19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day

June 29, 2009 · Comments

Dan Bricklin and Sharel OmerIf you’re looking to establish your online presence, and build relationships, it’s not the kind of project where you show up, build your profiles, friend a few people, and call it good. It’s a lot like tending the farm. Here are seven particular “chores” you could do every day that should prove beneficial to your online interests.

Twitter

  1. Find seven things worth retweeting in your general feed and share.
  2. Reply to at least five things with full responses (not just “thanks”).
  3. Point out a few people that you admire. It shows your mindset, too.
  4. Follow back at least 10 folks. (I use an automated tool, but this is a personal preference. If you want such, I use SocialToo.)
  5. 10 minutes of just polite two-way chit chat goes far.

Facebook

  1. Check in on birthdays on the home page. (Want a secret? Send the birthday wish via Twitter or email. Feels even more deliberate.)
  2. Respond to any comments on your wall.
  3. Post a status message daily, something engaging or interesting.
  4. Comment on at least seven people’s status messages or updates.
  5. Share at least 3 interesting updates that you find.
  6. If you belong to groups or fan pages, leave a new comment or two.

LinkedIn

  1. Accept any invitations that make sense for you to accept.
  2. Enter any recent business cards to invite them to LinkedIn (if you’re growing your network).
  3. Drop into Q&A and see if you can volunteer 2-3 answers.
  4. Provide 1 recommendation every few days for people you can honestly and fully recommend.
  5. Add any relevant slide decks to the Slideshare app there, or books to the Amazon bookshelf.

Blogs

  1. Visit your blog’s comments section and comment back on at least 5 replies.
  2. If you have a few extra minutes, click through to the blogs of the commenters, and read a post or two and comment back.
  3. While on those sites, use a tool like StumbleUpon and promote their good work.
  4. Write the occasional post promoting the good work of a blog in your community.

It’s Not Easy

Maintaining your online presence takes time. If you look at all I’ve listed above, that’s easily more than an hour of work. But it depends what the value of that presence is to you, if you’re doing this as an individual, or to your organization, if you’re doing this on behalf of a brand or product.

We’ve traded dollars for time, in lots of these equations, as we see the return on our advertising spend diminish. It’s your choice whether you want to maintain an active online presence, or if you want to get away with a bit less.

What do you think?

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  • Trisha
    It's seven months after everyone else made a comment. I just wanted to let you know I appreciate the clear, clean outline too.
  • Very timely - this just came up in a search after a meeting to discuss marketing - where we discussed how to use Twitter and Facebook
  • Chris,
    I just discovered this posting through your farmer list...both are great reminders! I star a lot of articles in my reader, but rarely go back to review them. I think this list is actually worthy of a print out. Thanks for being out there and helping lead the way in this new world of online media.
    Cheers,
    Dan
  • I needed to to find a guide line to my social media. I beleive it will payoff ten fold as the web continues to develope,, so thanks Chris!. I love this new site I found www.jirehcreations.magntize.com. Anyone can create one in seconds! Have fun
  • robboyd
    The farmer analogy goes a long way. You have a wonderful way of hitting on the basics that tend to alude many of us who do too much dabbling and not enough 'work.' Building the habits...sow so that you may reap. I came to this post from your post today. Great points that just got added to my daily list in 'things.'
  • Hi Chris, some really useful tips there, thank you!

    Would you mind if I re-posted your 19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day, on my blog http://www.gregfellows.com

    Cheers Greg
  • Good list! Having specific tasks to do is also a good way not to get sucked into the facebook frenzy and waste time. You *can* have a meaningful social networking presence and not get bogged down. A list can help with discipline.
  • Good measured approach. It's all about engagement really.
  • Thank you for the simple list...it helps people like me that get caught up in the weeds.
  • Great post...it really helps to simplify things
  • innkeeperseely
    I appreciate the thoughtful guide to social networking tasks. I have begun to feel that I have moved from completely clueless to mearly clueless. I blog and feed the blog to my business Facebook page but have virtually no fans. Not sure if I am ready to tackle Twitter...
  • carolynbosco
    Totally loving your ideas! :)
  • I've been using most of these techniques on a regular basis, but without a meticulous, checklist feel to it, it often feels like I'm not being effective or that certain things fall through the cracks.

