the reality that Social Media is not going away.
You are now “Social” to correctly apply the term (as if you weren’t before?). You share on Twitter, you post on Facebook, of course you are on LinkedIn and perhaps you even blog to share your ideas with others in your business and social circles. Like everything else, you recognize that it takes commitment to become good at something, and Social Media is no different. You are committed in principle to growing your social presence and utilizing these powerful networks.
But you are busy, your job is leading a business, not to be hanging out on Facebook. Therefore you don’t have hours to spend every day keeping the conversations flowing and in the Social world if you are absent for a day people think you have gone missing.
The good news is that missing a day really isn’t going to hurt you too badly. The bad news is you really can’t generate much success in Social Media if you aren’t consistently present. This takes some work, however, it can be managed. Depending on how much time you have, here are the ways to go from “Social” to “Social Executive” in 20, 40, or at most 60 minutes a day.
If you have just 20 minutes…follow the AM/PM Plan, 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening.
- Update Status daily on all platforms.
- Share 1-2 great quotes or articles you have read.
- Respond to anyone who reached out to you or shared your content. Even if by just saying thanks.
Following this plan will allow you to be present even if for a few moments each day and your friends and followers can see this. Being busy may make it hard to be social, but your success is attractive and even just a simple hello from you will be really meaningful.
If you have 40 minutes, do all of the things you did above and add the following to your routine.
- Search Friends , Colleagues, and Interesting Professionals across Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and Friend, Follow, Connect.
- Create a list of people who inspire you and a list of those that curate the best content.
- Use these lists to look for 3-5 great thoughts, blogs, and/or ideas to reshare and/or retweet.
The effort to connect daily will expand your reach exponentially through degrees of connectivity. Even just a few new connections a day leads to a thousand new connections each year. The focus of this content that you are sharing should be in your field of expertise. The curating of great content in your field will immediately lend credibility to you as a (dare I say) “Thought Leader” in your industry and will attract others in your field to connect with you on social media platforms.
And if you can actually commit to an hour… This one is simple. Just do more of everything above!
Social Media may not be your job, but you know it is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the business landscape. Being too busy isn’t an excuse, and if you work just a little bit each day you can fully leverage the opportunities it provides.
Don’t let time be an excuse, become a Social Executive today.
What are some of the best approaches to Social Media by Executives that you have seen?
A Version of this post was originally featured on Millennial CEO and can be found here.
Daniel Newman is the co-founder of V3*Broadsuite and is an experienced C-level executive, serving as a strategy consultant for small and mid-sized businesses. He’s also an insight/analyst partner to four Fortune 50 enterprises and previously served as the co-founder and CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and communications services provider. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of United Visual, Inc. in Chicago Illinois.
He is a widely published writer who contributes weekly to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and industry publications such as Commercial Integrator, Sound & Communication and Corporate Tech Decisions. He’s also author of three best-selling business books including The New Rules of Customer Engagement, The Millennial CEO, and just recently Evolve: Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed.
Daniel has established a reputation as a leading thinker in topics such as Social, Big Data, Cloud and Mobile. He has been named to many top influencer lists in all of these areas, including recognition by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 business and leadership accounts to follow on Twitter. He is also an adjunct professor of management at North Central College.