Ways to Make Social Media Time Efficient During Your Work Day

Posted by Amanda Walsh

Jon Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing.com recently wrote a post regarding pre-planned social media activity. For example, does planning your Tweets on Twitter take away from the social spontaneity of the site? I don't think so. If effectively planned with the help of some of Jantsch's suggestions, social media can be a great addition to your company’s PR plan.

I also agree that in today's fast-paced world many social media enthusiasts want to engage and participate in social media but struggle to find the time. According to Jantsch, automation should be a supplement to your social media activity but should not take the place of genuine and spontaneous Tweets.

Below are some effective tools that will allow business owners to successfully and easily engage consumers through social media without a lot of time from Jon Jantsch.

• TweetLater or EasyTweets are two sites Jantsch uses frequently. Each can automatically send a welcome and thank you message to every new follower to his Twitter account. These tools should not be abused by sending spam messages but instead used as a way to greet a new follower and get the networking process started.
• Twitter Tools is helpful for those using WordPress as a blog provider. This plug-in publishes blog updates to your Twitter account. This should not be the only way you update your Twitter account but is a way to keep Tweets fresh and new.
• The same application is available for Facebook. The Twitter application updates Facebook with the links to the updated content on your blog. Another application on Facebook, called the Feedheads application, allows for the posting of RSS feeds from Google Reader or Bloglines to your Facebook account.
• TweetDeck is an application downloaded on your desktop that combines Twitter's direct messages, replies and searches on one screen.

Hopefully these suggestions will help you and your company save time while still successfully engaging in some exciting social media Web sites!