By far the question I’m asked most in regard to social media is how do I make time for it. There’s SO much to do in a day – as a business owner, how do you find the time to tweet or Facebook or do any of the other social actions you MUST do to find your customers? My advice is typically two-fold.
- Schedule social media the same way you schedule other tasks.
- Stop wasting time doing shit that doesn’t matter.
If you want to be successful in social media, you need to take it seriously. The same way you schedule other work tasks – answering email, meetings with staff, work projects – to make it fit in your day. If you didn’t schedule in that meeting with your business partner, you’d probably find you didn’t “have time” for that either at the end of the week.
However, you can also save and CREATE time by not wasting it engaging in pointless social media. There are certain types of tweets and updates that, as marketers, we no longer need to write. And by NOT writing them you’ll not only increase your influence by being less of a social media douche, you’ll also free up time in your day to engage in ways that matter. It’s like magic.
Below are 10 tweets you can save your fingers (and your audience) from having to create.
1. The “Good Morning” Tweet
Waking up to see “Good Morning” or “Good Morning, Twtter” trending every day makes me seriously fear for us as humans. Why are you doing this? No, I want you to ask yourself. Why on Earth do you feel the need to say good morning to Twitter? STOP! While we’re at it, you also do not need to say goodnight to Twitter. Twitter will sleep just fine even if you’re not there to tuck it in.
2. The Inspirational Quote Tweet
One way to show how not deep and poignant you are is to tweet/share quotes that are intended to make you look deep and poignant. If you can’t think of something clever or motivational to tweet all by yourself, then save your tweet for when you can. Or maybe you can get Ashton to tweet from your account since he’s gone and outsourced his. At least he outsourced his account to people who are alive. You outsourced yours to Shakespeare.
3. The Vague Hustlin’ Tweet
You’ve seen them.
“Super awesome product to announce soon. Sorry, can’t share details yet! HAHA! #hustlin”
Hey, jerk, if you can’t talk about it, don’t tweet about it. It’s that simple. Because now you’re just show-boating and annoying all of us. Not surprisingly, the tech space is a huge offender of this one.
4. RTing Content You Know Everyone’s Already Seen
Maybe you’re just doing it in some vain attempt to increase your Klout score but Mashable doesn’t need you to RT their iPhone release news the same way Chris Brogan doesn’t need you to RT his post on human business. If they wrote it, people are probably going to find it on their own. Because they follow these guys and because everyone ELSE on the Internet is going to RT it first. If Chris has an exceptionally awesome (like even more awesome than usual), sure, share it. But instead of repeating the echo chamber all the time, find worthy content that’s NOT being RT’d or shared to death. Your audience will appreciate it more.
5. The Name-Dropper Tweet
Every time you tweet that you’re having dinner with Scott Stratten, Brian Solis, Missy Ward, John Jantsch and [Insert Someone Else] AT THE SAME TIME you make the whole Internet roll their collective eyes at you. Because if you were really that cool, you wouldn’t feel the need to out your dinner party to the whole world. You’d just eat and enjoy their company. Now we see how inadequate you feel that you needed to point it out. And we all feel sorry for you.
6. The Constant “I HAVE THE BEST WIFE/HUSBAND/SIGNIFICANT OTHER” Tweet
Hey, I am super stoked for you that you’re in a relationship. Congrats. That’s awesome. But…not one really cares. I mean, we care in that “you’re a good person and we want you to be happy” way, but not in the way that we need (or want) to be reminded of your relationship 24/7. The louder you yell about it, the more we think you need a shrink more than a RT. Because, people who are actually happy compared to those who pretend to be SO HAPPY don’t feel the need to tweet about. They just kind of are. Focus on the value people are coming to you for, not your new girlfriend of 20 seconds.
7. Bandwagon Tweets
Someone popular said something dumb and now the Internet has come together to CALL THEM OUT and let everyone know how WRONG they were about that thing. POWER OF THE PEOPLE! Yeah…it’s just another day on the Internet so maybe just sit out on this one? Why be one more voice in the noise? If you’re having a hard time fitting social media into your day, you definitely don’t need to be wasting time in bandwagon flame wars. Go talk to a potential customer. The Internet will flog their A-lister all on their own.
8. The Holy Passive Aggressive Tweet
We’ve all been there. We’ve all been irked by someone we know and felt the burning hot urge to share our frustrations with the world. It’s the American way, after all – we’re not happy until everyone around us is miserable. However…maybe keep it yourself. Think of what you could accomplish if you saved all that passive aggressive tweet energy and focused it on something more productive! Like, maybe a new blog post. Or a cool contest. Or rescuing a kitten from a high tree. The possibilities are endless.
9. The “Read My Latest Blog Post!” Tweet
Sure, you should let people know you have a new post out and maybe they’d like to mosy on over and read it, but don’t be a tool. Don’t scream it. Don’t tweet it 10 days in one day. Don’t act like you’ve just cured cancer. Just let people know it exists, and then get out of the way.
10. The “I Love Mondays” Tweet
Just shut up, okay? Monday’s hard enough.
If you don’t have time for social media, isn’t best to at least use the time you do have wisely?
