The ability to properly manage your time is one of the core laws of success and productivity. Time management is essential and non-negotiable.  A To Do list is tantamount to handwriting practice without an effective plan for getting things done and that INCLUDES time management. Time is one resource that once depleted is generally non-renewable. So you need to invest your time wisely.  Setting and prioritizing your social media marketing objectives can get you going in the right direction.  The next thing you need to do is have a smart plan for achieving said objectives.

So how do you deal with the issue of time management in social media?

1.Follow the guy in front of you

There’s not enough day in the day to reinvent the wheel with every project you touch. Set your social media strategy by capitalizing on the paradigms that currently exist and mimic their success.  Navigate tough terrain by following the advice of someone who’s already done what you are planning to do. Get fanatical about following the leaders in your niche.  Find sites that demonstrate ways to get the most out of your social media projects and follow their instructions. It’s smart to leverage the wisdom of others. Copy their success formulas.

2.Call in the Automated Cavalry

We’re all doing a hundred different things and it can be difficult to find the time you need to do the things which must be done with regard to your social media presence. It is impossible to be online 24 hours a day.  As such, you’re going to miss things – links, messages, updates, funny quips by the redhead you don’t remember meeting but who remembers meeting you. Automate as much of your social media campaign as you can by writing blog posts in batches and keeping them short and sweet.  Seth Godin is a master at this.  Take your big bunch of blog posts and schedule them to automatically be posted on specific days.  Automate the announcement that a new post is out. WordPress allows you to schedule posts and automatically tweet out the announcement of your post on the social media staples. Try these automation tools on for size.

• Hootsuite- automate messages to and from WordPress, LinkedIn , Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and other social media accounts
• TweetDeck- bring more flexibility and insight to power users
• Virtue- deliver brand messages directly on FB, Twitter, Google+ feeds
• SocialSocialOomph- preferred productivity solution for Twitter users
• Ping.fm.- makes updating social network in a snap!

And…

• TubeMogul- for your video updates
• RSS- track your favorite blogs, and
• FriendFeed- collect as many online activities, blogs, photos, etc. in just one site.

All these online applications can help you save time, take it easy on your activities, plus boost your social presence all in just one click.

3. Repetition is a Good Thing

With people as with puppies, routine is the key to happiness when it comes to social media management. If you are the type who is inclined to work on several activities during the day, establishing a routine will help you to focus your energy on each task and know them off the list as you go. It’s easy to get distracted by the activities going on with social media.  Schedule a time to engage and stick to your new routine.

One final tip.  the sage advice that marketers should be seen across multiple social media channels is only good advice if you can manage the load. Only take on as much social media as you can handle.  Add to your arsenal as your schedule (or budget to hire a contractor) allows. Manage your time wisely, stay focused, and utilize all the available online resources to help boost your business to success.  It may not be easy but results can be very rewarding.

There are no right answers here. A blogger needs to have a keen eye and an open mind when it comes to content strategy and development. Engaging an audience with innovative thoughts and an interesting take on the issues currently on people’s radar is a great skill to have.  Still, the best use of your time is to develop content that moves your audience.

There’s no such thing as a perfect idea. Some blogs are made to stir controversy.  Some sites are designed for hipsters and intellectuals.  Your content should be an extension of your brand, but it should also be centered around the thoughts, habits and experiences of your users. Your ultimate goal in developing your content strategy should be to add something to the lives of your readers.  Anything less is essentially spam.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you develop your content.

Consistency – Your site represents your brand.  As such, there should be marked consistency between what you sell, promote or say you stand for and the content that ends up on your site.  Everything on your site is content.  Text should be consistent with images which should be consistent with SEO tags, categories and keywords.

Navigation – It doesn’t matter how great your text and images are if no one can find them.  Make your site intuitive to navigate. Few things are more frustration than not being able to find what you want or need on a website. You’ve got a 5 second window to get people where they want and need to go on your site

Write with purpose – Plan what you will write then write it.  is the best way to keep your market interested to your blog.  It is important to have an organized string of thoughts and a schedule of topics to keep your blog fresh and exciting to your readers. Your content strategy should include a content calendar identifying themes, topics and ideas you plan to deliver.

