Rachel Weeks, ‘16
Social media is a powerful tool for interacting with others, building your personal brand, and expanding your professional network. But between classes, homework, and on-campus activities, it can be hard to even think about putting in the time for using social media professionally. Despite that, on average, American adults spend more than three hours a day on social media. We’re online; we’re just not using that time effectively. Simply put, we don’t have that kind of time to waste. Here are a few tips for saving time with social media.
Scheduling is Key
One of the biggest time-wasters on social media is switching back and forth between the various social media sites that are available to us. Moving from Facebook, to Twitter, to Instagram, to LinkedIn and back to the beginning isn’t an efficient use of our time. Thankfully, a lot of people have figured that out. By using a management system like Hootsuite or Buffer, both of which put all of your social media sites in one place and let you schedule posts in advance, you can increase your content output without wasting time by jumping from one site to the next. By having all of your sites in one place, you’ll have a much better picture of what your online presence looks like as well.
Budget Time and Use it Wisely
Another way to cut down on the time you spend on social media is to budget time specifically for that purpose. A common way of wasting time that’s harder to notice is the time you spend jumping around looking at content after content. With all of the hashtags, links, and articles that lead from one to another, it’s easy to spend a lot of time looking at things without finding anything you actually want to share. By limiting yourself to a specific amount of time on social media, you’ll not only save time, but also find better content than you would by hopping from article to article. Set a specific amount of time for Facebook, Twitter, and all your other sites. This time can be as little as thirty minutes total, or as much as an hour. Whatever amount of time you choose, set limits and stick to them.
Be Consistent
Perhaps one of the most overlooked and most helpful timesaving strategies for using social media is using it with consistency. The best way to build your online presence, personal brand, and networking skills is by using social media on a regular basis. As mentioned above, this doesn’t mean spending all day every day online, it just means dedicating a regular amount of time every week to interacting on social media. Consistency with social media also means finding what you like to post and share, and continuing with that to reinforce your online presence, professional network, and personal brand. When you find your niche of what you like to post that you feel reflects who you are, consistency becomes much easier.
Takeaways
Social media is an important tool for establishing your online presence personally and professionally. The most important thing is to make sure that you are using social media instead of the other way around. Social media should be a tool for making your professional life easier, not harder. These tips should help make sure you’re in control of the time you use, what you post, and how that reflects who you are.
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