How Much Time Should I Spend On Social Media?

I must get asked this question at least once a week: “how much time should I spend on social media?”  I was thinking about doing a post on it, and then across my reader comes this answer from Chris Brogan, a godfather of social media engagement himself.  Here are a few simple guidelines from Chris, who suggests breaking up your social media activity into four chunks and devoting a minimum of 2 hours a day to your social media presence.

• 1/4 for Listening – Start your day by listening and finding what the world is saying about you, your competitor, your marketplace, etc. In this space, I also count reading (reading other people’s blogs and other online materials).
• 1/2 for Commenting/Communicating – Spend time commenting and replying back to people on the various channels where they reach you. If that’s Twitter, email, or wherever you hang out, fine. In the commenting timeframe, I also include sharing. Be sure to tweet links to great articles, use StumbleUpon, Delicious, Facebook share, and all the other various tools that help people find the good stuff. In Google reader, a simple SHIFT-S gives an article a whole lot of new potential fans. In here, I might also add the act of linking in and connecting with people on various networks.
• 1/4 for Creating – Your efforts in content creation are every bit as important as your connectivity and communication. This might include blogging, making video or audio, creating email newsletters, and anything else you’re building to contribute something to the space. It might be posting those event photos in Flickr and on Facebook. Whatever it is, creating content of some kind should take up 1/4 of your social media efforts, as this is the way you get found. Search engines thrive on new content. Humans seek out new material. The more you can be helpful, the better your opportunities.

In general, these are pretty good, although I don’t necessarily think it’s practical for anyone with a full time job (even one that includes social media responsibilities) to spend a minimum of two hours a day on these sites, and it might even be damaging to your reputation if your boss or colleagues get wind of it.  However, this is why it’s even more important to plan your engagement strategically.

Comments

[Natty Moss Bond]

Two hours a day??? I would never get anything done if I wasted so much time on social media...and then when would I see my friends? Or go have a cocktail? Or eat?

[Chris Herbert]

Good discussion to have. I look at it a little bit differently. Time needs to be spent in three key areas:

1) building your social network - choosing who you want to connect with,

2) discovering content-to make you more knowledgeable and informed and to share with your social network and,

3) creating original content - to position you and/or your company as a thought leader and worth the readers time to consider buying something from you.

The other thing you should do is look for ways to connect physically with your social network. This usually means social meetups liked Tweetups, Linkedin events etc.

[Bruno Deshayes]

I can see you are an articulate professional in your field. I have built a web resource for people to roll out a copy of their resume in a functional format.

I am tiptoeing my way in social media trying to get the ball rolling. There is a fine balance between being invited into a blog conversation and being rejected as s spammer who is only interested in sprinkling a link wherever possible.

Writing comes naturally to me and I have posted some 20 articles on EzineArticles so far but I am still lost in obscurity.

My next tack would be to offer free subscriptions to those who would be brave enough to try out my service and write a review.

I am looking for a role model of someone who has broken through this maze of Public Relations / Search Engine Optimization. There is a lot of spin around, a lot of self-appointed experts but not much verifiable results on display.

If you are able to get me connected to the right places I would endeavour to return the compliment in whichever way I can.

Thank you for reading this - have a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

[Laura Vanderkam]

Yes, two hours is a little ridiculous! Two hours a weekday is 10 hours a week. You could train for a marathon in that amount of time! I think a quick scan when you take a coffee break is good for reading other people's posts (does anyone else have to wade through a lot of Farmville posts lately? These must be the people spending 2 hours on social media!)

[Susan Strayer]

It also really depends what you do for a living. We forget that not everyone is tied to their computers all day and two hours may work well for the entrepreneur who controls his own schedule but not the corporate middle manager. There is also a difference with social media for the corporate middle manager building a brand and learning and the entrepreneur or business owner doing that PLUS using social media to sell.

[Alexandra Levit]

@Natty: I can relate, and I think the business I'm in requires more time than some others.

@Chris: Great suggestions, especially the one about connecting physically. It makes all the difference.

@Bruno: Sounds great and we're happy to help. What's the link for your service?

@Laura: I use the same strategy, except I eat my lunch while scanning posts, and I rarely read anything in its entirety.

@Susan: You're absolutely right. I think some of us tend to get stuck (mind-wise) in the entrepreneurial bubble, and this simply isn't a reality for some. Great to see you here, by the way!