    I'm adding all of these suggestions as tasks for my to-do list so nothing slips through.

    Thanks for sharing them.

    @Pepperfire
  • Hi Chris

    Thanks for the tips... Am going to be using it as a check list :)
    I do some of these things like check for birthdays and wish but hadn't thought of email. Will do that now on.
    Using Facebook, and other social sites I keep tab of birthdays but the important dates and people not to be missed, I add to an excel sheet that has been increasing in length every year.
    From this sheet every month I copy out the events (Birthdays, annivsaries, etc.) and place them on my desktop using Post-it or such software.
    My idea is that its the first thing I see when I switch on my computer and hence rarely miss wishing.

    Thanks again.

    Cheers
    Freya

    PS - There are 20 and not 19. 11 seems to be repeated :) Am not complaining about extra though...
  • great post! actually, social networking sites really do give me headaches and most of the time, they get in my way but I love doing them and if I could, I would do them all day! I'm trying to develop a great time management scheme to help me organize things a little. I'll try your suggestions and hopefully, it will work for me. thanks. =)
  • I mean the good information I troubadour in tweets and facebook (and block website) helped my goodness. Merçi
  • socialbuzzdiva
    I found this information very useful. I was still somewhat confused as to how many times I post and how often.
    Your PDF wash very useful. Thank you
  • Chris, thanks for this - I've expanded on it a bit and created a downloadable PDF checklist that you can print out and actually put checkmarks/ticks against the items as you've completed them - my post is here and there are links to the PDF within: http://www.nikkipilkington.com/blog/2009/07/20/...
  • Great post, thanks so much for sharing. It seems so simple to have it all laid out like that.
  • GREAT entry! I like that you have provided a few things to focus on in the listed social networks and that your steps are easy to follow. These tips will definitely help a person or company brand themselves online, if done correctly. Thanks!

    Make it a GREAT day!
  • I absolutely LOVE this article!!! Fabulous and will be turned into action! Thank you! :) Keep the good advice coming!
  • I like how there are two #11s, so this article should really be: 20 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day
  • I found this list very helpful. As one of the older generation, trying to do catch up in this universe can be a bit overwhelming. I'm committing to stopping my days at 3 PM and putting serious time into this list. Thanks!
  • I liked this article because it gave some clear and simple directions about how to make use of the social networking opportunities out there~without being overwhelming! Intend to try this out for myself. Thanks, Chris.
  • Excellent info, I'm guilty of not keeping up with LinkedIn...
    need to remedy that :)
    Tara
  • DianeCourt
    Thank you Chris. A great post, as percussion commented last week: "suitable for printing up and tacking up on your wall to run through every day."

    This 360° approach to nurturing one's social media landscape and eminently applicable for anyone. Implicit is the gentle reminder that the conversations and relationships we seek to build take work - as they always have. And that the value of our networks derive foremost from the quality of the connections not the mere quantity.

    Again seconding Percussion, adding Measurement as #20 is a point well taken: Tying efforts to outcomes is part of an essential assessment of how we might apply the first 19 better. I see this as measurement not of some transactional ROI, rather as an opportunity to identify the value, personal and professional, of committed engagement.
  • Kent Rygiel
    This sucks. We're all just becoming a bunch of busy bodies, feeding the machine, and we've completely lost any sense of purpose or of "why we are doing this to begin with".
  • Some great suggestions - now if I would just get comments on my blogs that weren't all spam, I'd be set to follow them all! Great ideas about Twitter and Facebook and ones I've actually been doing for a few weeks now, though not quite so organizes or every day. Need to work on time management a bit.
  • Great checklist. Thanks Chris. As someone else stated here, I have been wondering what I needed to do to get my presence noted and it's nice to get confirmation that I am doing some things right and direction on things I need to do additionally.
  • This article is helpful not only to our firm but also serves as a great "get started" tool to share with our clients. Great information per usual. Thanks!
  • This is a manageable, practical list that I have needed for awhile. Breaking it down like this is so simple - and even if I take one day a week to do each, I'll get better in time and be able to incorporate more of it every day. Great stuff here - thank you!
  • yonkon
    best regards on everyone. www.kicknike.com
  • A fw of us spoke at the recent Boston Social Media breakfast about this. Two of the things I pushed were:
    Know Where You Are an Why You're There - don't join a social network and keep it active just for the sake of a presence there. If it doesn't give you anything of value, don't dilute your time or personal brand by being there.
    Tie Up Loose Ends - DO NOT just abandon a profile on a social network. We've all signed up for sites that we've never gone back to. Sometimes we try to sign up for one just to find that we already had a profile there. Talk about diluting your brand! The last thing you want as a job seeker is to have a 9 month old resume on Plaxo because you only focus on LinkedIn. Or a MySpace profile that says your single that your new spouses best friend finds! If a site isn't doing you any good, don't just drop it, delete your profile there.