Remember that the content of your blog is designed to connect your thoughts to your audience.  Keeping your thoughts relevant and appealing will help your blog grow and be effective to your chosen market.

Whether you are a company focused upon the environment and the health of the planet and its inhabitants, or if you are a business focused on something entirely different, eco-friendly corporate gifts are perfect ways of showing your appreciation to those around you and keep business relations healthy.  Plus, these eco-friendly corporate gifts are perfect at any time of the year, not just during the holiday season.

Here are a few suggestions for green corporate gifts – and there are plenty more where these came from.

Recycled Tire iPad Sleeves – Manypeople love to carry their iPads to work with them, and what better way to do so than with an iPad sleeve made from recycled tires and recycled plastic from water bottles?  These sleeves are just as effective and durable as any other, but they are helping keep waste out of landfills.  Plus, they are vegan and cruelty-free.

Solar Converter Recycled Daypack – This amazingly innovative product is sure to wow anyone who is the lucky recipient.  Splurge on this great gift idea for employees who are required to travel often, as it serves dual purposes: not only is it a backpack for carrying valuables and business materials, but the solar panel actually makes it possible for your workers to charge their devices, such as cell phones and tablets.  And it’s made from recycled materials.

Pocket Purifier – Office environments can become home to germs, especially keyboards and telephones.  Help your employees or clients keep their offices germ-free with this easy-to-use purifying system that uses ultraviolet light that actually kills 99.9% of germs, eliminating the need for costly and smelly hand purifiers and antibacterial sprays and wipes.

Coffee Paper – Just about every worker swears by coffee to get them through each day.  Now you can give them coffee in a whole new way: paper made from coffee.  This paper is made from a combination of coffee fiber and recycled materials.  Being that it is tree-free, it is environmentally friendly, saving forests.  And if you prefer other types of tree-free paper, you can also find paper made from hemp, banana, cigar, and even mango fibers.

PC Trickle Saver – If you are looking for a way to save energy and costs, and you want to extend these savings to your gift recipients, consider giving the PC Trickle Saver, which attaches via USB connector to a computer and reduces wasteful standby energy consumption.  It also switches on all peripheral devices, such as printers and scanners, when the computer is turned on, and switches everything off when the computer is shut down.

So, what exactly is a content plan? A content plan is just that – a plan for what you plan to present in your blog. It can be as simple as a list of ideas tacked on the wall in front of your computer, or if  you’re working with multiple content providers, a shared spreadsheet sorted by tag / category that everyone gets to see and to which everyone must adhere. Include everything – ideas, titles, contributors, interviewees, sources, blog ideas, submission dates for editing, actual date the content posted to the site, projected timeline of ideas and themes, links used, books and products referenced, media utilized (videos, images, mp3s, etc.).  But it must be relevant and it must be essential.

When you’re planning your content, think about:

• What? – What does your audience want and need to know? Develop a plan that is most suitable for your niche and stick to it.
• Organization – Staying organized as maintaining order will undoubtedly have a positive effect on how you write your blog and helps to make it more interesting to your readers.

• Being proactive – Don’t be caught off guard by updates, trends, changes, holidays and events that can easily be planned.  Being proactive can also help you to create high-value, quality content around upcoming events.
• Hiring help – With a specific content plan in place, you can get the services of a project manager who can supervise your site and follow your map as directed.  It can simply make your life easier.
• Consistency –With your written content plan, it will help you to stay on schedule and submit copy in a timely manner.
• Idea sharing – Good people have great ideas.  Talk to others to get ideas about your site.  The exchange of ideas is a valuable experience in creating thinking.

One measure in having a good and effective blog is in how you conceptualize and plan your blog content.   Your blog is designed to connect you to your audience. And often connecting requires forethought. Use these helpful tools to develop a plan that will establish your credibility and grow your audience.

managing your business. 

Entrepreneurs tend to be idea people.  If you’re the type of person who can identify potentially profitable niches or recognize underserved markets, be glad.  For your course may be an adventurous one. For you, the challenge lies not in dreaming up ideas, but rather in committing yourself to benefit from the Gift of Having Great Ideas by developing one vision at a time. The way to accomplish any vision is to plan, prepare then execute.

