The Social Marketing Time Suck
Social Marketing your eCommerce store can be fun, it can be tedious, or somewhere in the middle. There is also so much of it to be done and so many different avenues to take that you can become so engrossed in it that you ignore other areas of your business.
I’ve had days where something fun or cool was happening on Twitter and I had to use all my will to stop hitting the refresh button and go get some actual work done. It’s bound to happen sometimes but if it becomes a habit you’ll end up wasting time that could and should be spent doing things that make you money.
I’m not suggesting that you avoid social networks, they can do great things for your business, you just have to watch that you stay focused while using them.
You should regularly post and respond to your followers and friends but it should be a get-in-and-get-out sort of thing. If you hang around too long you can easily spend hours clicking through pages, comments, and pictures; or worse get caught up with silly distractions like quizzes and games.
I try to spend no more than a half hour or so a day working on my social networking. I go in, spend a few minutes on one, and then move onto the next. I do the rotation a few times a day and am able to stay caught up with what’s going on and communicate with my networks without it taking away from my work time.
If you do it right, it’s a great way to take a break from whatever main project you’re working on while still doing something positive for your business.