    For those interested in a service to help you manage your online presence, check out: http://www.gathr.me/video.html. It won't solve the issues I mentioned above but it will "streamline your online life".
  • yonkon
    welcome to my webiste of store online on www.kicknike.com
  • woo, so many comments.
  • Jack
    I'm not convinced that an online presence is equal to dollars, or for that matter better relationships with the people around you.
    I concede its worked for Mr. Brogan, but that's his stock and trade.
  • Chris,

    Thanks for your simple and great for putting the social in social media.

    Best,
    Tony
  • These are fantastice reccomendations -- and I could help but notice each task is really about authentic interaction. That's the thing about social media -- you can't fake the funk for long.
  • While I'll agree with the majority of your suggestions, Chris, isn't using an automated tool kinda defeating the object? Okay, it might build your numbers by automatically following everyone that connects with you, but that's just adding bots and spammy accounts.

    I would have thought this goes against the whole "make it personal" point you're trying to make here?
  • Chris, Thanks for those helpful tips. I can make use a couple of it! Keep up the good work.
  • re "What do you think?"

    I think that I am very, very thankful that there are others [translate like YOU] out there that are "pioneering" this process!

    As a "publishing professional" and longtime marketer, I must be informed, up-to-date, and "cutting edge" to best serve my clients. That said, getting quickly up-to-speed and "functioning in the flow" of the new social media is a MUST not an option.

    I am thrilled by all of the new connection opportunities that social media offers.
    And, I am relieved and quite resoundingly appreciative to be able to learn from the shared and generous wisdom of those that are paving the way...

    And, alas, I have some chores to get busy on! ...about 19 of them!
    "19 Presence Management Chores..."

    Thank you Chris!
  • Milena Regos
    Thank you for the post. It sounds time consuming at first but I believe it's all worth it in the long run.
  • Great suggestions. Know what? I'm going to put many of them to the test - starting today. Will measure and track my numbers, and maybe do a blog post about it at the end of July. Thanks, Chris. I agree absolutely - it's a 'dollars for time' exchange that may or may not make sense for an individual... and needs to be tracked as such.

    All success
    Dr.Mani
  • Hi Chis,
    Yours is one of the few feeds I don't delete without viewing every day. You usually have something relevant and useful to me to say, but this post goes over the top! I've been frenetic trying to figure out a way to manage all this effectively and without losing it. In fact, I even started looking around for a book (hint) on the topic.

    So, thanks for meeting my most dire need when it most needed to be met.

    Mary Anne
  • Thanks for these social media routines :)
  • #11 is huge! I've started accepting LinkedIn invitations that make sense for me to accept. Makes a world of difference.

    I think the inverse is probably true too: don't accept the invitations that don't make sense. (maybe a separate bullet, or post?). Of course, everyone has their own criteria for deciding what makes sense regarding managing their own presence online, but definitely choose based on that criteria once you've defined it.
  • I love your blog. But I must say that several of my co-worker's still need to have a hard copy when I share. Could you add the functionality to print a copy of your posts without the comments below? They could still get the heart of a post without killing so many trees.

    Thanks
  • Thank you very much for an informative article ... As I have just taken over as the Director of Marketing and Communications for this university in the Middle East, which by the way has never done any marketing in their 5 years of existence, I found your suggestions to be right on the money ...