Plan

Get in the habit of writing things down. Write your plans down and make them plain.  Not all businesses need a 30-page business plan, detailed to the nth degree with appendices and fancy Excel macro work.  Your business may, it may not.  If you are going to be securing outside funding, you will need to brush up on your Excel.  If your business is you and your teenage daughter running a weekend babysitting service, you can probably get away with a two-page outline and successfully become a couple of weekend business owners. If that is the case, feel free to do it.  Still, one thing your business plan will need for sure is to make the transition from your beautiful mind (not in the Russell Crowe way) to your handy dandy notebook.

Prepare

There are three major areas to address at the onset of developing your vision – capital, industry and market.

Capital – Think of it this way.  Capital for the sake of capital is not capital.  Capital is a resource that is necessary for production. Your capital includes more than just money.  It’s also your experience, your ability, your advisors, your human resources.  Take an accurate inventory of your capital in those five categories.  What do you truly have to work with?

Industry – Do your research.  An extremely perceptive nature may steer you to a particular business, but you still need to make an educated decision on your field of interest based on solid research.  This means watching other companies in the same industry; checking with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in your area; connecting with SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), the U.S. Census Bureau, and other local industry associations.  Go online and find trade magazines for your industry.  Often times you can subscribe to trades for free and get access to a wealth of great information.

Market - The two Cs are the key here – customers and competitors.  Who wants your goods? How much are they willing to pay for them?  What other local companies can offer a comparable product? Will you have a physical location or is your business primarily of a virtual nature?  Understand what your competitors are doing.  Then do it better.

Execute

Finally, the most important advice you will ever get, particularly for those of us who tend to over-think, over-notate, over-process everything. Just do it.  The Nike people had that one right.

There are a number of extremely effective drug-free methods for managing stress.  The first suggestion is always to do what you can to identify where your stress originates and limit your participation in stressful activities.  We recognize that life can carry with it seasons of ease and seasons of stress.  If you happen to be in a stressful situation from which you are unable to remove yourself, there are several exercises you can try to manage the stress.

Purge your thoughts. Communicate your thoughts.  But instead of focusing your attention on the problem, take a pen and a pad and write out the solution to remedy your stressful situation.  So often, we are told to write out our feelings as a way to purge. In so doing, we don’t give our minds permission to imagine anything beyond the stressful situation.  When you write or when you blog, state the problem succinctly in a sentence or two.  Then spend the next five minutes writing out the very best case scenario for your problem.  It’s both productive and cathartic.

Breathe on purpose.  This may sound cliché, but deep breathing really does help to manage stress.  Focusing your attention on an involuntary function like breathing redirects your thoughts and energy.  Not only that, but repeatedly taking slowly, deliberate breaths is soothing.

Use up that nervous energy.  After a deer has been frightened and the threat removed, a deer will spend the next few minutes shivering to expend the excess energy that built in the blood stream when its fight or flight reflex was engaged.  In the same way, when you deal with stressful situations, you need something to “calm your nerves.” Instead of reaching for a cigarette or a burger, expend the extra energy by going for a walk.  Light exercise is a great drug-free method for managing stress. You don’t need to speed walk necessarily.  Sometimes, a walk down to the end of the block and back is sufficient to expend nervous energy and help you to reestablish both physical and emotional balance.

Aromatherapy.  It is no secret that certain scents help the body to relax. Find your favorite scent – a scented candle or your spouse’s body spray or a favorite fruit (orange peel is great for this) and just inhale deeply.  Take a few minutes to mentally disengage.  It only has to be a few minutes.

Eat right.  There is something to be said for eating to cope with stress.  Your body needs the nutrition to re-establish physiological balance, but often we run to high fat, high sugar treats, or so-called comfort foods, to help us through the tough moments.  Instead of reaching for sugar, fat and carbs, opt instead for protein, calcium and iron.  Why? The amino acid in protein helps to increase your dopamine levels. Iron helps your body to battle fatigue.  Stress depletes your calcium, so you should replenish calcium because it is necessary for neurological health.  So what are we talking here? Instead of a slice of cake, you would fare better with a grilled chicken and cheese on iron-enriched wheat bread.

Stress is a part of life.  We all need to find the best ways to spend the least amount of our time in stressful situations.  When we do get into stressful situations, however, there are ways to effectively manage stress without having to self-medicate.

To your health.