I am often asked how many hours I spend on my social media sites every day. On average, I spend about 3 hours a day creating educational content for my clients and building stronger relationships with current and potential clients.
Something happens when you get involved with social media. You change. You realize that the more you give – the better you feel – and the more you get back. I am motivated to be even more active!
By the end of the week, I have created some terrific marketing materials that are customer focused. I have also created a bunch of ineffective materials that will not work, but here’s the thing – my social community helps me determine what is good or bad based on the comments I receive, the number of times an article is retweeted, or the emails that I receive with questions on the articles or tweets.
So – 15 hours per week to develop marketing materials that educate and creating powerful relationships. I think that is time well spend. Would your marketing manager be more effective if he/she were to be active in social networks?
My Blog (1 hour a day)
- Write at least three blog posts per week based on research and conversations I have had on Twitter and on other blogs
- Respond to comments daily on my blog
- Write at least 1- 5 comment a day on other people’s blogs
Analytics (1/2 hour a week)
- Review Google Analytics to identify trends and possible follow-up articles.
- Review click throughs with FeedBurner
Twitter (1 – 2 hours through out the day)
- Daily- retweet at least one good idea or something enlightening
- Daily – write a response to at least one person I have not talked to ever before on Twitter
- Daily – scan twitter for relevant conversations
- Tweet my blog posts
- Recommend my most active followers on #followfriday
- TweetLater – schedule a #QOTD or #quote for each day
- Twice a Week – Review new followers and follow active Tweeters
Google Reader (4 hours per week)
- Monitor Google Reader news articles for relevant blog content and Twitter posts
- Comment on relevant articles
- Bookmark with delicious articles for future blog posts and idea generation
Google Alerts (15 minutes per week)
- Monitor Google alerts for relevant keywords and phrases
LinkedIn (15 minutes per day)
- Daily- Update Status
- Daily – review friend (connections) status and comment on at least one
- Tuesday/Thursday – Scan group conversations and engage in topics when appropriate
- Wednesday – Ask one question in a group
- Friday – help connect two of my contacts together
- Friday – send one referral, ask for one referral
Slideshare
- Monthly – Upload a new presentation
- Weekly – Review comments on presentations
Facebook (15 minutes per day)
- Daily – Update Status
- Daily – review friend status
- Daily – At least one non-business related comment to a friend
- Delete any messages that are spam-ish or any polls or applications sent to me
- Review photos of friends
YouTube
- Monthly – Review my videos
- Monthly – Review favorites
- As they happen – Add a new video to my blog
Delicious
- Daily – Book mark daily to share with clients, employees and twitter followers
- Weekly – review bookmarks to generate ideas for future blog posts or future projects
- Check three times a day – morning, noon, and at the end of the day
- Respond to all emails – even if it just says “I will get back to you.”
- Clean up mail from last week and close any loose ends
Other Activities
- Weekly – engage in other social networks that I belong
There are a few other activities that my staff take care of through out the week that include:
- Managing two Facebook communities
- Managing two LinkedIn communities
- Publishing our e-newsletter
- Manage two additional blogs
What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them!
I am President and Chief Evangelist for Vivid Image - a web design and social marketing firm located outside of Minneapolis, MN. 
Wow you have a very ambitious social marketing schedule. I do not know how much time I spend on social marketing, or have a detailed plan like you do. Nice work.
Very impressive! I find that the best time management solution needs to be a mix of planning and, for lack of better words, spontaneity. Factoring in meetings and concalls is already a challenge for most of all, and convos on places like Twitter has its ebbs and flows (and you want to be there when the actions happen).
I do admire what you have done and will try to map out a saner schedule for myself too. Thanks, Steve!
I recently gave out my estimate of how much time I spend on social media a day and it was 3-4 hours as well. I don’t have it mapped out as well as you have done. I certainly need to reassess time allocations as I begin to write more on my blog. I like your plan around capturing content on delicious for future idea generation. I do that now, but had not gone back to review my fanatically passion for bookmarking as part of my research for blog posts.
I did recently use freemind software to draw a picture of my social media connections. It looks like quite the spiderweb of activity. I think if I take your approach I may be much more efficient.