The most common question that I am asked by new clients in social media marketing is “Are there strategies I can use to reap the benefits of social networking without having to spend a lot of time online?” This is a common theme for anyone new to social media marketing. Here are seven tips to help you get the most out of your time

– It’s easy to start on Twitter, then go to a link and find yourself 2 hours later wondering where you went. Set a timer for how long you will be online, and make sure to stop after 5 minutes. 02001010Tip #2 Get Organized This seems like a simple tip, but I am amazed at how many people spend their time searching the URLs that they are using all the time. To ensure that all of your social media accounts are located in the same place, create a folder with your favorite sites. Place them in order of importance. Also, I have an Excel spreadsheet with URLs and user names. This allows me to quickly locate what password I require. If I forget the information, I can simply use the shortcut keys windows key/D and go to my desktop to copy it and paste it. Tip 3: Create a separate email address

to receive social media notifications. This will ensure that your email is not cluttered with business emails. It can become overwhelming if you don’t do what it is supposed to. You can easily get distracted from what you are supposed to be doing. Tip #4: Keep everything that you require10 together to sign up for a new website. My desktop has a folder that contains everything I need for joining a social network site. My bio is pre-written in 3 different formats: 140 characters, 100 words and 250 words. My profile photo and HTML code for the Social Networking buttons can be found on a number of ning websites. On a word document, I have all the URLs for my websites. too.

Tip #4 Use a desktop application for Twitter TweetDeck is my favorite because I can set up columns to allow me to DM, reply to @, search terms, or select people to follow. From one spot, I can view profiles and follow, unfollow, shorten URLs, and post tweets to Facebook. Twirl and PeopleBrowsr are just a few of the options. Ask on Twitter for recommendations.

Type #6 Tweetlater can be used to set up certain tweets you wish to repeat. To send an automated follow message to your new followers, you can add a note to that effect. It can be used to follow back people, but I prefer at least to see their bio and picture before following them. Tweepler allows me to see my new followers once a day in a feed that includes a photo, bio and a link to go to their website.

Tip 7 Repurpose your information Content drives social media. It can be daunting at first to keep all of your sites fed. Most likely, you have more content on your computer than you think. You can search through these files and make some tweaks in order to turn them into blog posts or articles. Because different learning styles can lead to different information, you could also use different medias. You can also make this video to reach people not yet on my site.