Penney Fox
Has this ever happened to you?
Have you ever had those brief moments in your day where you have like 10-20 minutes and you’re not sure what to do?
You know those moments where you have just enough time to do one more small task before you leave to pick up your kids or get on that call with your client. You sit there thinking about what to do and then your hand clicks the mouse into your favorite social site.
And then you say to yourself, “Hey, it’s just 15 minutes. I can take a few minutes to enjoy a little social break.”
Or maybe you spend your day moving from one project to the next and just feeling stressed. And you’re thinking, “Did you just say take a social break? I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to get that Facebook fan page to grow or how I’m going to increase my followers on Twitter.”
So whether you need ideas to grow your social presence or need a list of suggestions to use in those brief moments of time, I pulled together a list of things that you can do during those quick moments of the day to help you to keep growing your business.
My Top 10 Time Management Ideas
Here’s my suggested list of action items you can do in 15 minutes to grow your social presence:
1. Make a list of what social sites are bringing you the most traffic:
To make this list, log into your Google Analytics and click on the links to follow this sequence: Acquisitions – All Traffic – Referrals
You’ll see a list showing which social site is generating the most referral traffic to your website. Each site is linked to a breakdown of the actual posts people clicked on to reach your site.
My top referral source is Pinterest. When I’m in this section, I click on the Pinterest link and it takes me to a breakout of the top pins/images that brought people to my site. To help me better understand what people are interested in, I add my top 10 pins and the number of traffic clicks from those images to my list of my top social sites.
I can also track my traffic from Twitter, my newsletter and all the places where I do guest blog posts but not Facebook. Right now, Facebook is the only program that won’t give me more information other than the number of people who came to my site.
2. Check your top posts in your Facebook fan page:
To access this information, go to the admin panel of your fan page. Look for the tab on the top of your fan page that says Insights and click on that button.
Then start tracking the activity from your Facebook posts. I used a word document but you can set up a spread sheet or just write it out on a piece of paper.
After you’ve logged into your Facebook fan page Insights, review your posts and answer the following questions:
- What were your top 5 posts for the week?
- What time of day were they posted?
- What day of the week were they posted?
- What was the topic or message of these posts?
- Did you add a video, photo or ask a question?
The more you check your Insights, the more you’ll start to see patterns emerge. You’ll start to see what type of content speaks more to your fans and what posts create more engagement with your potential customers.
3. Check what’s going on with your Twitter account:
To see what’s happening with your Twitter account, click into Twitter and click the link to take you to your Notifications section. This is the place where you’ll be able to view your recent activity.
When I log into my Notifications, I usually do these steps:
- Did someone new follow you? Click over to their profile and decided if you want to follow them back. Look through their tweets and retweet a post of theirs or comment on one of their tweets.
- Did someone share your blog post or promote your products? Hit the reply button under their post and thank them for sharing your stuff. I usually add in a personal note to show that I’m not automating these thank you messages.
4. Find new people to follow in Pinterest:
One of the best ways to hep you grow your Pinterest account is to find new people who are posting new content for you to repin on Pinterest. I usually run a search for new people and boards at least once a week.
- Pinterest’s search feature is so easy to use and it’ll help you look for new people, boards and pins. Just type in your company’s key words or use the words you’d use to run a search on Google.
- This search is a huge help to look for more content to add to a board that you just started or want to grow. You’ll be able to find people who have already done the search work and just re-pin several of their pins. And depending on their content, go ahead and follow them or just their board.
5. Update your LinkedIn profile:
Sometimes we get so busy that we forget to add what we’re working on to our LinkedIn profile. I know this one well – it happens to me all the time!
Your LinkedIn profile is super important because if someone runs a Google search of your name, your LinkedIn profile will come up as an option. This may be one of the first places where a potential customer or partner will first learn about you so you want to make sure that your information is up to date.
To update your information, log into your LinkedIn profile, go to the Edit Profile section (you’ll see the edit pencil next to all the sections) and ask yourself these questions:
- Did you recently add in a new product or service? You can add that to your profile under the Project section.
- Did you write a guest post on another blog? Add in the link in the Publications section.
- Have your services changed? Make sure you update that in your Summary section as well as in the Experience section.
6. Find new people in Instagram to follow:
Doing a search for people who do the same work as you as you do is a great way to see how others in your industry are using Instagram. Run a search for your company’s key words in the search feature (that looks like a magnifying glass) and see who comes up.
When I first started using Instagram for my business, I ran a search and found a ton of people to follow when I searched for social media and small business. I also found that when I followed people who were like me, several of them followed me back.
Also make some notes about what hashtags they’re using! I found several of my strongest hashtags from checking out what others who were doing the same type of work as me were using.
7. Check your numbers in your social sites and set goals for each one for the month:
I usually do this at the end of every month so I can track what’s growing and what site needs a little help. And then I add in a goal number for the next month.
If you don’t know where to start or how to set this up, take a look at my Quarterly Check-in post. You’ll get all the steps to set up a quick social site check-in AND I’ve got a few FREE printable worksheets to give you a place to write it all down.
8. Do a mini-brainstorm social session:
Is there one social site that you’ve been meaning to give a little attention to help you grow your followers? Try doing a little brainstorm session.
Start by looking at the top content on that site and make notes about what’s connecting with your fans. Now list 5 ideas that you could do to help you create or find more of the type of content your fans want to see more of.
And since you’re keeping this to 15 minutes, there’s no time to judge your ideas, just keep writing down everything that comes to your mind.
9. Read and comment on one of your favorite blogs:
Take the whole 15 minutes to really read the article (not just scan it) and think about your comment. What could you say in your comment to really add to the conversation?
If you can’t add to the conversation, move on to the next blog post or another blogger’s site. It’s OK if it was something that was posted a couple of weeks or a month ago. The point is to spend some time crafting your comment so that you can contribute the conversation and maybe even start a connection with your favorite blogger.
10. Remember how much you ROCK
Take a moment to think about how far you’ve come, all the cool things you’ve done and make a quick to-do list of what you want to work on next.
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