Fifteen Minutes of Fame

I’ve been asked to give a presentation on successfully using social networking but only spending 15 minutes a day on it. My first thought was: “it can’t be done.” However, I’ve decided some time is better than no time.

If you can only spend 15 minutes a day, then I have one word for you: FOCUS!

First, focus on which social networking site is best to reach your potential customers. Facebook is the big dog—rapidly approaching 500,000 million active users—but if your market isn’t on FB, don’t waste your time on it. Maybe you’ll benefit from sites like Twitter or LinkedIn, or one of the many industry-specific or niche sites, but do your research before jumping in. One of the best ways to find out where your customers are is to simply ask them!

Once you’ve figured out what platform best suits your needs, focus on who you connect with. While it may be fun catching up with old high school classmates, will they bring you business?

If you use Facebook, it’s simple to have just one account and have both personal and professional friends—and posts. You can easily create lists to categorize your friends and you can even post messages just to specific lists. You can read and respond to posts from personal friends when not at work.

The next thing is to focus your messaging. Your posts shouldn’t be too sales-oriented and you’ll want to make sure that you give them a personal touch. Social networking is all about building relationships. Remember that relationships are two-way. You should “listen” and respond to others’ posts or you can’t expect them to respond to you.

Finally, focus your time. It’s easy to get “sucked in” while on social networking sites and lose track of time. You may even have to set an alarm to keep on task. You also want to vary the time of day that you’re online. If you’re only online from 1:45-2:00 each day, then you may miss those aren’t also online at the same time.

One thing to bear in mind—as with all marketing efforts, you get out of it what you put into it. Limiting your time may limit your results. Also, be patient as this will take time. Your efforts will pay off, if you focus!