A Day in the Life of a Social Media Marketer

 How do you spend your day on social media?

Yes,  I run my own business, I implement strategies for clients, I speak at events, run webinars once a month, and I write most of the blogs you see on Social Strand and people always ask me, how do you do it all?  Do you sleep?  I will admit that there are days where I can spend all day on Twitter, just because I love it.  But on most days and weeks I have a set schedule that I try to adhere to otherwise I could wind up wasting a lot of time on social media and not get any work done.  I thought you might benefit in knowing how I spend my day so you can see how I manage my time on social media networks.

Here’s my “schedule”:

Sunday: I write

Even God got a day off, but for me, on Sundays I write.  I write 5-10 blog posts depending on my mood and rhythm.  If the pen is flowing, then I’ll write more.  But if I’m stuck or feel like I’m not adding any value then I’ll write the minimum to get me through.  I schedule these blog posts for the next 1-2 weeks out and only modify if there is breaking news.

I also schedule my #smtip tweets and occasionally a Facebook post or Google Plus post using the Chrome extension Do Share.

Monday – Thursday: I do maintenance

• Every morning I spend 10-2o minutes going through email, and responding to social media or blog comments while drinking my morning coffee or tea.
• I spend 2 minutes promoting my blog post across the different social platforms and any new exclusive content in my newsletter.  (Yes, there are some things that only go in the newsletter and never see the light of day on this blog because they are either too short for a blog post or because I just feel like sharing it with the people I know who are going to read it).
• I spend 30-60 minutes reading other people’s posts, bookmarking for later,  and commenting where applicable.   I also usually include my top 3-5 things that I’ve read and found interesting in my bi-weekly newsletter too).
• I spend 10-15 minutes on Twitter responding to tweets and following people back.  The only exception is when something is liked or favorited a lot, such as my infographic post from Social Media Today recently.
• The rest of my day is spent working for clients, testing out new tools or learning new things.  For example, this week I had to teach myself Photoshop.  I’m well versed in Illustrator, but Photoshop has always been kind of on the outskirts when it came to graphics, until this week.  I’m not an expert, but after spending a good 20-30 hours with it, I feel like I know it well enough and more practice will only make me better.
• Every other Wednesday or Thursday night I write the Social Strand Media newsletter where I give a sneak peak into the following week’s blogs, an exclusive tip/trick, and information about upcoming webinars.  The newsletter goes out every other Friday.  If you are on Gmail, they are probably in your Promotions folder.

Friday: Catch up

Fridays are my day where I try to catch up on Social Strand stuff.  Promoting my own business, invoicing, networking, lunches, coffee, writing a chapter for my book, and those sorts of things are what mostly consume my Fridays.

Saturday:

Believe it or not, I actually take off on most Saturdays unless attending a conference.  I don’t usually post or tweet and if I do, it’s either real time via my mobile or it’s scheduled.  On rare occasions I create other content like SlideShare decks or infographics.  But in general, I relax and step away from the computer.

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Admittedly, I do optimize my downtime with mobile apps.  Whether I’m waiting in a dentist’s office or at the DMV.  (But I don’t do it while sitting in traffic).  And I have every social network mobile app on my phone.  I approve comments on the Social Strand blog and I share interesting things I’m reading on my phone to my networks while I’m waiting in line for coffee or for an appointment.

But I don’t stress out about stuff.  The world is not going to be saved or end if I don’t post or share something the instant it is available or the instant  I read it, and I am very aware of this fact.  There are far more important things in life than social media, my blog visits, and being the first to document everything or making sure a post or tweet gets out ‘x’ times per week.  For example, I didn’t post this past Friday because of a personal family matter.  And did the world come to an end?  No.  Did you miss me?  Maybe.  Did your day go on without it?  Heck yeah!

I know many of you are social media managers for either yourself or a company/nonprofit you work for, so I’m curious, do you have a weekly regimen?  How do you spend your days?  Do you have any tips for other readers?  Please list them in the comments below as I think others could benefit from everyone’s experiences.

This article was originally posted on socialstrand.com and also appeared on Social Media Today.

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