One of the biggest reasons marketers say they don’t participate in social media is that they don’t have the time. The 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Reportpublished by the Social Media Examiner shows that the majority of marketers (56%) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and nearly one in three invest 11 or more hours weekly. With companies doing more with less, adding social media to the mix may seem difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips to help you and your company find time for social media.
1. Use the 20 x 3 Rule
Spend 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes before or after lunch, and 20 minutes late in the afternoon on your social media efforts. Breaking up your time into small chunks is a great way to make time for social media. It is also a nice diversion from your regular work activities. By the end of the week you will have dedicated 5 hours to your social media marketing efforts.
2. Divide and Conquer
Many companies are using the divide and conquer approach – creating a rotating schedule of who updates the company’s presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the like. The key to this approach is proper training and coordination.
3. Go Deep
Your social media marketing efforts will be more rewarding if you concentrate on developing a deep presence on one or two social media platforms rather than developing a shallow presence on multiple sites. It will also save you a lot of time.
4. At Least Listen
Whether you like it or not, people are talking about your brand on social media. If you don’t have time to actively contribute to social media, you must at least make time to listen to what is being said about your brand. Consider it free market research.
5. Hire Someone to Tweet for You
The 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report also shows that 25.7% of large businesses and 25% of mid-sized businesses are currently outsourcing some of their social media marketing efforts. Just as many companies use agencies because they don’t have an in-house creative team, partnering with someone to manage their social media marketing efforts is becoming more and more common.
“I like the 20 * 3 rule. I myself try to follow something along those lines, but I think putting a little more strategy behind the timing is helpful.
As somebody who was hired in part to manage social media for our company I would also like to mention that using social media is not just to benefit the company itself, but also its customers. Social media is an extension of customer service and it’s important that your customers have the option to use social media that way. While it seems at times that companies just don’t answer the phone at their call centers, it’s highly unlikely that any organization today would go without one, and eventually I think people will look at social media in the same way.
My CEO had a recent Twitter experience during Iceland’s EyjafjallajÖkull volcano eruption, which resulted in more than 100,000 flights being cancelled, including his. He tweeted to British Airways, City Jet, and Virgin Atlantic. For details on how each airline responded via social media read:
http://blogs.innoveer.com/index.php/2010/05/10/service-lessons-from-the-ash/
Thanks for the comments Samatha. Loved the link to your CEO’s blog. I just Tweeted about it.