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How to Maximize Your Social Media Time

Crazy Guy You want to do it.

You need to do it.

You KNOW you need to do it!

But where do you find the time to squeeze in building your web presence? How do balance dealing with current business, while at the same time build for new business?? You already have to much to do! It's too much! ARGHHHHHHH!!!

Stop. Breathe. Relax. Wusaahhhh...

Perhaps my favorite and most often used quote is, "Work smarter, not harder." So how can we apply this to Social Media? I'm going to share a few techniques with you that I use. Try them, see if they work for you.

Step 1: Commit!

Set aside an hour a day to post a blog, add some friends, read some blogs, something SM related. I tend to do a lot of my blogging at night, after the kids are in bed. I plan on an hour, but I usually get swept up in it, and am up til crazy hours. I get swept up in it because I...

Step 2: HAVE FUN WITH IT!

You can meet some truly fascinating people on sites like Twitter, FaceBook, and here at ActiveRain. Don't focus ALL your posting on listings and market analysis. There's a time and a place for this, and it's not everywhere and all the time.

Build your network by sharing a funny joke or story. Comment back and engage in conversation. You'll be amazed at what you can learn. I know I have been. I have to work really hard to convince my wife I am "working" when I'm giggling my fool head at off at someone's Twitter post.

Step 3: Multi-Task your multi-tasking!

Many sites allow you to broadcast your blog to several different sites. For instance, when I post this blog, it will go to:

http://activerain.com/blogs/timwhitehomes
http://www.timwhiteblog.com
http://localism.com/neighbor/timwhitehomes
http://localism.com/mi/hart
http://www.twitter.com/timwhitehomes as a tweet linking back to this blog

Then I will go to FaceBook, where I will share the link on my personal profile, AND on my business page. That's SEVEN different URL hits, all from one blog. Oh, and all of those have links leading back to my main page.

Know what's really cool? My friends on Twitter will "ReTweet" the link, and my FB friends will share the links, and so on and so on. My words of wisdom (hahahaha) will spread like a virus through cyberland.

Step 4: KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

You don't have to write a book! In fact, longer posts can be a turnoff for some. Try to summarize your idea, and hit the highlights. If people want to know more, they'll ask! That's why this one is so long! You don't need to be Robert Frost or Ernest Hemingway, but good creative writing that sparks interest will generate more hits. I learn a lot about this by reading other people's blogs, and learning from them. Try it!

Recycle Step 5: Reciprocate!

You love it when people recommend your stuff, right? Well, so do they! Build yourself up by building others. Over half of my Twitter posts (Tweets) are ReTweets and or replies that promote the work of others.

Call it "karma", call it "spreading the love", whatever. I call it common sense. The more you help others, the more others are going to help you.

For my next blog, I'm going to attempt to explain Twitter, and how it can help you grow. If you haven't subscribed to my blog yet, WHY NOT??? It's a click away, and you'll make me smile :)

Posted by Tim White on 04/03/2009 09:29 AM

Comments (38)

How to Maximize Your Social Media Time in the ActiveRain Channel

social media, how to, tim white, facebook, active rain, twitter, sales strategies

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38 Comments on How to Maximize Your Social Media Time

APR

Yes, very true. We all need to do that.

Nice plan

Great post, thanks for the info! I have my blog feeding into Facebook, and I'll be adding Twitter ASAP.

Thanks Travis!

Lisa, be sure to follow me when you get there! You'll be tweeting like mad in no time!

Very good info Tim. Especially the part about having fun with it. I see so many blogs where the agents take themselves SO seriously. Come on, lighten up a bit! :)

Jared, you are so right! As you can see from my writing style, I don't even know HOW to take myself seriously :)

If you can't have fun with it, why bother?

Good post! Hope everyone reads your clear "directions"!

Thanks Li! I hope so, too!

Excellent post! Blogging is great, and social media makes it even more worth while. Viral marketing at its finest. Thanks for the post!

P.S. i, too, find it hard to stick to just 1 hour a day in the SM world. Late nights, *sometimes* early mornings, and some in between.

Chris - I feel your pain! I finally through in the towel last night (this morning?) at 2am. Made getting up at 7am a little rough, but it was worth it. One hour is just my minimum recommended scheduled time. I definitely get online every chance I get. Thanks for the comment!

Thanks Tim, I'm the same way, I love social media marketing and can get swept up in it. It is fun and it pays off for our business.

