Lack of time is one of the excuses I hear most for why businesses aren’t embracing the opportunities social media offers. So, I thought I’d address this issue head on and show you ways to make time in your diary for social media.
1. What makes you money?
We can all easily fill 8-10 hours a day, or more, with tasks. But being busy doesn’t necessarily translate in to income. Analyse how much of your time you are spending doing tasks that aren’t either a) growing your business or b) delivering the product/service that customers have paid you for. Any activities that don’t fit within these two categories should either be scrapped or outsourced (and social media should definitely fit in the ‘growing your business’ category!).
2. Make appointments with your self
You wouldn’t miss an appointment with someone else, answer the phone in the middle of it, or cut it short. That’s why it’s really important to make appointments with yourself. Write your diary out every day with time chunks and put an activity in to that time. Don’t answer the phone while you’re completing the activity. Don’t go over the time you’ve allowed yourself. And don’t miss the appointment!
3. Today ain’t over til tomorrow’s planned!
And the best time to plan these chunks of time is the evening before! It should be your last activity of the day to plan for the following day. That way it won’t take up time that morning and you can get stuck straight in! It also means you sleep better as you aren’t running through all the things you need to do the next day!
4. Employ or outsource
Sometimes you have to admit that you can’t do everything!! So, have a think about what others could do. You may decide to employ someone within your business to manage social media. And, without a doubt, the more time you put in to social media, the more you will get out of it. It may hugely benefit your business to have an inhouse social media manager. There are also many tasks you will be completing yourself that could be outsourced. Consider using an answer service to field your calls, so you only need return those that are going to benefit your business. Virtual assistants are also a great cost-effective way of getting stuff done without employing. You only need pay the assistant for the work they do, which gives a flexible solution to your time issues. It also means you can focus more time on those tasks that will grow your business.
Social media need only take as little as 20 minutes a day. With the tips above, two 10 minute chunks should be easy to find!
