How To Keep Your Social Media Running When You’re Running Short On Time

“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity;
From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Albert Einstein

Over the past few weeks I found
myself thrown into two “emergency” projects which absolutely needed to get
done. Unfortunately, they needed to get done on top of my regular duties of
running social media accounts. These situations happen, and you can either get upset
about it or get smart about it. It was time to find out how well our social media
content machine performed under pressure. Here are some rules I followed to
keep things running, I hope they will help you as well.

No goal left behind
After attention shifted to other
projects, it was easy to lose focus on what’s important. Every morning I took
5-10 minutes to write down key goals relating to our social media accounts that
needed to be done that day. I saved time and achieved laser-focus by having a
clear-cut game plan ready to execute during the short window of available time. 

3 goals To rid my mind of
clutter, I would ask myself, “what are the three things I absolutely have to
get done today in social media?”   I knew that it was highly unlikely that in the
middle of chaos I would suddenly ascend as an efficiency robot and crank out
the 10 goals I was originally thinking of writing down. Keeping the number of goals
low increased the probability that they would get done, and kept me focused on
the big picture.

Specific and quantifiable -Having a vague goal is worse than
having no goal. I use specific quantifiable goals to keep myself accountable
and realistic on what I can accomplish during the day. Examples:

Write a blog // Write a 400 word blog on the topic of Facebook Ads by 3pm 

Engage the social media community //Engage with at least 5 people through
Twitter

Post awesome content //Post 3 articles on topics of retail marketing

Keep goals visible-I usually
write out my goals by hand on a piece of paper and pin it to the wall where I
can easily see them at all times. In the middle of big projects and tight
deadlines, work areas tend to get cluttered, and time will be wasted having to
go through all of the files just to find a piece of paper.

Heavy lifting first
A common practice in social media is to do most of the heavy lifting in the
morning or beginning of the week and post supplemental materials afterwards.  By using Tweet Deck (alternative HootSuite) and Buffer, I scheduled core updates throughout the day.  A steady stream of pre-scheduled content
saved me the time and the worry of having to search for content during the day.
All I had to do was check for replies and post anything interesting I saw at a
glance.  Whether it’s scheduling posts or
writing a blog, make sure to knock it out of the park early in the day so it doesn’t
weigh on your mind while you’re dealing with your emergency projects.


Emergency Bank
A good thing to have at all times is an emergency bank of content to post.
On top of Google alerts, I have bookmarks set up for each client with
subfolders. One of the subfolders is titled “Quick Hits”, which contains 3
bloggers I know will have articles I look for and post frequently.  Having 3-5 pieces of content to post can keep
the heat off your back long enough to deal with the emergency. I keep unfinished
blogs, links, pictures, and ideas in an “emergency” folder on my computer for
the same reason. Starting an emergency bank when things are slow will pay huge
dividends when things get hectic. Do it today.

Closing thoughts
In the face of adversity, it is important to stay calm and stick to your guns.  Remember that your coworkers are some of the
best resources so don’t be afraid to tag one of them and
ask for help if possible. Emergency projects are challenging to deal with, but give
an opportunity to innovate under pressure and fix the holes in your social
media routine. This is what works for me. What helps you weather the storms
that interrupt your daily routine?

Dmitri Pivtorak,
riding the social media fire truck