Tim,

You're a great writer with an enjoyable, easy-to-read style. I'm so glad your other post was featured so I could *find* you! Looking forward to more words of wisdom!

APR

Kevin & Monica - Good to know I'm not the only one out here having fun!

Debra - THANK YOU! Featured? What? Seriously? No way! I gotta go check that out! As for more words of wisdom, I'll talk to my wife and see what I can come up with. :)

Thanks for following on Twitter, and Semper Fi!

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been wrestling with this myself for a while.

True that Tim. In fact, I've replaced my first 2 hours of "prospecting" (cold calling, etc) time every day with the following task in my calendar:

"Create Juicy Content and Spread It Around!"

Now the "Create Juicy Content" can mean a number of things, including dropping a link back to my Philadelphia Real Estate blog, PropertunityKnocks.com by commenting on Active Rain. :)

Overall, a little Social Media fun that also juices your own prosecting efforts is a nice fun way to start the day...totally agree with your post..

Hi Tim,

I enjoyed this post. I am new to blogging and still working on getting the basics down. How to you broadcast your blog? Write now I have to copy and past it everywhere. my blogsite is www.yourauburnrealtor.com. Any tips and suggestions you could give me I would really appreciate

Do you rub your earlobes while saying "Wusahhh". I do ;-) Seriously, though, good post here. Thanks for the great ideas.

Nice post Tim, setting aside the time to come up with creative content is my biggest problem. Posting the same info over a bunch of blogs, etc. is the easy part.

Good post. What I am trying now is to first blog on my web site, then copy and paste to Active Rain with a slight change of headline and content, I also do post to Active rain alone, and then I go to a site that allows me to view all the social bookmarking spots for my blog, and change the headlines on each one, including Facebook. I am excited to see how many show up on Google off the same post.

Tim,

Great post. I love your insight on reciprocation, especially with idea of retweets and Twitter.

Thanks,

Matt Naumann

www.mattnaumann.com

Hi Tim,

I really enjoyed your social media blog. You should feel honored. I am a virgin blogger, that is, and yours is the first time I am leaving a response. I am trying to stay current and the only way you can do that is social networking.

Thanks,

Edie Cooper

Next comes the photo,right???

"That's SEVEN different URL hits, all from one blog." Efficient set up. What percentage of your leads do you generate on line?

Internet marketing is a system just like anything else. I try to do it first thing in the morning. I blog on my personal web site first, then ActiveRain and finally I post on Craigslist.

Tim, Great post, but I want to know more about using tags. I had the iimpression that tags are waht help you get traffic from "hits", but is sounds like including URL's in posts is more important. Another tag question: I notice that one of your tags is your name. Do you always do that?

Tim, are you smiling? I joined your blog, yesterday.

I get the KISS part and the Reciprocate! However, I still do not know how to broadcast it all over. I know Google picks my blog a lot and Point2Agent sends it to Point2Homes, but I just signed up to Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, and have no idea where and how to find the addresses. The URLs end with "home." I do not think that is right.

I'll look forward to your post about Twitter. I learned a lot about it at ReBar Camp yesterday but could still use more.

Hey Tim-I like you already! I see we're Michigan neighbors! I love Hart, spent a lot of time there in my 20's...concerts and such..val-du-lakes? I'm learning the waters of AR, something new to learn everyday! Best to you~

I have been keeping up with your post but I still can't find the time that you seem to find. I guess my days are just too short.

My husband has also caught me laughing out loud at a blog post while I'm supposed to be working! Can't work be fun? Thanks for the great tips.

I enjoyed your comments. Over the past 3-4 months I have taught myself a lot - setting up profiles, blogging, sharing and commenting....the learning curve is extensive, but you are right...we need to have fun while we are doing this. I still need to learn more about having my blogs appearing on numerous sites...thanks for sharing. I look forward to hearing more.

Tim: Great information.. I'm still trying to get my post to go to facebook too... not sire what I did wrong.. its not working.

Okay... I subscribed. Are you smiling? Congrats on the Gold Star, and truly very useful information. I have bookmarked it for future reference. I have done it all, but not Facebook yet. I'm holding out. Is it really helpful? I'm all about having fun with it! Who else would write about Darth Vadar in their blog (you guessed it!) Moi! Cheers,

the Bellingham Realty Girl, Amy

Oh, and a sincere thanks for serving our great nation. You'll never know how that moves me. My father and husband are vets (Army and Marine Corps, respectively). You are a brave soul, and I tip my hat to you. Cheers and Semper Fi.