    I am currently constructing our social networking presence, and I will be sure to follow your advice in maintaining and building that presence ... Aside from the sites you mentioned, are there any others you would recommend? I am thinking to concentrate on 5 or 6 sites and would appreciate any recommendations you may have ...

    Gregory Morris
  • Denis
    ho dear, I am sorry, I just noticed the linkedin section!
  • Denis
    hey Chris,

    lovely social schedule! :D

    what about linkedin?
  • Yes,it's not a easy thing to do,the key is persist to do this!
  • Great advice & full of common sense. While the initiatives listed may seem time consuming, the benefits can be enourmous
  • srinin
    PRO = PResence Online? LOL!
    Good practical tips. Yeah, time consuming though! But nothing strained nothing gained, ain't it?
  • srinin
    PRO = PResence Online? LOL!
    Good practical tips. Yeah, time consuming though! But nothing strained nothing gained, ain't it?
  • I personally need to see more step by step article such as this one. I find that there is a lack of practical advice.... I've been through university and have become suspicious of people who give too much theory.
  • I am grateful for the suggestions on social networking. As a small business owner specializing in Women First Time Home Buyers, Residential Leasing & Affordable Lakefront Vacation Property, I am constantly trying to maximize my marketing dollars while effectively staying in front of my market. I have a deep appreciation for social networking and believe it is the way of the future. I take that back it is the way NOW!
  • Wonderful list! And a great post idea for me to talk about on my blog to my readers - with my own twist of course ;)

    However I disagree with the first "gentleman" re: tweeting your own information more than once a day - especially if you don't have the followers that Chris does that will retweet a really terrific post like this one over 600 times.

    My reasoning behind recommending that my readers tweet their blog posts / articles throughout the day is because most followers don't sit at their computers all day long and might only see in once depending on when they sit down. I don't read every single tweet that goes by even of my favs like Chris Brogan. If some of your followers don't get on Twitter until after work they will very likely miss what you tweeted about in the morning,

    But as Chris pointed out - his first item on the list was to find OTHER PEOPLE'S TWEETS that are valuable and RT. I usually do this several times throughout the day.
  • Jay
    Did you actually just write that being friends with people is a chore that should prove beneficial to your online interests?

    It might "feel even more deliberate" if you sent that to each of your friends in a tweet!

    ... you're starting to scare me with this stuff, man.
  • What I love about this post is that everyone and their brother talks about how you need to work hard to manage and improve your online presence (including myself). But they don't say HOW to do it with an exact plan. You just provided this plan. Awesome.
  • Yup yup yup. I always love how you focus on relationships rather than numbers.
  • Does this mean I've been wasting my time of friendster?!?
  • I followed a few steps here, including adding a few answers on LinkedIN, and immediately made a potentially lucrative connection. Thanks!
  • Hey Chris,

    Great tips! When you see everything broken down the way you did here, it definately makes managing your online presence simpler. It also helps you make sure that everything you're doing is relevant, not just mundane and day to day (I really hate when people Twitter or update Facebook with things like "Now I'm eating lunch").

    On that note, I have passed this information onto our SEO/Social Media manager here at VBP. This post is a must-read for anyone running an SEO/SEM program.

    Keep the information coming. And kudos on the great work!

    Tessa Carroll
    VBP OutSourcing
  • gacconsultants
    Excellent chores here Chris... this is manageable, doesn't take but 1 or 1.5 hrs or so to complete the work and is an interactive way to build a presence on multiple platforms. Thanks for sharing : ) think I will share it too...

    Mark
  • goedeb
    I think this is a good "to do" list -- especially for folks who are newer to the concept of using Social Media to boost their professional and/or business presence.
  • Great list of actions: PayItForwardFriday is one way we keep a positive spin on making sure people remember to recommend people.
  • Thanks Chris for another excellent post.
  • Thank you, this is a great place for me to start; I've been "facebooking" for years, but only recently tried using Twitter (more for my business than for personal), and it really can be overwhelming!
  • An excellent list of daily habits for establishing an influential online presence. Now all I need is a list for how to add more hours to the day! I will try my best! Thanks, @TravelSocial
  • Good post. Coming up with a similar list for my own ventures has been on my todo list, but it's good to have your perspective too.
  • Thanks for these 19 points ... I need to get more up to date with LinkedIn.!
  • Don't forget the LinkedIn groups. Participating in professional groups on LinkedIn is a great way to collaborate with people outside of your network and meet new professionals you might want to connect with.

