How I typically start my day using social media tools for new business

Time management tips to make the most of your time using social media.

Without some established habits the internet can become a black hole where you  waste a ton of time and accomplish little. I have client responsibilities plus things that must be done for my own company so I try to have a strategic, disciplined approach for the start of my day that works well for me.

I’m often asked to describe my typical morning  using social media tools for new business. 

The first thing I do every morning is check for messages. I’ve set up online monitors to keep me aware of conversations, links, comments regarding my personal brand, client’s, competitors, industry info as well as new business opportunities for agencies through RFPs, agency reviews, etc.

I use tools like Google Alerts, TweetBeeps and currently have daily alerts using terms like the examples below that are automatically emailed to me.

• “Michael Gass”
• “www.michaelgass.com”
• “www.fuelingnewbusiness.com”
• “agency review”
• “advertising RFP”
• “environmental marketing”
• “www.parkhowell”
• “Park Howell”

I scan through the email alerts to see if there is important info for me or one of my readers, clients and others who are in my network.

The next thing that I typically do is check my Twitter account to see if there are any “Replies or Direct messages.” I then check for new followers and send them a personal direct message. I will conduct  a quick search using search.twitter.com and/or Tweetscan checking for conversations  and comments about @michaelgass. I then make appropriate responses. When you get in a habit of doing these things it takes only a few minutes.

I go next to my Google Reader account which contains RSS feed subscriptions for some 30 blogs, local, state and national news and of course sports. I use the list view to quickly scan through typically 125 to 160 daily articles.

I have several favorite blog authors that I read everything that they write and others I look for post titles that draw my interest. I’ll click on the ones of interest. If the article warrants I’ll “Share” the item and/or “Star the Item” in Google Reader. I may use the info for one of my blog posts or I may click on my “Twitthat!” button that I’ve setup in my browser bar. Twitthat is a shortcut to posting an article on Twitter that might be of interest to my audience. It automatically states the article title and compresses the URL. It takes literally seconds to post an article to Twitter. A great tool.

Another tool that I might use is “PressThis,” also in my browser bar. If I come across an article that gives me inspiration for a post or one that I want to identify in a post as a resource for my readers I can PressThis and it will automatically post a draft post in my WordPress blog that automatically will include the post title and link to the source.

I may spend 20 to 45 minutes scanning and reading posts that are organized for me in GoogleReader. But it is a more focused approach that saves lots of time.

After I’ve done these tasks which mostly involves reading I go to my WordPress blog account for FUEL LINES. I quickly check the analytics to see what my blog traffic has been, what posts have generated the most traffic, what words were used in search to find my blog, etc.

I try to publish one new blog post per business day but I generally write these on nights and weekends and preset the publishing date/time. I have roughly 90 blog post drafts so I don’t have much difficulty finding something to write about even though I now have over 282 blog posts published on FUEL LINES.

This reflects a typical morning that takes approximately an hour of my time but I find that it is an hour well spent and provides a great start for the day.

What are some tips that have been helpful to you that you’d like to share?

Additional articles that may be of interest:

• Four Things Your Ad Agency Should Know Before Jumping Into Social Media
• Tweetlater A Great Ad Agency New Business Tool
• 8 Benefits of Social Media for Small-to Midsize Ad Agencies
• Four Ways Social Media is Changing Advertising Agencies New Busines