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Managing Your Time While Managing Your Social Media

Thanks to Katie Mercado, I had the opportunity to give a presentation on time management and social media at today’s 33rd Annual PRSA Maryland Chesapeake Conference.   I was actually a little surprised when Katie approached as I feel like there’s so much more that I could be doing, more that I could be reading, and more people that I could be meeting.  I often feel like I’m fighting a constant battle against FOMO and HOLI – there’s always another blog I should be reading or another event I should be attending.

However, as I pulled these slides together, I started to notice that I was a doing a little better job than I thought I was.  While I still feel like there’s always more that I could do, I have also learned to better focus my time on what’s important and what will help me accomplish my goals.  Sure, there’s a lot of interesting events, blogs, and tweets that I’m missing, but I’m also very aware of the opportunity cost of trying to do everything – the lost productivity, the increased sick days, the constant tired feeling, the loss of focus.

The slides below reflect some of what I’ve learned over the last few years as well as some of the tips and tricks that I show my colleagues and clients when they’re first getting started in social media.

Time Management Strategies for Social Media

The key takeaways that I wanted the attendees to walk away were:
  1. Not information overload but filter failure – There’s always been too much information for us to ever possibly consume. The only difference now is that the gatekeepers (book publishers, TV producers, etc.) who used to act as our quality filters are gone.  We have to now set up our own filters.
  2. Self-discipline is needed – All the technical tools in the world won’t help you if you don’t have the self-discipline to turn off Twitter every once in a while.
  3. Social media saves time too – Don’t just think of all the ways social media is going to take up too much, think of ways that social media can save you time too.
  4. Have a goal – Is it helping you accomplish what you want to accomplish?  If not, then why are you doing it?
  5. Spend some time up front and set up your filters – Spend a few hours up front to save TONS of hours later on.
  6. It’s not about the technology – Ultimately, your best filters aren’t technical – they’re human.  They’re the ones sharing the links, blogging about the topics, and speaking about the issues – find people you trust and respect and use them as your filter.
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