    Laura
  • I really liked the concise rundown here. Good to know that the hour I spend doing this stuff is about average
  • marvinforte
    Very helpful tips. Most of them are common sense but it's a great reminder/checklist for all of us.

    The lesson I have learned is that getting involved takes lots of consistent small tasks. It's easy to get discouraged by the big picture, just spend a few minutes here and there and over time, it adds up.

    I give my clients advice about how to get more involved in Social Media and this list will help me give them better advice. Thanks Chris!
  • You've talked these "e-chores" in the past, Chris, but it's good to see you reminding us what it takes to stay out there, building your brand. You could easily add in several more hours of work if you're link building or reading/comments on other blogs.
  • Chris. Good advice sir. I wrote a piece last week on the value we as bloggers and entrepreneurs place on your community. The bottom line: You get what you give. The more involved and engaged you are within your community audience, they more willing they will be participate in discussions and promote you. Make time for them and they'll be more than happy to sing your praises.
  • I wanted to expand a bit on number 18.

    I also thinking picking a social bookmarking platform and sticking with it has huge benefits. Specifically if you are using the bookmarking site to promote your own material, promote interesting material by others and promote material about you or your brand.

    I make it a point to do all 3 of those things a few times a week in StumbleUpon and I've seen a significant traffic increase since I've fully embraced the service. Using SU.PR (stumbleupon's new short url service) has also made this whole process a lot easier.
  • Nikhil Vaswani
    Thats a lot of sites with a lot of uses! But I guess, soon one will see convergence in social networking sites. Much like the search engines where Google has emerged as the leader. Till that point of time, its up to us to utilize the above sites to the maximum.

    By the way, I am new to LinkedIn and have found this resource quite useful. It is a new book called "How to REALLY use LinkedIn" by networking expert Jan Vermeiren. Check it out, you can find a free lite version at http://www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com/
  • There's a good way for you to make a few dollars: print off little reminder sheets for people to stick on their monitors, just a few inches wide. Have them laminated and sell them for $2 a piece.

    This is all great advice... What it requires from us is a little organization, dedication and effort.

    Thanks!
  • Great list - suitable for printing up and tacking up on your wall to run through every day - or use as a model to tailor it a bit more specifically to your organization's specific needs and goals.

    I do have on addendum, however. The 20th, critical, item this list is missing is measurement. Make an attempt to tie your interactions to outcomes. It's challenging, and like anything else, takes some time - you won't see measurable results with every single tweet, LinkedIn answer, share, or comment - but you might uncover some surprises. And if you can believably tie a deal or sale to a micro-interaction, you'll be a lot more likely to get happy buy-in for further investment in the medium.
  • Thanks Chris for the great lists. Part of my job is maintaining the online presence for my company and not only does this list apply to personal online presence, but it is definitely applicable to maintaining a company presence as well. The trouble I have, is maintaining both.
  • The fallacy regarding @Alex comments is that people have the time to monitor what YOU post all day. That is just silly. There is so much BS about Twitter.

    Let's say you have 2,000 followers. If you make a post you will be lucky if 40 of your followers see that specific post. That is 2% and I have some tests on it.

    Post the same thing again one hour later and the chances of the same people seeing that post are extremely low. After all, do YOU monitor all the posts that come from your followers at all hours of the day? I hope not unless you are a professional Twitter dude or dudette (though there seem to be some of those, too).

    I am cutting back on my Twitter time to maybe 1/2 hour a day (if I can control myself since I love Twitter so much). I am going to expand my Facebook presence greatly and also work on LinkedIn. If I give 1/2 hour to each of those, that leaves the rest of the day for productive thought and actions.

