How Much Time Should I Spend On Social Media

November 20, 2009 · Comments

clock How much time should you spend on social media? In some ways, the answer is: “how long is a piece of string?” And yet, you can set up some simple guidelines. They might be a bit different than you think. By the way, I’m writing these from a business perspective, but remember that I think of religion and nonprofits and all kinds of other applications as business-related, too. Here’s how I look at it:

Social Media Time Management

The way I’d do it is to break it up into 4 chunks, and then you decide the amount of hours to devote (2 hours a day is a minimum for MOST efforts).

  • 1/4 for Listening – Start your day by listening and finding what the world is saying about you, your competitor, your marketplace, etc. Need help with listening? See grow bigger ears. In this space, I also count reading (reading other people’s blogs and other online materials).
  • 1/2 for Commenting/Communicating – Spend time commenting and replying back to people on the various channels where they reach you. If that’s Twitter, email, or wherever you hang out, fine. In the commenting timeframe, I also include sharing. Be sure to tweet links to great articles, use StumbleUpon, Delicious, Facebook share, and all the other various tools that help people find the good stuff. In Google reader, a simple SHIFT-S gives an article a whole lot of new potential fans. In here, I might also add the act of linking in and connecting with people on various networks.
  • 1/4 for Creating – Your efforts in content creation are every bit as important as your connectivity and communication. This might include blogging, making video or audio, creating email newsletters, and anything else you’re building to contribute something to the space. It might be posting those event photos in Flickr and on Facebook. Whatever it is, creating content of some kind should take up 1/4 of your social media efforts, as this is the way you get found. Search engines thrive on new content. Humans seek out new material. The more you can be helpful, the better your opportunities.

Your Mileage May Vary

It doesn’t necessarily have to be this mix, but if I gave you that as a starter method, you’d know what to do with some of your time, right? You’ll note that there’s a lot to get done in that time frame. You’re busy. It’s not like you’re in the typing business (that’s me). If you had to cut a little bit of something, maybe it would be in creation. You might salvage a few minutes in there. Just realize that sacrifice in any area takes away from the balance of your opportunity to build a system that gets you results.

What’s your take on this? How would you change the mix? Could you see this overlay into your other communications (be that marketing or whatever) efforts?

For more information, see also How to Prioritize Your Social Media Efforts for a larger framework.

photo credit Aaron Geller

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  • I think I average three-quarters of an hour a day on social networking sites so I checked 20-25 hours per month. I'd say about half of that time is personal and half is business. I'm slowly starting to get more time to actually spend more time on social networking sites.
  • I agree with how you divided the time, especially as commenting shows people that you have been listening to what they said, while your comment creates new material and perhaps market other thing that you create. But one think I'm missing is the planning, I think that many are so stressed about producing in social media that they never stop to plan their actions. Maybe planning should not be on the everyday schedule in those two hours. But time for planning and reviewing what you have done could prepare for even better ideas in the areas of listening, communicating and creating for the future. So perhaps 1/8 of your weekly time should be to plan your weekly social media efforts.
  • Great points chris.
  • Thanks for your post here, Chris. It's nice to hear a simple and effective set of guidelines - hopefully I can fine tune my work hours from here on!

    Lee J
  • goldenblogger
    Thanks for this great article :)
  • Thanks, Chris. This is a good time management framework once your social media program is in full swing. I think the "time chunks" will vary based on the maturity of your social media program. e.g., If you're just starting out, then probably 1/2 your time should be spent listening. Then, as the social media program matures, the fractions will shift (usually to more time creating content initially) and end up right where you suggest.
    BTW... enjoyed Trust Agents (It takes a common sense approach to social media.)
  • Good guidelines there! In addition to keeping my focus on listening and collaborating, I like to make sharing the creating-part as efficient as possible. So when I write blog posts, Youtube videos, articles or anything else, automatic "announcements" about those go out to Twitter and Facebook without me manually writing them.

