publicationa

TIME MANAGEMENT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA: INCREASING YOUR ROI AND SANITY

Take a Step Back

Chapter 1

Audit Your Time

SelectingTools

SettingRoutines

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Tear Sheet:

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Connecting with your customers online is more important

than ever. And maximizing those social relationships can

significantly increase your business.

This guide will help you create a time management plan so that you can achieve

However, managing your social media initiatives can be time-consuming. Successful management requires optimizing your time.

Introduction

Master Checklistmore impact from your social media efforts and do

it more efficiently.

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Tear Sheet: Master ChecklistIf you’re going to be in social media, you need a plan of attack. Take a good, honest look at how you spend your time now, reduce distractions, create clear goals, and follow through with a routine.

Don’t feel that you have to do everything yourself.

There are many tools to make your social media

job easier. Don’t be afraid to use them.

Rignite—Smart Software For Social Business4 Sign Up For A Trial Of Rignite

Take a Step Back Audit Your Time Selecting Tools Setting Routines

1. Know what you want to achieve with social media

2. Frame out your objectives using the list of questions in Chapter 1

3. Base your social media activity level on your social media maturity stage

4. Conduct a time audit, tracking how you spend time over the course of a day or a week

5. Package similar tasks and activities together

6. Analyze the data and see where you could use your time more productively

7. Identify pockets of time where you could integrate social media activity.

8. Reduce time spent in social media “time warps”

10. Monitor social conversations across multiple channels in one place

11. Distribute your content and engage your communities from a single dashboard

12. Look at your time audit and identify small blocks of time

13. Create a list of the social tasks to accomplish every week

14. Assign specific tasks to specifics dates

15. Stick to your schedule

9. Find the right tool for your goals

Our software helps businesses manage social media more efficiently. Our all-in-one dashboard makes it easy to turn social activity into real business results.

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Chapter 1: Take a Step Back

If you are participating in social media as a business, you will want to set clear goals so that you can effectively

evaluate results.

Before you launch that blog, create a Facebook page, or set up a Twitter account for your business, the following questions can help you set realistic goals and limits on the resources you devote to social media.

The amount of time you have available each day will vary based on your

other responsibilities.

How many hours can you reasonably spend participating in social media every day?

?

However, 30 minutes a day is a good starting place.

Brand

GOALS

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Social media has been effective for many businesses in:

What are your goals for participating in social media? ?

Keeping existing customers happy

Generating new customers

Improving brand awareness

Typically, improving brand awareness requires a significant campaign with supporting advertising, public

relations, and marketing tactics. Results are also difficult to measure. Retaining customers, improving their

satisfaction with your business, and attracting new customers are goals that can be more easily measured.

Focus on the goal that will generate the best short- and mid-term

return while you build long-term awareness. Determine if your

customers are using social media to talk about your company, and see if

your target prospective customers are using social media and how they

use it. This data will make it easier to prioritize your goals.

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?Maximize the effectiveness of your team and your existing marketing campaigns by implementing a social

component, rather than building a separate, standalone social media program.

How will a social media program fit into existing communication efforts?

Success

Failure

Start by mapping your social media activity to your business

objectives. If social media activity does not deliver a return

to a specific goal, don’t do it. Save the time for more value-

generating activities.

How will success (and failure) be measured?

Nichole Kelly, CEO of Social Media

Explorer and author of How to Measure

Social Media, recommends translating

social media’s impact to sales volume,

revenue, and cost.

?

Track metrics like cost per impression,

cost per click, cost per website

visit, cost per inbound link, cost per

engagement, and cost per customer

acquisition.

Keep measurements simple

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Identify Social Media Maturity

Remixed fromAmber Naslund’s 2009 Social Media Maturity Graphic

Identify your company’s social media maturity level and improve efficiency there. Then outline steps to get to the next stage:

Passive

Here, your goal is to learn about conversations related to your company, competition, and industry and to identify where

these conversations are occurring. Your business is listening and paying attention. If your customers are on Facebook, engaging on Twitter is not useful. If the majority of your industry’s conversations happen on blogs and forums, ignore the big three (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and target blogs and forums instead.

Now your goal is to respond to what you’re hearing. You begin responding directly to company and brand mentions and make

an effort to contribute to industry conversations and dialogue.

At this stage, you’re launching a few conversations of your own. Create a company blog and initiate conversations on your own

social profiles.

Creating content—such as blog posts, eBooks, resource guides, videos, podcasts and webinars—can help turn browsers into

buyers. Create content to strengthen a thought leadership position in your industry and drive prospects deeper into the buying funnel.

Responsive

Engaged

Creating

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The Summary

Having clear goals, focusing your efforts where

you’ll get the most impact, and having a plan

for how you’ll grow your level of social media

maturity will save you hours of time later. And,

it will help you avoid irate cat pictures, giggling

baby videos, and other time-wasting Internet

digital distractions.

Chapter 1 Checklist:

1. Know what you want to achieve with

social media

2. Frame out your objectives using the list

of questions

3. Base your social media activity level on

your social media maturity stage

“ “

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Chapter 2: Audit Your Time

Succeeding on the social web requires daily participation but also risks information overload. If your company is just getting started with social media, it’s easy to get lost in the

social media time warp.

That’s why a time audit is invaluable.

Performing a time audit shows how you actually spend your time versus

the way you think you spend your time. It will help you prioritize tasks

and dedicate time towards those priorities, whether they are building a

community on Facebook, creating compelling content, or building your

brand’s social following.

