The 20 Minute Rule of Social Media Engagement: Morning, Noon and Night

I recently learned that one of the greatest software and computer developers said early on in his career (and I'm paraphrasing), that the person who creates 'online communities' over the Internet will make millions.
While this computer designer missed his opportunity to create one of the largest online communities in the world, how true does that statement ring with us today? Our entire online world is all about community these days isn't it? According to a recent infographic I saw recently each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site.
As a marketing professional whose job it is to spend time and money on these sites, I certainly enjoy these online communities and lose track of time -- until I started applying a personal sixty-minute rule to my daily marketing activities.
Yes, it's true.
I am the first to agree that it's hard to escape the allure of looking up old friends on Facebook, watching the latest movie trailer on YouTube, RT-ing on Twitter, Digg-'n stuff and Meeting Up with like-minded colleagues on MeetUp.
These addictive, enticing and tempting platforms must not distract us from our purpose which is to engage our fans and followers and be "social" in a way that spurs conversation and dialogue with those people who know, like and trust us and our business.
It's no secret that social media is a disruptive force in marketing for business professionals in this modern day of technological innovation and relationally-challenged age.
Social media has changed the world of marketing for years to come.
Just imagine if the printing press, radio, television, the brochure, the business card, newspapers and bill boards were all invented and released to the public all at the same time.
That would be a lot for any one business to capture effectively.
Essentially, that significant learning curve and workload was released to marketers and businesses because of social media just in the past few years.
But after spending hundreds (if not thousands) of hours inside the time sucking bubble of these alluring socially-centered sites, I can tell you it is absolutely possible to manage and navigate your entire business and marketing presence in sixty minutes a day.
I'm convinced that those who learn to manage their time better and be more productive will be the marketeers in social media marketing that will excel to the level of experts in their profession.
Yes, Marketeers like myself spend enormous amounts of time managing our online presence -- but that's our job.
We're supposed to be online updating our various Pages, Channels and Twitter feeds.
Now, with the advent of social media dashboards or online command centers my daily logins and work in social media has changed dramatically in the past few years.
Here are some helpful tips and resources I use on a regular basis.
Create Your Profiles and Then Start Controlling and Managing Your Profiles.
Once your profiles are designed, updated with the appropriate marketing detail, and you become experienced with engaging, posting, and sharing content on each of the platforms you've chosen that are most pertinent to your business and target audience, you can do social media in 60 minutes a day.
Why Are Social Media Dashboards Important?

• Dashboards allow you to manage multiple social profiles
• Dashboards allow you to track your brand mentions
• Dashboards allow you to analyze social media fans, followers and obtain detailed traffic analyses
• Dashboards allow you to see the bulk of your profiles on one screen
• Dashboards allow you to schedule posts days, weeks and months in advance across multiple social media profiles and sites.
  
• Dashboards allow you to engage from one place as opposed to several individual platforms.
  

If you don't currently use a dashboard for the majority of your activity, it will absolutely change your perspective on and engagement in social media.
Dashboards eliminate the need to log into several social media platforms and you can stop toggling between screens -- all of which will be a big time-saver.
Trust me, I'm speaking from experience here.
Explore Your Options and Choose The Right Dashboard That Works For You.
There's plenty of options to choose from.
You can choose Hootsuite, TweetDeck, Sprout Social, Ping.
fm, NetVibes, MarketMeSuite, Jungle Torch, Trackur and more.
There's too many to list, but explore some of them.
Most have free accounts or trial periods that allow you to really choose the one that works best for you.
The 20 Minute Rule of Social Media Engagement: Morning, Noon and Night.
Whether you use your dashboard to engage with your fans or followers, following one simple rule will allow you to effectively "be social" in sixty minutes a day.
When you commit twenty minutes in the morning, twenty minutes mid-day and twenty minutes in the early evening or before the 5-o'clock bell, there is enough time to greet your followers/fans; post updates to your profiles; post some (not all) of your original content; re-post your content; engage with people across your platforms; respond and reply to questions/mentions, and maintain a visibly, active business and personal profile online.
Using this "Be Social In Sixty Minutes A Day" will now give you enough time to keep your profiles relevant, current, educational, social and visible on a daily basis.