5-minute Tasks for Social Media Greatness

by Jessica Burko of Reclaimed to You

Those who know me know that I love Twitter and that I feel Facebook is a necessary evil. There, I said it.

Deciding what your relationship will be with social media is one thing, but maintaining and strengthening that relationship is a big commitment. I definitely encourage all of my marketing clients to start a blog, launch a Facebook page, or open a Twitter account, but I clarify that my advice is IF AND ONLY IF they pledge to actually keep the blog/tweets/Facebook updates current, vibrant, and interactive. This is my advice for any social media that a client of mine decides to undertake, and the primary reason for the advice is that if one starts down a social media path and then doesn't follow through it can become a stressful task on the to-do list, and can become more trouble than it's worth.

So how can you easily maintain a social media presence and actually have the effort work for you? Some great advice from arts marketing maven Alyson B. Stanfield is to spend only 5 minutes per day on social media tasks, and the regularity of the efforts will keep you updated, relevant, invested, and will also keep you out of the black hole that sometimes becomes social networking. Stanfield recently sent a list of "5-Minute Social Media Tasks" to her email subscriber list. Her advice: "The reasons for keeping such a list nearby are to remind you of little tasks that can have a big impact and to help you stay on task and not get sidetracked on these sites. Remember, just spend 5 minutes on these social media tasks, and then get back to work. You have bigger, more important things to accomplish."

• Upload a new image to your Facebook fan page and respond to comments on your page.

• Comment on Facebook pages where you want to be noticed (e.g. galleries, niche markets, and museums). Remember to comment as your page on other pages.

• If you haven’t switched over to the new timeline format on Facebook, read how: http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/facebook-timeline-how-to . It’s quick and painless, and it won’t be an option in the future, so you might as well join the party.

• Add an event or two to your timeline on Facebook – especially if it’s about your art.

• Share someone else’s blog post or article on Google+.

• Leave an insightful comment on someone else’s blog.

• Respond to comments on your blog.

• Recommend someone on LinkedIn and leave a recommendation on a business page on Facebook.

• Send a current Twitter update and retweet two others from your Twitter stream.

• Post-date three tweets using your favorite scheduling service, like HootSuite or TweetDeck.

• Review your profile on one of your social media sites. Can you freshen it up by adding a colorful word or deleting a ho-hum one?

• Streamline the photo albums on your Facebook fan page. Do the album categories make sense? Is it time to delete some of the images?

And don't forget Pintrest and all the other social networking outlets out there. Make the commitment to these short tasks in 2012 and watch your online presence blossom.