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I’m the first to tout social media as one of the best forms of online marketing, whether it’s to promote your product, your brand, yourself or an event. It’s a great way to add a personal touch to marketing and at a rather low cost.

But if you have reached the stage where social media eats up far too much of your day and you find yourself consistently time-poor, it’s time you took a step up to look at the bigger picture.

I have a few tips to help you get back on track:

Reevaluate your goals: What are they? Do you want to build new relationships? Nurture old ones? Increase your brand exposure or grow as an individual? Unless you know what your goals are, it’s hard to know if you are meeting them.

Measure your success/failure: If your social media goals are to acquire new customers, keep a list of where your new customers are coming from. This will allow you to see what is working and what is wasting your time.

If your goal is to build relationships, that is a bit harder to measure. Do you feel your chosen channel is allowing you to learn/grow your relationship? Or are you struggling to make a connection?

Set aside time: Constantly checking in to social media throughout the day is the No. 1 time-killer. Sure, your intentions might be good — to just log in for a few minutes to check updates. But before you know it, 15 minutes has gone by. This doesn’t sound like much, but if you do this five times a day, that’s almost 1.5 hours you’ve lost to relatively unproductive time.

Set aside an hour or two a day, know what you want to achieve and spend your time constructively achieving it.

Don’t follow the crowd: Just because everyone you know is on a chosen media doesn’t mean you have to be. If you have evaluated its effectiveness and it doesn’t fit your goals, let it go. No one is going to think any less of you and there are plenty of ways to keep in touch! (Note: Don’t just “not log into your profile;” either disable or delete it.)

Prioritise: Sure, social media is probably the least strenuous (and perhaps most enjoyable) task on your to-do list, but that doesn’t mean it should have priority.  Don’t let social media get in the way of the important tasks you need to address.

Jake Thomas is a small business owner based in the southern suburbs of Sydney. Dividing his time between operating Emroy Print & Design and being a part owner of Small Business Forum has given Jake a keen understanding of all things business, marketing and management. More information about Jake can be found at www.itsjakethomas.com.

Image by webtreats