    This is one of my favorite posts ever, Chris. SOLID, printed out.
  • Matt Bogen
    Shouldn't you be engaging with people because you want to? The thought of everybody following this advice in using social media is terrifying.
  • As usual Chris provides great tips for all. I like how you list ways in the various different social media venues.

    Thanks.
  • loopbiz
    Thank you Chris, good ideas. The time commitment is the hardest thing, so each of us has to decide what works for us. Adding useful comments to help someone else is important, as is interacting - adding thought-provoking ideas and occasionally eliciting responses. There is still nothing quite as social as picking up the phone and talking to someone, which you can do if you seem to have a good match with someone.

    Alex, I suggest you do two things 1 - read more carefully, 2 - work on your social skills. Maybe you are tired, but calling this suggestion crap isn't very nice and you could have said almost the same thing with less meanness - and I'm not talking about political correctness here - just think about the effect you have on the person you're talking to and all the other people who read your post or response and what that will mean for people who follow you (or drop you like a hot cake). None of us are perfect, but I see a massive amount of negativity on your own website. I have thick skin, but I can tell you negativity grates on me and I won't be following you any time soon.

    Sorry to rant on your dime, Chris, I liked what you wrote. Each of us must decide what works for us. Process plus social networking is helpful.
  • Great list. I tend to slacken on these, but I definitely see the benefits of a consistent effort. Thanks for penning these down.
  • What a GREAT post. I love all of the ideas and I'm so glad you shared them here.
  • Thanks Chris. Great post to start the week with. I'll be trying my best to keep up with my own list of presence chores, but for those of us in agency land, it's definitely a challenge. Involves evolution in terms of client relationships, team structure and expectations. But it's worth the ride!
  • I'll second all of that whole-heartedly! It can be especially challenging when there are few client-side resources to maintain efforts and those on-board with social media in the first place are limited to the Marketing department. I do not personally recommend having us (the agency) communicate on their behalf as I've seen it end badly in many (very public) cases. I keep working at evolving the collaboration piece of the social media strategy to help alleviate some of the burden without committing to representing them full-time. Work in progress, as I'm sure you know.
  • I find your information invaluable. I am being asked (and paid) to keep up multiple social media accounts for clients. Trying to find valuable content in diverse business areas is a challenge. I am the one who takes the "trust agent" concept to heart. But I am having trouble getting the principals involved in the process. Any ideas?
    Christine
  • 19 excellent tips, Chris. I'm practicing #3 right now. The Katnip Awards. http://bit.ly/LEueW
  • Thanks for this list. It all makes a lot of sense and while I do update my twitter and facebook pages daily, I could definitely do more to send feedback to friends and help promote them as well. I think I tend to focus too much on updating people about what I'm doing while not paying enough attention to what they're doing. Thanks for the "a-ha" moment.
  • This is just what I was looking for. Great way to invest in your online presence. Really need to use the LinkedIn tips.
  • jeffcutler
    Oh, Dan had that same plaid shirt on at the Scott Kirsner event at BU the other night. But he said he owns a whole closet of them, so they might tend to look the same. :-)
  • I love you again, Chris! I am printing this off and putting it over my desk. Sooooo when I get an interruption I wont spin my wheels! I seem to be getting lost in all these things and never finishing my list! And you are right, this is important to me, to our company and our clients.

    NOW go back to your vacation - you have given us something to do.
  • jeffcutler
    Finding the time to do this stuff is actually pretty easy. And it's effective. Good post Chris. Like the birthday tip too. I too often let those go by unacknowledged but I'm the first to make a big deal about my birthday month, birthday week, birthday day and birthday hour.
  • You've got some great suggestions for those who want to take this seriously. Thanks!
  • Chris,

    Oh how we love your suggestions. Always tight!
  • Brandon Mendelson
    As long as you're willing to put the work in, which can take years, it's worth it to do all of these things.

    Although I confess Facebook and Linkedin are not exactly high on my priority list, not my audience.
  • Thanks for this list. While I use Facebook and Twitter, I have not been diligent connecting via LinkedIn. Your ideas gave me effective ideas to get started there.
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