Amy

Yes very true and Lol about "telling your wife that your working"...yes spending a lot of hours at the computer and laughing might make her wonder what your doing online so much.

Great post!

Thanks,

Tom Davis

APR

The "chirp" on Tweetdeck drives my wife crazy!!!! LOL

Thank you for sharing this great information, and I hope to see it motivate more people to get out there and utilize this awesome tool!!!!!

Have a Profitable Day!

Harrison Painter

Harrison Painter - Gladiator Real Estate Investments

P.S. Oh yeah.......Tweet Me!!!

Tim - Rock on ! Great post and recommendations. I can easily get swept up in spending more time for our social media stuff but I am glad that I do. It is hard to keep up with, especially the technology side of things. Still, am glad we have the discipline to devote some time each day towards it. BTW, subscribed to your blog since it was so easy to do. Maybe you can do the same with us ?? : )

APR

Sorry for the delayed responses folks, I was out playing Marine this weekend, getting in some good training in the field. Let's play catch-up!

Tom - Stop wrestling it, give in, and have fun! Resistance is futile...

Ryan - "Juicy Content" - I love it! Keep up the great work!

Amy - When you post your blog in here, you can post it to several locations. Play with the tabs at the bottom of your post and experiment with the different post categories. Next, link to your blog everywhere you can. On facebook, share the link in your status updates. Link it in a Twitter post. If you have several web domains, forward them to one central location. These are a few suggetsions. Someone tipped me to ping.fm on another blog. I haven't tried it yet, but I will be playing with it today. Subscribe to and read other social media player's blogs, as well.

Christianne - I am typing with one hand now, and rubbing my ear lobe with the other. Wusaaaa :)

Jeff - I started making notes on my BlackBerry throughout the day, to create a database of ideas to blog about. I drove by a school the other day, and saw a sign that annoyed me. I made a note, then blogged about it later. Best tip on what to blog out: ANYTHING! Good luck!

Joe - You are spot on. I am careful with that, however, to be sure to spread some original content around. Also, some blog servers have TOS stipulations against that kind of thing, so be careful. As long as you are changing things up even a little bit, though (which it sounds like you are) you should be ok. Great comment, thank you.

Matt - Thanks! Twitter is a very underutilised tool, because it takes using it in conjunction with other media. Fun fact: Twitter went from 6 million to 8 million users in under a month. Think you might want to get in on that kind of action? I do!

Edie - I am SOOOO honored! Thank you! So where's the photo??? :)

Daren - Right now, I'd say 30%. However, I'm breaking new ground daily, and my goal is to take it to 50%.

Brien - Great! Craig's List is another good spot to go to. Thanks!

Clark - I just started tagging my own name. I plan to continue doing so. My intent is that when a prospect wants to know more about me before working with me, they will be able to google me and find plenty of info. Tags increase your visibility and you want to use the right ones. For example, if you specialize on ocean front properties, I would be tagging "ocean frontage" or something similar often.

Simone - I am ear to ear! OK, when looking for those URL's, be sure to view your page from the viewer's perspective. For example, in active rain, click on the view my blog tab. If it still doesn't look right, log out, or use someone elses computer to get the URL. You can also delete a lot of the extranneous info, and end up with something like www.timwhiteblog.com

Christine - Today, I promise! Twitter blog coming up!

Mary - Right back atcha! Love the hat, by the way!

Charles - I sleep maybe six hours a day, max. Old Marine Corps habits die hard...

Patsy & Emelyn - Thanks for focusing on the fun part! That should have been Step One, huh?

Roland - Copy your link and share it on your FB page. It will take less than a minute. If you really want it do it instantly, you can set your blog to post to Twitter, and you can set Twitter to post to your FB status automatically. This tends to annoy some people, however, since if you Tweet a lot, you status then changes every couple of minutes. Use with caution, but it does work.

Amy - LMAO, I love the Darth Vader story! The Force is strong with you. I am so smiling, you have no idea. I'll probably end up with laugh wrinkles, but so what? Thanks for the service comments as well, and hats off to YOU, for being a military spouse/daughter. I know firsthand how hard it is on the families, as well.

Tom & Harrison - Glad I'm not the only one! Just remind the wives that they can laugh all the way to the bank when the leads come pouring in and we're selling like crazy!

Smiley Face Chris & Stephanie - Thanks for the subscription! I did, of course, reciprocate, by subscribing as well, before I started replying to all these comments! I read some of your blogs while I was there, and I instantly saw that I can learn a lot from you guys!

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