May 19th, 2009 
Genesis 
Social media is an extraordinarily useful tool for driving traffic, but many people say they just don`t have the time needed to make it work. I beg to differ. Here are a few ways to make sure that even limited time networking is put to good use.
- Pick ONE social media network. Sure, you could be on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon, but if you only have five minutes a day to network, there`s no way you`ll do it effectively by spreading yourself out over so many different platforms. I personally use 3, Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon, though if I had to cut two I`d go with just Twitter. Look for a network that you enjoy and works for you.
- Stop playing. The problem with social media is that it tends to distract you. On Facebook, there are hundreds of games and applications (I`m partial to a game of Scramble, myself!) to distract you and StumbleUpon has thousands of fascinating, but completely useless (businesswise) sites to look at. You need to tune all that stuff out and get to work.
- Don`t advertise. There is NOTHING worse than someone who pops up on Twitter after a week of nothing to say, “You should buy X product!” No one cares. Except for the sleazy marketers out there, everyone is busy getting to know each other and connecting on a personal level, with some business thrown in. Take the time to cultivate relationships and you will have far better success.
- Ask for help. The advantage of having proper “friends” on your chosen social media network is that you can then ask them for help. A good example is StumbleUpon. I haven`t actually built up my network that much on this, but the people that I`m friends with there are familiar with me and know that I will happily help them out if they need to promote a page. And, in return, I can send them pages and they will rank and review them and even send them on to other people. It`s exponential. If you have 10 friends who send your business page to 10 of their friends each, it adds up real fast.
- Be consistent. I don`t care if you have just 2 minutes a day. Work on building relationships every day. If you have 30 minutes or an hour, all the better. The point is, don`t disregard social media just because you don`t have time. Even a brief visit to your chosen network will allow you to build valuable connections and grow your business if done right.
How much time do you spend on social media? What are your tips for making it more effective for your business? Pipe up in the comments!
And, just a quick note, it is the last day for the 10 Day May Madness deals, so if you want to grab some serious business building products for just $5 or get a month of MomMasterminds for the same price, this is your last chance.
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I think I’ll have to disagree just a little bit here, while what you say is mostly true, there’s another option. Your RSS feed! All the social media sites (I think all) now have the option to include an outside RSS feed. The time is spent setting up, but when done, post once to your own blog and have it show up on every social network site the feed is plugged into.
This is not so much for the networking as it is for links and information distribution. Narrowing it down to a couple you do have time to network on, good advice.
I’ve read a great deal about using Twitter to market products. A lot of businesses that have realized the potential of Twitter early on and have actually incorporated the use of Twitter in their marketing efforts are reaping the benefits of the micro-blogging service.
Hey,
Nice job. I concur with the use of Social Media in a responsible way, and yes some selfish people do make Twitter a pain but at least its a short pain.
Social media is a great way to grow friendships and build trust but as with all things in life, it needs to be balanced.
I use Twitter a lot exactly because its so well supported with applications and totally devoid of other distractions. Social media sound bites are great.
Thanks for sharing.
Kevin