Whether you are focused on brand reputation management, PR and influencer outreach,

customer service and social CRM, interacting with fans on a brand community, or just

creating content that builds leads through thought leadership -- it all takes time.

~Jay Baer, Convince and Convert

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Here’s a simple way to audit your time:

Identify the major social media tasks on your to-

do list every day and divide them into one-hour

increments. Start a timer—and honor the deadline.

When the alarm goes off, record what you did

during that hour in 15- or 30-minute increments.

Reset the timer, and get back to work. Be honest!

No one will see this time sheet except you. If you

spent an hour watching YouTube, write it down.

Identify the major social media tasks

Start a timer and record tasks

Review your data

Review your data after one week. You will be

able to identify time well spent and times that

were not so productive.

1 2

3 Categorize your tasks

Top priority: Tasks that determine if you get

paid next month. This includes major projects

and other time-sensitive jobs.

Important but not critical: Tasks that you

must do but would rather have an assistant

handle.

Insignificant: Activities that suck you in but

add no value to you or the company.

100% honest.

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Batch Your Tasks

The next step is to batch similar tasks together.

Batching makes it easier to focus and easier to track how

much time is spent on specific types of activities so that

when you analyze your activity, you will be able to map

tasks back to goals and costs.

For example, you don’t need to respond right away

to everyone that starts following your Twitter

page. Instead, dedicate a block of time in the

morning and the afternoon to thank your new fans.

morning noon evening

Thank You Notes

Be HonestRemember that the time audit is supposed to give you a

realistic view of how you actually spend your time over the

course of a week. The insight you gain will help you optimize the

time spent and eliminate non-productive tasks.

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The Summary

The audit should give you data for optimizing

your efficiency and open up time for

integrating social media without affecting

existing processes or staffing levels. You

might also have other employees conduct an

audit to see if you can diversify social media

responsibilities. Try to find at least 30 minutes

each day that can be dedicated to social media

interactions, and drop activities that do not map

directly to goals.

Chapter 2 Checklist:

1. Conduct a time audit, tracking how you

spend time over the course of a day or a week

2. Package similar tasks and

activities together

3. Analyze the data and see where you could

more productively use your time

4. Identify pockets of time where you could

integrate social media activity

5. Reduce time spent in social media

“time warps”

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Chapter 3: Selecting Tools

A key to being efficient in social media is to simplify and consolidate your workflow.

Rignite’s social media software offers a solution where you can perform your various

tasks—publishing, sharing, and monitoring social media content—all in one place:

Listening Station

A listening station enables you to listen to customers’ relevant social conversations and gather data. By listening to your customers, you can find out what makes your audience tick and what drives them to action.

With Rignite, you can define keywords to monitor for people using your chosen keywords in online conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube.

Engagement Console

An engagement console allows you to post to multiple social channels and pulls emails and other social media responses into one place. Save time cutting through the noise on social media by creating a watch list of target customers on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Rignite’s powerful engagement console allows you to monitor a filtered list of your VIP (most important customers and prospects) in a centralized dashboard, and on their preferred social channel. Combining a listening and engagement console into one interface saves a tremendous amount of time that would otherwise be spent monitoring multiple feeds and manually correlating information.

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The Summary

Choosing the right social tools and platforms

for your company can mean the difference

between an efficient and effective social media

program and eight hours a day spent chasing

the latest Internet sensation. Make sure that the

tool works for you and your company’s goals.

Chapter 3 Checklist:

1. Find the right tool for your goals

2. Monitor social conversations across

multiple channels in one place

3. Distribute your content and engage your

communities from a single dashboard

PROJECTDEADLINE4

Review

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Chapter 4: Setting Routines

Remember the time audit you conducted? Now is the perfect time to take a look at it and see if any patterns pop

up. Are Mondays particularly light, while Thursdays are slammed with meetings? Dedicate Mondays to generating

new content ideas and focus on only critical tasks on Thursday.

Managing social media is a balancing act. Disruptions and unexpected events will always happen but setting daily priorities and having a routine will keep chaos at bay.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Light Day! Content Meeting

Marketing Meeting

Dept Meeting

Here is a sample daily and weekly schedule that you can adapt to the amount of time you have available:

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Tip: Bookmark this graphic or share it with your team. You can find it online here.

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The Summary

Maintaining a sensible social media checklist

and schedule is easier with a routine and

balanced priorities. Set aside specific hours in

your day, turn off all other distractions (including

email!) and focus on one task at a time.

Chapter 4 Checklist:

1. Look at your time audit and identify

small blocks of available time

2. Create a list of the social tasks to

accomplish every week

3. Assign specific tasks to specifics dates

4. Stick to your schedule

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© 2013 Rignite.

Time Management for Social Media: Increasing Your ROI and Sanity |

© 2013 Rignite.

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HOW RIGNITE HELPS

Our social media management software makes it easy to post, schedule, collaborate, respond, and track social activity – all in one place.

WITH RIGNITE YOU CAN

• MANAGE MULTIPLE SOCIAL ACCOUNTS FROM ONE PLACE

• EASILY MONITOR AND ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS ON BOTH SOCIAL MEDIA AND EMAIL

• IMPROVE RESPONSE TIMES WITH TEAM COLLABORATION FEATURES

• SEE A FULL VIEW OF YOUR CUSTOMER’S HISTORY–INCLUDING RELATIONSHIP, SOCIAL CONVERSATION, AND CASE HISTORY

• TRACK AND MEASURE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA RESULTS

NOW YOU CAN TURN SOCIAL ACTIVITY INTO REAL MEASURABLE BUSINESS.