    As I'd be mentioning my new creations to my friends anyway, it's cool to save that time to create something more and free up the time for actual conversations :)
  • TinaFortune
    Great post! I personally have devoted more time into relationship building for 2010. I read more than 25 blog posts weekly and wanted to start engaging with the communities I follow. As a single mom of 3, I have just a few hours daily to get everything in so I concentrate on the big wins that I know will propel me closer to my biz goals and profitability. Great suggestions.
  • toddschnick
    When I first starting writing about how you should spend your time in this space, I initially called it "blogging by thirds." One third of your time creating, one third listening, and one third participating and sharing. But over time, I learned that you do need to devote more time to the commenting/communicating/sharing part. Amazing what happens when you put MORE focus on that part...
  • THANK YOU!!!! Most people using "social media" for business forget the "social" part and only reply, comment or participate when it's convenient, not realizing that THAT is where the good stuff happens! Thanks for making this clear Chris!
    Karen
  • lynnelle
    Your comment that mileage varying is important. Businesses are different; volume of comments is different; in general as well as day-to-day. I like your suggestion to start with a 25-50-25 mix of listening-connecting-creating; and see where the individual's business (and tweets) take it.

    Would you suggest reviewing the analytics / benchmarks is a component of the social media time management equation or the broader marketing effort?

    As always, Chris; it's a pleasure.
  • One thing definitely to not do on social media is to treat it like traditional promotional advertising. It's about the conversation not about the sale or about the broadcast. Two way conversation.
  • 2 hours is a fair amount of time as this can vary like with anything else. The biggest question that I get from clients is what do I say when I comment? They get so wrapped up into this that they never end up commenting so that percentage goes out the window. Some spend more time listening which is great but others get so frustrated that they abandon ship.

    Writing a comment or even a blog opens you up to feel that people are judging you and many would rather ignore than take part. Certainly "be valuable" in writing comments, tweets or a blog means something different to everyone however the fear of being valuable never allows some to give themselves a chance to be valuable.

    You will never get to know anyone in either social or face to face marketing unless you talk to them. Face to face we talk and do not care so much on what they "need" to say but replace a person with a keyboard, it is an entirely different ballgame.
  • I like the idea of applying structure to limit getting lost when you go on line. Let's face it, you can spend hours just aimlessly browsing.

    I think the formula you have put in place for listening, commenting and creating is great, and the time allocation should be what works for you.

    I would also say that there is an opportunity to spend more time on listening and creating if you utilize a mobile device and your commenting is part of your lifestyle, something you just do all the time without really thinking about it.
  • Great post.

    Nice tip on the Google reader thing, never noticed it, thanks! :)
  • same here, thank you!
  • If you're a great producer of content, shift all of your time to making content. That's a strategy I see people like Maki at DoshDosh.com take and it's a massive approach. Commenting and being social is unnecessary if you're truly remarkable (I'm not saying I can achieve this, but it's certainly a strategy for those who can).
  • judyiannaccone
    Chris, I appreciate your giving some thought to this question. In some ways, the ratio of how much time spent for listening, commenting, and creating may vary depending on your goals for engaging in social media. Just as in face-to-face communication, listening is key. Without it, we never truly connect, but rather just throw messages at each other. The fact is it needs to be a thoughtful process and it takes real commitment. What you get out of social media correlates closely to what's put in.
  • faridafotouhi
    This framework, with the addition of the "things I need to accomplish" guideline suggested by John Meadows, is a great way to start getting your arms around the Magical Mystery Tour that is social networking. Yeah, I'm dating myself (or maybe not, maybe I've been playing the new Beatles game), it's "waiting to take you away" into a universe where time no longer exists. Here's the conundrum: sometimes you find the greatest treasures online by linking your way through unexpected paths. How does this fit into a system? Do we cheat and add 1/8 for free form digression? As James Ball said this time has to come from somewhere in our busy lives. How about an even balance: 1/3 listening (including discovery of the unexpected), 1/3 commenting, 1/3 creating?
  • faridafotouhi
    See my comment below (I had entered it twice by mistake)
  • Jan
    Hey Chris, thanks for the straightforward rule of thump. I guess I tend to overemphazise the listening part...
  • These are excellent straightforward tips for not only avoiding Social Media meltdown but for keeping things in perspective. It’s so easy to be sucked into Social Media fervour and quickly become overwhelmed. Good stuff.
  • I think as long as whatever you're doing in the social media world is contributing towards your goals and not stopping you from doing what you're out to achieve then it doesn't really matter how long you spend on social media.

