Loading ...Social Media, Recruiting, your job, friends/family…..how do you find time for everything?
I have to tell you, I’m overwhelmed. I’m doing all I can to keep up with Twitter, Facebook, my blog, my daily tasks at work, my friends and family, exercizing, my golf game (which sucks right now), etc. It really is getting difficult to find time for everything. I’m balancing on the tight rope of being not connected enough with my job and social networks, to being too connected to the social networks and job and not connected to my friends and family. And social media/networking is bumping into family time. So, I need to prioritize. But sheesh, how? I’ll tell you how I’ve managed, but I’d like to hear your story.
Twitter/Hootsuite
I’ll start by saying I think Twitter is great. I was a skeptic, but I’ve learned a ton from the people I’m following, and I’ve really worked hard to share valuable information to the people that keep an eye on me. Problem is, I can’t keep an eye on Twitter all day, it distracts me too much that it takes aways from the tasks I have on my plate at work. Granted, Twitter relates to work. But, it’s a small part and I have more important tasks to get accomplished most of the time. I know Twitter is a two way street, you have to interact with your tweeples. But how can you do that consistently when you’re following hundreds? It’s tough. I’m slowly using Twitter less. I have to, and I think I’ve gotten less and less out of it as time has gone by. I think it’s true as most things, you get out of it what you put in. The less you put in, the less you get out.
But in order to at least try and keep up with Twitter, I researched a lot of 3rd party apps to help me try and automate some of my tasks……some. I have my personal twitter account, and one for the company I work for so I needed an app that allows for multiple accounts. After a bunch of research, I found Hootsuite. At this point, it’s great….that can obviously change but it has some really cool features (it just needs an iPhone app). I’m still in the infancy for that app and for the corporate twitter page. But scheduling tweets, an RSS feed function, groups (with 2.0 release), and so many other features, it’s awesome. So for an hour in the early morning before I get to work, or for a bit late at night, I go through my google reader and read blogs and sites with relevant information for my industry. If I find some posts/stories that are worthwhile, I schedule those tweets throughout the day and week. So I’m kind of done with my sharing. I also use that time to see what the people I’m following are up to and try and RT anything that I’ve read and enjoy and think would benefit the people following me. I’m VERY picky who I follow, make sure you’re going to get something from following them. Since I have been picky, I’ve really learned a ton….I’m following some really smart people and not getting bogged down by all the crap out there. So by scheduling these tweets, it leaves me more time to interact with my tweeples throughout the day.
As mentioned above, there’s a neat feature of Hootsuite, it basically has twitterfeed (RSS) functionality built right in. Our corporate site is based on Wordpress, so everything is an RSS feed. New blog posts, new news and events, and new job opportunities are all fed automatically into the corporate Twitter page (and some on my personal page). Again, this leaves me more time to interact, which I’ll admit hasn’t been my strong suit. I also have this set up for my personal blog, whenever I post something new, it posts into my personal Twitter account.
Digsby
I use Digsby for my chat client and for “popping up” recent tweets, Facebook updates, and LinkedIn updates. If something pops up that I’m interested in, I want to jump on it right away, and a little box that pops up in the lower corner of my laptop is much better than sitting on Twitter/Hootsuite all day. It’s a solid tool, but I use it mostly for my chat client (which works great).
Blogging
Speaking of blogging, I suck at it. I’m still not sure why I started a blog, but I’m trying (so you have to at least give that to me). This has been tough to find time to do, because this is not done on work hours as well. So, this means personal/family time has to suffer. If you have kids, you know how crazy things are when you get home from work. It’s great, I love it. But, there’s no way anything productive is going to happen when they’re awake. The only reading I’m doing is frickin’ Dora the Explorer books. So, I find an hour every so often after my kids are sleeping and I try and put something semi-intelligent on my blog. I then refine it the next night. I typically try and throw ideas and post topics out out on Wordpress whenever I think of something, and then build on those ideas slowly. Wordpress has a solid iPhone app that lets me do that when I’m on the go, so I don’t forget. My rule on my blog is no more than 1 post per week, no less than 1 per month. So far I haven’t lived up to that, but we have a newborn at home so give me a break.
I use Facebook a little differently, but I’m still open for suggestion here. I don’t have all my tweets posted automatically to Facebook. The friends that follow me are typically closer than my tweeples. So I post select posts/stories to my news feed and update my status a bit more “personal”. I also have a corporate fan page setup, that I have mostly automated with RSS-Connect, but I do post pictures and some other odds and ends manually. I don’t spend a ton of time on Facebook during work time, it’s more for the later hours after my daughter goes to bed. I think it’s an extremely under-rated recruiting tool, and much more effective than Twitter.
LinkedIn has apps now, so my profile gets updated with new blog posts whenever I post something new. Hootsuite also has Ping.fm integration, so I set up a trigger to update my LinkedIn status from Hootsuite. Since it does have Ping.fm integration, you can update all the available accounts with Ping…which is a lot. But for me, I want Facebook to stay different and Friendfeed is already linked up with Twitter anyways (for now).
OK, holy crap. That seems complex. I’d really like to know how others handle the craziness of Twitter and other social networks. What applications are used the most, how much time do you really devote to Twitter and Facebook? I’ve talked to a few professionals out there, but want to hear from more. Please pass this on, let’s see how everyone is accomplishing this.
About The Author
Comments