Eight hours in the day really doesn’t give a PR professional or anyone enough time to keep track and organize all the to-dos social media platforms put in front of us. Since we all live in “the social media age,” it’s way too easy to let pings, buzzes and notifications interrupt and distract us throughout the day. Nonetheless, being connected and involved with social media can be an asset to you and your client’s long-term success. Social media needs its own “time management” strategy to get down to business efficiently.

1. Social media return on investment

At the end of the day, where are your social media posts, tweets, etc. going to lead your client? In every account meeting when you’re discussing social media, it’s important for the client to understand that social media results take time. These efforts are valuable to businesses, but how much time should be devoted to it? Aside from the type of business and how you’ll operate all the social media platforms you want to be part of, your client will also want to consider the skills and abilities it takes for each platform. From taking photos to coming up with catchy headlines, it’s all in a day’s work of postings. All efforts lead to significant ROI when executed correctly.

2. Automate your posts

HootSuite and other platforms will become your best friends when deciding how to manage all the different posts. One task that has helped us at Obsidian is “task batching.” There are probably other terms for it, but essentially, spending several hours at one time planning out social media posts for weeks at a time rather than trying to create a new post or posts every day for each client.

That said, don’t make the mistake of trying to automate your client’s presence. When people tweet at your client or engage in the brand, whoever is managing the social media will need to be part of the conversation and react with a live post. You need to be engaged at all times, except when you’re trying to catch up on sleep.

3. Focus your attention

There are thousands of social networks buzzing around out there, but there are really only five that matter most to companies and businesses that hire you to operate their social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google Plus. Depending on your client, YouTube might be important, but obviously that is video oriented. You will want to emphasize to your client that these are the most important networks to be active on in the web of social networking.

4. Make time to disconnect

Whether it’s turning off your phone at night (if you can), setting your iPhone to “Do Not Disturb” for a scheduled period, or just leaving your laptop to release some energy and get fresh air, do it! At any rate, just make sure you have “UN-social” scheduled time in your regular workday.

Social media can take over and it does, but it’s OK to step away and look at something not technology based. I hope this post gave you some good ideas for improving your management skills for social media campaigns. If you have questions, please send me an email at tiffany@obisidanpr.com.