    The actual time you spend is always going to vary. If your goal is to spend a certain amount of time on social media, but really focusing on your goal then you should shut everything else out, set a kitchen timer and get cracking. Once the egg timer goes off, stop your current social media conversation. Politely say you have to go (if in the middle of a conversation) and get onto your next task/goal. This is something I have started doing and it is proving somewhat effective.
  • You make some great points as there are indeed those that allow for their social media "habits" to take over their lives. I on the other hand, as one who is responsible for my organizations's social media initiative, have to carefully schedule when I will take the time to schedule and organize my time so that I can get all my work done. I have a colleague Kevin (@ecointeractive) who uses about 2 hours per day just to scan his networks. I use a little more time than that but it keeps me from being distracted while I am doing other things, Social media, as a tool has to be treated like on in order for it to really create a decent ROI for the user. Nice post. I appreciate your insight.
  • Good stuff as always Chris - the only thing I'd add is on the listening piece it's important to take time to determine if there are trends/themes around what is being said that are either + or - around your brand/product/service and more important what steps are going to taken to do something about it whether that is leveraging or fixing. As I mentioned before, really enjoyed your book.
  • Hi - a mutual friend pointed me at your site. My job changed recently and I started needing to use a lot more social media. This was exactly the article I needed to read today, while I try to figure out how to do the networking and promotional aspects of my work. I suspect I'll be poking around for more helpful tips. Thanks!
  • I think this is covered in the big chunk of time (communicating/commenting), but I have found along with communicating within networks, at some point, hopefully, we are driving up the "ladder of intimacy" with key thought leaders in the community (and potential clients). Taking time to have one on one conversations...this is where real business happens. JV's, linking, new product or service ideas...lots of good stuff!
  • Chris, perhaps you can also write about what (in Social Media) is NOT worth spending time on. There's so much available, and it's easy for the time to get away from you...with diminishing returns on the time spent.
  • @Steve This is a good point. What should be skimmed through to save time. I think Chris can help here, but it's still case sensitive.
  • Chris, I don't know how you find 2 hours a day, since you're on the road, speaking, writing and advising companies - maybe you're on a 26-hour day. How did you get that? Where do I apply?
  • I like it. This article made me reflect on my own habits, and will most likely result in a refocusing of efforts.

    the ratios are almost the reverse for a sales role: most time should be spent listening, which (if done correctly) involves some communicating, and a little bit of creating (connections, stories, proposals, etc).

    Great post.
  • My biggest advice on how much time to spend on social media revolves around when you do it. I recommend trying to put it into your schedule the same way you do reading your email. And be as consistent. So read your email, then spend the amount of time you've set aside for social media directly after reading your email, or for your break before lunch, or whatever is a convenient spot in your day. Do it the same every day as much as possible. Then you will have a nice consistency to your communications.
  • claudeoggier
    I think as a starting point for newcomers, like me, your social media time management allocation is well balanced.
  • Another great post Chris.

    For me, I would agree on your formula for now. Half of time for communicating is great; you need to get out there and interact. I am a writer and such, so I do a lot on the creating side. Sometimes I spend a bit more time on creating, but it's what I do. I try to even things out as much as possible. I usually sleep 3-4 hours a night anyways with my business and family responsibilities, so I have some time to make up the time :)
  • mary c
    I've been reading a great guidebook about accessing our inner GPS for business forecasting and competative wiles called "How To Rule The World From Your Couch" www.tinyurl.com/LauraDayWidget. Important to "swallow" all our deals.
  • Yes, I'd change the mix slightly, Chris. Our team doesn't do all three each day. If we did it would be 50% listening, 20% communicating, 20% creating and adding 20% for metrics and analysis (not to mention mentoring and meetings).

    Our mix is more likely to be:
    1) 50% listening Mon-Thurs.
    2) 30% commenting Mon-Wed.
    3) 30% creation Thursday
    4) 80% creation Friday
    5) 20% metrics Mon-Fri.
  • While everyone will probably have a slightly different way of social media time management, I think the system Chris proposed is a good, well balanced starting point.

    There is another side of the story though. Many people don't realize it will probably take them a good few months of active social media engagement, before they see some tangible results.
    Maybe that's why there is so many dead Twitter accounts - people think by joining Twitter they will magically double their sales within a month. Of course when that doesn't happen they just give up.

    I think the important thing is to keep at it, actively communicate with others and be patient. The results will come...
  • Hey Chris - I appreciate the article. It's a pretty hot topic these days - how do I best manage my time. I think that you created a nice template for beginners and advanced socialmedites to use in their planning efforts.

    For me I found that I generally don't have the luxury of 2 consistent hours in any day - not one of them. So what I did is schedule email/alarms throughout the day to remind/prompt me to do a few things. For example I get an email that prompts me to review the buzz. Then an hour and a half later I get an email to "talk about" what's going on or what I'm doing. 2 hours later I get an email asking if I have anything creative to share. Seems to work at least for me. Maybe you could put a video together to share your strategy on youtube. I know that I'm going to share your post with a couple of verticals that ronsmap and I participate in.

