Social Media In Less Than An Hour A Day? It’s True

Post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess

Social media tasks can take up literally hours a day, am I right? I know I can spend hours poking around Facebook, looking at recipes on Pinterest (that I will never make), attempting to figure out Instagram and talking with business professionals on LinkedIn. How do I ever get anything done, you may be wondering!? 

Because my job actually involves my being iactive in social media for my clients, it is a part of the job that I am in and out of social media platforms almost hourly throughout the day. How can you, a pet blogger, who may have a job outside of the home and then have to take care of home, and four-and two-legged family members once you get done with that get a handle on your social media? 

I have tips for the time-starved that will help you take care of your social media in less than an hour a day (note that on some days when you have to write a blog post, it could take you longer, but if you use an editorial calendar you should find it much easier!). Keep in mind that you do not have to be on every social media outlet that is available, it's simply not a good use of your time or efforts. Knowing where your pack gathers is the best way for you to decide which social media platform you need to use. 

Here are my tips for getting your pet social media tasks done in less than an hour a day (perhaps even 30 minutes if you are organized!): 

• Plan to spend about 10 minutes a day on Facebook. In that amount of time you can post information from your latest blog post, respond to comments made on your previous posts, comment on the posts of industry leaders and even share a video or a picture you've taken of your pet. 
• Twitter is another 10-minute a day task. You can easily get in, respond, retweet, respond to a direct message or two, schedule new messages (Hootsuite is a great tool for this) and share the content of those industry experts that you follow. 
• Is your audience on LinkedIn? If you're in a professional business realm (and isn't that where most of us pet bloggers are?) you should be utilizing LinkedIn to build connections with like-minded professionals. You can plan to spend five minutes to share content, like the posts of your connections, and post (or answer) a question in one of the groups in which you're involved. Asking and answering questions builds your online expertise in LinkedIn. 
• Pinterest (as long as you don't give into the lure of the beautiful images) can be managed in less than five minutes a day. Post photos and links to your latest blog posts, repin pins that make sense to your industry segment, respond to comments on your pins and follow those who have followed your boards. 
• Google+ does not seem as relevant for some pet bloggers as it does for others and if you're just starting out on Google+ and aren't sure if it's the platform for you, allocate only two to three minutes a day. During this time you can post information from your blog, +1 the posts of others and search for connections in your field. 
• If you're a shutterbug, then Instagram is a place where you can allocate five minutes a day. Upload photos of your pet, of your workspace (if it makes sense with the pet brand you're building) and like the photos that others have uploaded. Make sure you look for BlogPaws on Instagram and give us a follow! 
• The BlogPaws Community is a place that is available 24/7/365 and where pet lovers of all kinds meet and chat. Check out the Community, choose a few groups to join and begin some interaction. You can likely do this in 10 minutes a day. 

Add all those up and you are at less than one hour per day. On those days when you need to write a blog post, pull out your editorial calendar and see if you can set aside time to write more than one post and schedule them in advance; this will save you time during the week and will make the time you spend on social media more productive.

 Do you have a system for your social media updates and for making the most of the time you spend on them? I'd love to hear!

(If you get your social media updates down to a science you can catch a few more zzzz's like this cute pup from our Facebook page)