The Paradigm Shift of Social Media and Time Management

It has been a pretty busy week around here at Brandswag. Projects have been piling up and there never seems to be enough time… for anything. The past 48 hours have been pretty efficient in terms of business and extremely inefficient in the realm of Social Media. I have been writing posts every day for the better part of a month and yesterday was the first time I have missed in awhile. Truthfully it upsets me.

I thought about continuing the posts on Being Productive in Social Media but I ran across Andy DeSoto’s new post entitled, Observations on Social Media Compression. I found myself reading exactly what I was going to write today! Amazing how these things happen.

Andy has been extremely busy with starting up classes in his fourth year of school and hasn’t had the time to really invest in Social Media.

From Andy:

Social media becomes something to be attended to when all other responsibilities are fulfilled, kind of like an ever-present background process.

When time is tight, not only do we rely on applications and services to filter for us, but we also engage in a more implicit, natural filtering of our own: discovering what does, and what doesn’t, work for us when free time becomes considerably scarcer.

When I am talking to small business owners about social media and being productive in online communities there is always the issue of time. “I don’t have time to manage social communities.” “I don’t have the time to write three to four blog posts a week.” “I have clients that demand my attention. I feel like I will be left out in the cold if i ignore a network for a couple of days.”

The last statement is where the curse of knowledge will get the best of us. In everyday life there seems to be an underlying belief that if you do not keep up, you will be left behind. If you do not attend a social networking function regularly the members will forget all about you and your business. In some cases this is true but, in my opinion, it is the exact opposite in the social media world.

A paradigm shift needs to occur in terms of time management and social media. Frequency of posts and over-commitment to social media communities does not necessarily mean you will be noticed. There isn’t a measurable ROI when it comes to time and social media.

The beautiful thing about social media is that you can leave and come back, save and rewrite. In a world in which content changes every second of the day it is not hard to re-join the conversation.

Don’t get discouraged if you do not have time to update a network for a day, two days, or even a week! I have to keep telling myself this as days become busier and the work gets deeper. If you are committed to staying in the conversation the members of your group, your social posse, will understand. They will remember. They will contribute and grow with you.

As Andy has shown, most of us are busy. Most of us have the daily routines which fall precedent over our social media community involvement.

Be efficient with your time. Find the best way that works for you and if you need help….ask. You have a community of people spread all over the world who would love to help YOU in this ever-changing process.