    Thanks again!
  • I really like where you went with this post. It was clear and to the point. One thing that I got out of it is that 75% of our time should be focused on 'relationship-building' activities. This really ties in with your previous posts and other posts I've read. I think sometimes we may forget it's about the relationship. You time breakdown reinforces that for me. Thanks again.
  • Chris thanks for pointing to Grow bigger Ears, that is exactly what I've been looking for. As for the rest of the mix I'm still working on my commenting. I spend plenty reading/listening and focus most the rest of my efforts on creation. Maybe that's why I've been growing slowly. Thanks again.
  • Great article Chris! Thank you.
  • Great post Chris. I know I struggle with this. Just getting through my Google Reader feeds alone takes 1/2 or more of my time. Then commenting/linking/sharing, then original content creation, then searching/finding new blogs/users/etc. to connect with. To be honest I don't think there is a magic formula - I think each one of us has to tweak it depending upon our goals.

    John Nemo, PR Director & Multimedia Storyteller
    http://www.nowsharethisblog.com
  • Hi,

    I have found a great list over 50 ways to advertise your website at:
    http://www.omnistaretools.com/best-ways-to-adve...

    I started using these are have been able to increase my sales.

    Mark
  • @Chris Without listening, your content is jeopardized. Without interesting content and relevant comments, it's guaranteed that nobody will listen to you. I think John made a great point, that the amount of time allotted is dependent on the ultimate goal.

    However, to be involved in social media, a decent portion of time must on being social or engaging with others.
  • Realtormike
    So Chris the short answer is as much time as possible with the majority being spent developing yourself as a Trust Agent for your group.
    Thank you
  • jeffespo
    Great post Chris. While I think that times may vary by organization in terms of buzz it is something that should be worked into the daily routine of marketers.
  • I agree with this formula. Having said that, my day is more like 16 hours long (I own my own business) and my involvement in social media (including in-person event attendance) uses between 50%-75% of my day on average. The main point regardless is getting out there and engaging people, and starting conversations.
  • Hi,

    I have found a great list over 50 ways to advertise your website at:
    http://www.omnistaretools.com/best-ways-to-adve...

    I started using these are have been able to increase my sales.

    Mark
    http://www.dcdesign.com
  • luissandovaljr
    Great post and very appropriate considering how many new companies are being introduced to social media because it's the new hot thing they want to be a part of. But sadly so many see it as a place to be just because everyone else is there. So they stumble out with no policy, no strategy, or any plan, and I've seen it happen far too many times.

    In my efforts to consult with companies big to large this question comes up a lot. You use the piece of string example, I use "how wet is wet?" I mean there's all kinds of answers you can give.

    I get a kick out of those that say they spend about 20 min. in all their social media efforts. When I ask if they listen or engage, they say, "nah, we just put our specials and promotions out there." I can only shake my head. So having to reteach while they unlearn their traditional marketing habits is a challenge, but the benefits are always worth it.

    In the end, you're right, mileage will indeed vary.
  • As always Chris I like what you have to say.

    I would however expand on the listening portion of your process. Sometimes it goes beyond listening into discovering, and that's where the fun usually is.

    I think it's extremely important that there is some level of fun in there. Whether it's purposely taking some time to watch some random YouTube videos or goofing off with others. I find that this time really helps with discovery. You go into it with no expectations but I often find I have some of my best ideas for blog posts during this time.

    I also notice that where most people will share something, let's say to StumbleUpon for example ... they will rarely ever open up their account and actually start stumbling (discovering) some new similar content.

    But all the benefits of goofing off aside, I think it makes us want to participate more if we're having a good time doing it.
  • So true that it takes double the time to communicate on other media than it does to create my own content.
  • I think I get asked this question every single day. I work with lots of social media newbies - I typically tell them to spend no more than 1 hour a day (or less) working on their SMM plans. I think if I told my clients to spend 2 hours a day on social media their heads would explode. :-)

    I like your guideline of 1/2 listening, 1/4 commenting, and 1/2 creating. I would also add at least 1/4 to planning or goal setting.
  • Great tips Chris! I find that listening (or reading) in the early morning, creating up until about lunch, then networking in the afternoon works well for me. Cheers
  • Alltop is a great source for discovering relevant blogs to comment on.
    Connecting is the beauty of social media. If you just spend your time listening you will truly hinder yourself from experiencing all that SM has to offer.
  • I would suggest a somewhat different framework. If someone is building a house, they don't set out to spend 25% of their time swinging a hammer, 25% sawing wood, 25% doing drywall etc. They view their activities as part of the goal (building the house). What are the pieces they need to build, rather than what are the methods they will use to build them, is what is ultimately important.

