John Haydon - Latest Comments in How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Mat — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:50:03 -0000

"Pick the big stones" - Best advice. Just like everything else in life, you have to prioritize.

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

manymanyvisitors — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:52:43 -0000

Thanks John. This post actually gives me some idea on how I can manage my time on Social Media Sites. Lately, I've been spending a bit of time on Twitter when I need to be working on another browser. Ditto with Amy, "Aw man! Now I've gotta buy a timer???" OR use my cell phone alarm clock.
cursus timemanagement

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

John Haydon — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:54:44 -0000

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Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

John Haydon — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:39:27 -0000

Thanks!

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

John Haydon — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:11:10 -0000

You're welcome, Stats!

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

statistics help — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:18:40 -0000

Very very good list of social networking sites. Probably the best so far i have seen on the internet.
Thank you so much

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

bfholmes (Brenna Holmes) — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:38:38 -0000

How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck - http://bit.ly/83Fv

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

bkmacdaddy (bkmacdaddy designs — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:50:05 -0000

How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck - http://is.gd/d3p7

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

JunLoayza — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:47:04 -0000

Social Media can be such a HUGE time suck. Not just that, but it can completely encompass your life to the point where your physical life and virtual life are one and the same. This is where I was at the end of 08, but I quickly realized that there is a significant difference between the two.

I made a blog post about my social media diet and would love your opinions!

I will definitely link out to these great points you laid out. Look forward to staying in touch.

- Jun Loayza

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Mary Beth — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:50:57 -0000

Man, did I ever need this article! My husband informed me this last weekend that I was addicted to Twitter and the InterWeb. I don't even have a blog or website but follow very interesting ppl on Twitter so I HAVE to check out whatever links they suggest. I also have ADD so the timer and cards are a wonderful idea. I forget to use tool for apps that they weren't originally set up for...

Again, thanks for helping me with one of my resolutions!

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

SocialMind — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:31:59 -0000

The problem is determining what factors make the most impact. A lot of people are simply trying to find out _What Really Works?_ Experimentation is important for innovation - and becoming one of the easier things for a social marketer to do.

But, perhaps just as important are frames of reference. A frame of reference that helps guide your experimentation of what works with these certain set of circumstances from your particular point of view. This post is a great example of one such reference, good work John.

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Amy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:15:48 -0000

John -- that's a good idea! My phone has a timer........

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Paddy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:30:45 -0000

Some great tips there John.

For me it's more the time of the day that affects me more than anything else. I am far more motivated in the wee small hours of the morning and seem to get so much more done.

Using a timer might be an option for me. I'll have to try that as I frequently get caught up in YouTube and Twitter.

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Graham Richards — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:29:24 -0000

John, thanks again for your practical ideas to make us all better social networkers. As ever, you hit the target and empathise with the struggles many of us try to overcome!

If we don't get it under control, then we face the risk of being out of control. I am one of those needing to be more disciplined and your suggestions will help with that.

Cheers,

Graham

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Beth Kanter — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:57:59 -0000

I swiped my kids timeout timer about a year ago ....
http://beth.typepad.com/bet...

Part of the research I did for an article for TechSoup called the Habits of Highly Effective Social Networkers - looks like you hit them!
http://www.techsoup.org/lea...

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Joe Waters — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:56:25 -0000

"The glance reveals what the gaze obscures." - Emerson

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Mitey — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:14:14 -0000

thanks for reminding me to get back to work

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Laura Whitehead — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:00:44 -0000

Thanks for a good round up of consise hints and tips! Using a timer seems to be a good option! Several people have recommended a timer to me too. I often have various media running in the background whilst working, some I dip into and others I don't when concentrating on working. What I don't do is make a set time for listening which is something which probably could be really useful.

There are many tools/apps out there for many platforms, so finding ones which work best for you often help! (For instance, I use several for Twitter pending on the type of work I am doing at the time! Twhirl (when more able to participate whilst doing other tasks at the screen), FireStatus (for active listening) and the old fashioned web interface too amongst others. Twibble works for mobi well too when out and about well)

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Mike Nichols — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:27:59 -0000

Hi, John! Thanks for the great article on budgeting your social media time. This is a real problem for me; I find myself using way too much time with social media, especially Twitter. And it has limited my use of other services, since I don't have the time to spend with them!

I actually have a countdown timer that I use for other purposes, and now I'll use it for social media.

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

AaronMSB — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:01:56 -0000

John,

This post has great advice that I can see working for the lion's share of people. The most important of these guidelines for me are giving new sites 30 days (even though I only give 2 weeks and then come back in a month, 2 months or more depending on what the buzz for a site is doing) because social media is far from settled. Innovation is abound and you're only hurting your chances of social media success by not trying everything with potential.

The other important tip here to me is "picking the big stones." I always advise my clients to pick one social network (preferably the one with thier audience already already within it) and do it well before even thinking about another one. Yes, this seems at odds with what I just wrote about innovation, but the key is that you have to be doing one network expertly before you experiment. Once someone has really devoted time and effort to one social network, he/she will have a better chance at already having an audience built in to any new network he/she joins

Now, I don't, by any means, want to devalue what you've written, but the strategies listed in 3, 4, and 5 simply don't work for me. As a general rule, I use social media as a "break" between projects. While I'm constantly Tweeting, I use social media communications as a "reward" when I finish something. This works for me because I am constantly switching hats from proposal writer to video editor to media relations guy to event planning to strategist, etc. A few brief online conversations serve as a palette cleanser for my brain.

Welp, you asked for it, those are my thoughts. Thanks, as always, for a great read.

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Grant Griffiths — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:32:44 -0000

When I am working on a project, blog post or anything else, I usually just ignore email, RSS feed and TweetDeck. The one thing I have done is shut off all notifications from all of them. I don't know if I have a new email until check. Nor does TweetDeck ding me when I get a new tweet.

Perhaps the biggest time saver has been TweetDeck. Because you can organize it into columns, I have my All Friends column and a list I call A-List. I follow way to many people to keep up on all their tweets all the time. What I do is put those in my A-List who I don't want to miss. And this list is a living list. What I mean by that is I add to and take away from this list when I feel I need to.

Social media can be a huge time sucker if you allow it to be. So we have to be careful.

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

The Happy Rock — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:00:59 -0000

Visually seeing your purpose for being on the site is a great idea. For most, we haven't even really thought through why, it just is. So it may take some upfront time to figure out "Why am I on Twitter all the time?".

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

claudine hellmuth — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:55:32 -0000

great tips! I have a timer, now to actually USE it!

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Carmen Villadar (a.k.a. @digit — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:46:44 -0000

Carmen
@digitalfemme

Re: How To Avoid The Social Media Time Suck

Stacy Lukas — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:44:14 -0000

I fall victim of the Social Media Black Hole waaaaaaaaay too much. I needed this article and will try the tactics. Thanks!