Managing the Social Media beast: the system is the solution

     One of the hardest challenges for many people just entering the world of social media is to determine how to accomplish the seemingly endless list of new tasks that they find themselves asked to complete.

     Participating fully in social media as a business and marketing strategy requires discipline, automation routines, and a daily commitment. Now, you’ve got to balance that with the fact that much of your activity is about building long-term momentum and deeper networks, and that doesn’t always make the cash register ring today.

     The following is an example of such an automated routine and may provide some insight into how you can best integrate your social media activity into your overall marketing plan.

Twice daily

• Check Twitter via TweetDeck—preset searches for @ducttape, john jantsch, and duct tape marketing—respond as I see fit, follow some @replies that seem appropriate.
• Scan MyBlogLog—I obsess over traffic, but this reveals trending links and stumble surges in real time so I can react if appropriate.
• Respond to comments on my blog.

Daily

• Write a blog post—RSS subs get it, Twitter tools sends to Twitter, Facebook gets it, FriendFeed updates
• Scan Twitter followers for relevant conversations to join
• Scan Google Reader subscriptions to read and stimulate ideas
• Share Google Reader faves—these publish to Facebook and you can subscribe
• FleckTweet any blog pages from my subscriptions that I love—this goes to Twitter
• Bookmark any blog pages from my subscriptions that I love—delicious using Firefox plug-in for right-click posting—this goes to FriendFeed
• Stumble any blog pages from my subscriptions that I love—this goes to Facebook and FriendFeed
• Scan Google Alerts for my name, brand, and products—in Google Reader as RSS feed—respond as appropriate
• Add comments to blogs as appropriate—mostly response types—Google Reader and BackType

Weekly (end)

• Scan LinkedIn Questions from my network and respond when appropriate
• Scan delicious, digg, and mixx popular and select bookmarks for content ideas and trending topics
• Consciously add comments to conversations I want to join—hot topic focused
• Join one Twitter hot trend conversation if appropriate—search.Twitter.com shows these in real time

     Set your system up and work it, day in and day out—whatever that means for you. You will then start to understand the vital role that social media can play in your overall marketing strategy.

     Good luck managing the beast!

     Source: Let’s talk, Social Media for cmall busniess, version two (John Jantsch) e-book