Time management is the number one concern for communications staff whose jobs involve social media to any degree. No matter what the topic of my presentation or workshop, when it is time for questions the problem of time management is mentioned at least once. Below are 3 ways I use my time effectively to manage social media.
1. Priorities.
I keep my priorities and strategy in front of me. Finding, creating, and choosing content takes longer for departments that aren't clear on their priorities.
2. Content calendar.
Given your priorities, what types of content work best? Schedule those types of content into a basic monthly content calendar. This calendar should not have specific dates because you should not focus too much energy scheduling specific pieces of content (e.g., tweet about Professor Y's award on October 20). Instead, map out general content types and the frequency at which you will post this type of content (e.g., tweet about faculty awards, achievements, or publications every Tuesday).
3. Automate content curation and listening strategy.
Do you always pull content at the school level from department blogs? Feed all those blogs into Google Reader and stop visiting each individually. Create Google alerts for keywords you are often searching online, or better yet, feed your Google alerts into Google Reader as well and clear your inbox. Do you monitor faculty and department feeds? Use a tool like Tweetdeck or HootSuite.