Social Media Workflow: What I Do at Idealware

 I was recently asked in a social networking training about my typical workflow for social media posting at Idealware.  Seemed like the class found it interesting, so I thought I would share it with you too!

Here at Idealware I am in charge of our social networking activities on Facebook and Twitter.  This is a task that is both super fun and totally bewildering.  What to post is a daily challenge and how to say things that people will respond to is something I am only just beginning to decode.  

Regarding workflow, overall I typically spend 4 to 6 hours a week on social networking (that time covers both Facebook and Twitter).  Daily, I spend my first 15 or 30 minutes at work reading through blog posts and interesting tweets to determine what I want to post or retweet (an hour and fifteen to two and a half hours per week).  Then I spend about 15 minutes scheduling out many of our tweets for the day (another hour and fifteen).  I aim for 4 to 8 scheduled daily, supplemented by interesting things that catch my interest during the day.  Out of that list of tweets, I pull the most compelling article and post it to Facebook.  For the Facebook post I try to pull out an interesting quote, a key point, or an intriguing question from the post and share that in my comment.  

After my morning routine, I admit that I am subject to a random checking of Facebook and Twitter when I either need a quick break or find myself with a minute to spare (up to another two and a half hours per week).  If I see something worthwhile, I will share it via Twitter and make sure to respond to any Facebook comments (I have just started using Hyper Alerts to get notifications of Facebook posts to reduce the urge to check obsessively).  

When we are working to promote an event, article, report or other Idealware specific things, my posting becomes a bit more structured and strategized, but I pretty much still stay with the same workflow.  

This workflow seems to make sense for me.  It helps me avoid the “social media time suck” that can be so easy to fall into with these constantly updating tools and makes social media a scheduled part of my job.  It is an allocated time in my day that I respect (as do others in the office) and helps me put in enough time to generate a consistent flow of content to engage the Idealware community.  

How do you schedule your social media workflow?  What works for you?