Time Management: Social Media Management Tools

One of the keys for an entrepreneur’s success is time management. Mastering this skill by developing a communication strategy is important when utilizing social media to promote your business.
 You should have established your business plan by now, which includes a vision and mission statement as well as your marketing and financial plans
 Your first step in time management is to identify what type of social media will increase your business success.

All businesses can grow when actively networking. So, by building a community, you attract an audience that becomes a link to your market. Popular community networking sites include Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.
If your business revolves around research, utilize news sites, blogs, and podcasts. If your business focuses on sales and marketing, it is all about getting your product and brand to your customer base. This can be accomplished through blogging, videos, and social networking

 The steps, discussed below, will assist you with managing your greatest commodity - your time.

1.Simplify, Automate, Consolidate (SAC)
 SAC, are the three social media management tool traits required for success when using social media as a time management tool.

Your social media partnership will require you to simplify your business practices through organization. This in turn, offers more time. Incorporating user-friendly systems into your business will allow your business to run smoother. Using automation technology will streamline your business and increase your avenues of communication with your customers as well as your team members.
Once you start partnering with several social media networks, it will be time to consolidate. When you use social media management tools for time management you are using communication to your advantage.
2. Strategy to Simplify
Establishing an organizational strategy that relates to your social media environment will assist you in staying on track for completing your daily goals. Start by designating certain time periods for business related communications. This business scheduling system will increase your productivity and clear the unnecessary.
Prioritize your communication with social media tools like HootSuite and TweetDeck as well as Radian6 and mobile device apps such as UberSocial. These will enhance your scheduling system, and allow you to determine not only who receives your communications, but also the dates and times you want your communications to be delivered. Initiate email filters to receive communications from key contacts, as well as alerts regarding pertinent content.


3. Maintenance of Automation
 As a business owner, you should have already solidified your commitment to your plan by putting both your short and long-term goals in writing. Automation technology will offer you mass resource opportunities, and managing all of these resources will consume yours and your team’s valuable time.
 With focused priorities you can maximize your productivity by considering a company like Spredfast as an organizing tool, which can be used for identifying tasks as well as assigning tasks to your team members.
Having a central location for your social media networks will ensure that you do not miss that pertinent message, customer request, or business opportunity. Since part of your time management is coordination of communication, having a social media manager will allow you to post product updates and customer reviews.

4. Consistency by Consolidating
 Once you have developed multiple social media accounts, consistency in coordinating tasks with those accounts, in a timesaving fashion, can become a full time job. However, by consolidating your communications, the outcome is a higher quality product. Utilizing social media management tools like TweetDeck, HootSuite, FriendFeed, Ping.fm, RSS, or TubeMogul will allow you to multi-task by coordinating the social media interface with the management of multiple accounts. This will ensure consistency by updating several social media sites all at once.

5. Finish by Analyzing and Tracking
 Now that you have identified your community, established your communication board, and partnered with a social media manager, your social media activities can remain at a high professional standard when you utilize analyzing and tracking tools. Consider BufferApp, Raven Tools, WhenToTweet, and Tweriod to help you track when your communities are actively online. Also comparisons in your industry are a key analytical tool. The management site, Wilfire, will help gauge your success within your industry’s community. And HowSociable will offer you a way to track the visibility of your brand.

And finally, do not be afraid to accept that something may not be working. Analyzing your business progress is a vital part of maintaining your success. Customer, community, and networking feedback is an important identifying tool that is also offered through social media sites like Seesmic, Lithium, and Google.
Identifying and implementing change will help you to achieve the three traits: Simplify, Automate, Consolidate - (SAC), which will ensure the success of your social media business partnership.

SM4SB-%20Social-Media-for-Small-Business%20-Book-2.pdf