Being Productive and Effective Requires a Plan

I spend a great deal of time talking about the marvelous opportunities associated with social media.  Following my talks, I always get one standard question: “How much time do I have to spend?”   My standard answer is that it really depends upon your strategy and your commitment.  I came cross two blogs in the past week which were starkly similar in some parts of their message.  In his blog, “The Trinity of Social Media“, Steven Groves references the word “strategy” more than any other word in the blog.  The most important take away from Steven’s blog is that there are three tools that are critical to your social program.  How you use or link these tools is entirely dependent upon your “strategy.”  Bottom line, what you do is determined by your strategy.  This a good blog to read for some of his other good points, as well.

The other insight comes from one of my favorite blogsters, Kyle Lacy.  In his blog, “Three Steps to Being Productive“, he talks about managing your time to make your social media program effective.  If you have read any of Kyle’s previous blogs he has a great perspective on managing the process, the strategy, and the opportunities of social media.  In this blog he shares that he commits “an hour each day to information sharing (writing blogs, commenting on blogs, perusing my Google Reader) and an hour a day to using my other networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Smaller Indiana).”  This is not to say that you have to spend two hours a day.  (For the record, I also spend two hours a day.)  What he is saying is that to accomplish his goals for his social med program, he manages to and commits to a designated amount of time to reach those goals.

Both blogs reflect the need for you to define your vision and goals–your strategy and your commitment–for a social media program.  The business world demands too much of our time and our energy for us to spend it simply trying to do things.  To be successful in anything requires a vision, a mission, a goal, and a commitment.  Before simply jumping into the social media pool have a plan, develop a strategy.  And, if you need help, assisting business owners in developing a social media strategy is something that I do quite well.  Make it happen!!