    So for social media, I wouldn't look at it as how much time I need to allot for social media, but rather what are they things I need to accomplish, which in many cases will involve social media. So "listening" could be recast as market intelligence, customer support, Q.A. etc. This way, it is easier to tie social media activities to tangible organizational needs and goals, (and the human/time resources needed).
  • lynnelle
    Good points. I also know that social media is new and fearful to many business owners and professionals. Having a guide like this will give many the confidence to begin, whereas they may not have done so without it. I do agree with you, that how and where you spend your social media resources (time as well as $$) is determined by your objective - not a formula.
  • Dear Chris - this is very helpful. I have only actively been exploring blogs,Twitter and Facebook since the late spring. My hesitation had always been the time, followed by a complete fear of be being sucked into a vortex of interesting information and myself dissolving into some packet of data!

    The demands of the day have typically created boundaries for my online activity, and I have noticed over time that how I engage is forming a pattern. Your guidelines give me more to go on in terms of effectiveness and I am going to try that formula out for a week.

    Paul Chaney's comment on measuring has me wondering how/what are you measuring - I guess that would be numbers of followers, comments, emails, and sales? How do you know you have an engaged audience. What numbers do you track? - thanks!

    Carolyn
    (Who is now looking for her egg timer) :)
  • Carolyn, the answer to the question of what to measure becomes self-evident if the use of social media is tied to specific marketing objectives. For example, if I'm using my blog as a tool to drive traffic to my company Web site, what to measure obviously revolves around the ratio of traffic to the blog as compared to traffic from the blog to the site (as one standard).

    I realize this is a bit far afield from Chris' original point, but I think measurement has to factor in from a time-consumption standpoint.
  • Time budgets are very important especially in areas like social media. The breakdown laid out in the article is a great model. Social Media must be limited so other business needs can be addressed.

    How much time should a person spend per day on communications through social media? I try to not spend more than 1/8th of my daily time budget time on social media.

    The Internet has brought us amazing advances in accessible knowledge, and listening is amazingly powerful. The simple act of listening can fuel great endeavors.

    Thank you for the post.

    William
  • I am responding to the topic William, your reply touched on something for me though: "How much time should a person spend per day..." Social media for most is taking the place of at least some of their traditional advertising and marketing efforts. These traditional efforts require a sacrifice somewhere...time for planning, money, time to measure results, etc. This is all accepted as a part of doing business. Social media is the same, in that there is a certain level of sacrifice associated with it. I see a lot of frustration and comment about the time it takes to be engaged. More and more I see topics like this one about time consumption and strategy, this is much needed and valuable input. What I see happening though, is that people end up working two hours longer each day, or neglecting two hours worth of something else in order to participate. In order to be involved and reap the benefits that may come from social media efforts, a sacrifice has to be accepted. You'll work two more hours each day, or you'll scrap two hours of something you spend time on that produces little or no results. Either way, it's a sacrifice. Chris, you mention sacrifice and balance, and an overlay into other things. That's a good point, this is all quite new and foreign to many, and it's caused an upheaval in the way we spend our time doing business each day. The sacrifice and balance is what everyone is trying to figure out.
  • And THAT'S why most fail using Social Media...lack of engaging and interacting, what you have down for half which I agree with 100% Chris! May come off harsh but there's absolutely no excuse why people can't comment or connect or engage with others. Millions of people and you can't communicate with more than a few? I say change your strategy to change your results.
  • As it applies to marketing, measurement has to figure in somehow. My SOP is Listen, Engage (which includes both responding/creating) and Measure. That's a bit outside the scope of your topic I realize, but important nonetheless, and certainly a time-consumer.
  • listening is really important. Following your guidelines I should say:
    1/2 listening
    1/4 commenting
    1/2 creating
  • Guest
    But then you are investing more time than allocated: 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/2 > 1. That's cheating. :)
  • Guest
    But then you are investing more time than allocated: 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/2 > 1. That's cheating. :)
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