Social Media Planning For Bloggers: Maximize Your Productive Time On Platforms

I get it; social media is addicting. While social media is an important part of any blog & blogger’s day, it can easily create a time warp.  Can you relate?  You get started with nothing but productivity in mind…then 3 hours later you find yourself having a deep conversation on Facebook with a cousin-in-law of someone you went to middle school with.  You need a social media blog planner. Seriously, I couldn’t truthfully tell you how many times I’ve looked up from my phone to realize I’ve spent (a lot) more time on Instagram than the quick check I had planned, or got sucked into Facebook threads that are irrelevant to my end goal.

When I attended the Elite Blogging Academy ACTIVATE Conference I learned the eye opening difference between productive time and busy time.  Most of us, myself included, are guilty of being SUPER busy….not not productive.  I’ve learned from long time bloggers (ones that make well over $50-100k a month) that they limit their social media time to 15 minutes a day!  WAIT, whaaa…15 minutes a day!?  Yes, you read that right.  If this is a HUGE wake up call to you (as it was me) you should keep reading!

While social media is an incredibly rewarding avenue for bloggers & business owners, and has become essential to gaining and keeping blog traffic, it also has its downfalls. If you’re guilty of falling into the black hole that social media can be, here are a few proven tips to help you maximize the time you spend on social media.

Disclosure: Some links in this post may be affiliate links.

• Focus on what’s relevant & set time limits for yourself 

If you’re hoping to grow your blog through social media, it’s important to stick to your chosen topic(s). Meaning, even if those dog skateboarding videos are adorable, unless your blog is about dog training, it’s likely not going to help you spread the word about your blog. Follow influencers and other important sources for your topic and focus on those; these are the people (and potential blog readers) that matter!

Of course there will be “down” time when your browsing social media for your own entertainment (guilty…who doesn’t love a good kitten video?), but ensure that when your focus is meant to be on building your business that you’re sticking to business.

The quick “checks” of your social media accounts, as we all know, add up throughout the day. Time is money.  The beauty of blogging and online income is the ability to earn passive income.  If your spending a ridiculous amount of “non-productive busy” time on social media you are no longer making, what I consider, passive income. Set some “no social” times, whether that’s when you’re hanging out with your family, at dinner with your friends, or when you’re working on blog posts.  Not only does that limit distractions when you’re focused on the task at hand, but it also ensures that you’re actively engaged with what’s going on around you.

• Learn to love a social media scheduler

Automated Facebook scheduler was a game changer for my own Facebook Group, Blogger Hangout.  It provided me a way to schedule my posts and interaction with the group on Sunday for the entire week up front.  Social Media, especially Facebook Groups, can be a time sponge.  If you take advantage of automated schedulers you can get all your posts scheduled in an hour’s time (I do mine Sunday night for the week) AND it keeps the temptation of falling into the “hole” at bay.

HootSuite, Buffer, IFTTT, SocialOomph, SocialFlow and Tweetdeck are rockstar ways to make it appear that you’re online all the time, even when you’re not. You can pop on once a day to answer replies personally and schedule posts in advance. Now you can really stick to those off limit times knowing that your social media outlets are taking care of themselves.

Related reading:

I’m quitting my $80k+ career for a life of happiness
The heartbreak & happiness of blog un-subscribers
1st quarter blog traffic, income & social media report
20,000 page views in 3 months! Let’s talk blog traffic! 

• Create a hierarchy of time sucking activities 

What’s the best way to maximize your time doing anything? Prioritize the important things. The same is true of social media. You should create a hierarchy of most important to not important.

These might vary for each blogger’s traffic experience.  For example, if you use Google Analytics to determine Facebook and Pinterest are your biggest traffic leads, then spend the majority of your time interacting and posting on these social media platforms.   Then your next most important thing might be to read and respond to blog comments and Facebook thread responses.  When you only allow yourself 15-30 minutes to spend on social media in a day, you then know which things you should prioritize and which you can ditch (goodbye, Farmville).

Related reading:

Are you still on the fence about starting a money making blog?  Start here!
Still asking yourself “how do bloggers make money online?”

What’s your tip for staying on track with social media? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Social Planning! 

Serena