I hear this all the time from people who are concerned about Social Networking as a marketing vehicle - "you can just waste so much time with Facebook."
To me, that is a clear signal of someone who is not managing their use of that incredibly powerful referral generation tool effectively. Yes, we can all get sucked in and spend inordinate amounts of time viewing photos, and so on. But isn't that true of the web in general? How about email? How about the phone? Basically all technology tools that give you access to content and communication have the potential to be a time suck.
The other way to look at Facebook is as a tool that allows you to save time doing two things:
a) Very quickly and efficiently stay in touch with folks in your existing network - Facebook provides you with countless opportunities to reach out and stay top of mind (photos to comment on, congratulations to offer, comments to react to and so on) and the beauty is you don't have to have a 15 minute phone conversation every time to do that. You can engage in seconds with a quick post. No I'm not suggesting you shouldn't spend time on the phone and in good old fashioned live conversation. I'm just suggesting that you can be more focused about who you do that with because now you can use FB to carry the load when it comes to doing just enough to stay top of mind.
b) Easily reaching out to new prospects (the best kind...friends of friends) for the first time - Think of the time you spend building your network offline. You meet people at parties, open houses, the grocery store. You get to know them, you slowly build a relationship over time. And eventually if they're thinking of selling or buying they reach out to you or you get lucky. Again, I'm not saying there's any substitute for that. But how much wider can you cast your net now with just 30 minutes engaging with friends of friends on Facebook? That ease of meeting new people is part of what has led to such explosive growth on the platform.
Here are three specific tips for you to help manage your time efficiently and effectively on Facebook:
Tip #1: Put yourself on a program. Make this a daily regimen. Here's my suggested one, improve on it and make it your own.
- Carve out 30 minutes for FB referrals sphere building same time every day
- 10 minutes creating 1-2 engaging posts that are likely to get "liked", commented on or shared by your friends (see my post about EdgeRank for why this is important)
- 10 minutes responding to any comments or messages you've gotten that could even tangentially translate into business (see my final point)
- 10 minutes combing through your friends walls to find conversations, photos, etc (with their friends) where you can interject and get seen in a compelling way
- NOTE: This is very different from personal Facebook consumption. Why? Because it's purpose driven. You are doing these things with an objective in mind to engage as a trusted expert. This is not your time to play on Facebook. Are the lines blurry? Sure. But deep in your heart, you know the difference.
Tip #2: Prepare. Keep your eyes open and be thinking a little bit all the time about content that you can use to create engagement during your FB referral sphere session. Having these questions, blog posts, news articles, etc tee'd up will allow you to shift some of that 10 minutes to engaging with folks.
Tip #3: Use tools to help. There are tools out there that will help you be more efficient with your use of Facebook (hint - Roost has one, and will be making a big announcement in the next couple of weeks about how it's going to help you be even more efficient with your time).
Share your thoughts. What works and doesn't work for you in being efficient on Facebook?
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