Last topic was about the time you spend on social media, and how you balance that with everything else you need to do, it included a brief survey, and I have to admit, I was surprised by the results. According to you, social media isn't the big time drain that many fear it is (or will become).

Here is the response:

The highest percentage of you spend only 1 -2 hours per week on your Facebook fan page, with the next percentage down being almost equally split between spending slightly more (3 - 5 hours per week) and slightly less (less than 1 hour per week). Only 14.2% of respondents do not have a fan page. If you don't it's time to get one! Facebook has now passed Google in hits. Only 2.7% spend more than 15 hours per week on their fan page.

42% of respondents are not using Twitter, of the remainder, approximately 25% spend less than 1 hour per week, and approximately 19% spend 1 - 2 hours per week. Linkedin was the least popular site for business, with a whopping 47.9% saying they spend no time on the site.

The biggest surprise for me was how much time you devote to your company website: Over 10% of you spend over 10 hours per week on your website (with many of those spending over 15 hours!), although on the other end of the spectrum, 15% of you do not spend any time at all maintaining your website during a typical week.

Almost 60% of respondents feel that the time they are devoting to social media is about right, only 10% feel that it's taking too much time away from other duties.

Even more important is that you do predict big growth in social media, with over 65% believing that they will increase their time on social media in the future.

Here are some of your thoughts (I am sorry I don't have room to print all of them):

"Should you even use Facebook if you can't put in the time? We had others posting things that had nothing to to with us but we didn't know it for quite some time because we don't update it very often. If you can't use it right, ie put in the time, should you have it at all?" The answer: No.

"Getting the balance right seems to be very difficult as results from social media time are not always measurable. Although I take quite a lot of pleasure updating, tweeting, blogging etc I feel it sometimes interferes with other more important issues and seeking direct immediate contact with potential customers."

"Twitter - I haven't yet figured out why anyone would want to hear drivel from me every 3 min. I sure don't want to hear what anyone else is doing or thinking every couple of minutes." If you are tweeting every few minutes you are over using! There are varying opinions, however I don't follow hyper twitterers, I don't have that much time to follow, and I only want to see posts that provide me with real information or something of interest.

"I spend a couple hours a month coming up with "targets" for social media: ideas/recipes for blogs, our schedule of events, themes for posts, etc. It makes knowing what to write about much easier, and frees up time during the day for me to log-on and focus on interacting with our Friends. Since taking on this strategy, there's been a huge upswing in our online activity!" Good strategy!

"The "Flock" browser makes a simple "one window" experience of all my social networking sites! Easy as email!" Thanks for the tip!

"Social media is a MUST in this day and age....anyone who doesn't have a page is totally missing the boat."

"Very difficult as we are a franchisable model looking to eventually move in to other markets, so we are busy networking and planting seeds in potential expansion areas. Additionally with social media technology changing so rapidly right now hard to take a breath and and relax! Maybe we need to develop a social media support group!...Hello my name is Mike and I am addicted to Social Networking!" Hang on Mike, someone's probably working on it!

"I had not really worried about Facebook, especially since our website generates well over one million hits per year, but a social site could add that little bit of business which puts us over the top. The growth of Facebook has been phenomenal over the past year."

"I find much social media too intrusive and overdone. Hearing from a company more than once a week invites deletion from dilution." This is why it's recommended that only 1 of 10 posts have anything to do with sales - SM is about connecting and conversation, not sales!

"More important, where does my customer go for information and buy my product? What does a fan club do... create a customer community that keeps that buying my brand instead of trying another wine? Twitter is so in the moment I'm not sure yet how to use this Then I need to match my customer demographics to usage of the following social media outlets." Exactly, which is why I conduct customer surveys on social media usage for clients. Need one? Email me or call me at 707-933-0687."

"I think it's a fad that will run its course and will revert to communication for teenagers or others who do not have serious work to do! Honestly, who cares what people had for lunch today?" I think time will prove this isn't a fad - it's technology, which keeps on marching forward...

"I run my business by myself and could use training on how to streamline the social media time sucker as now I don't think I'm very proficient and don't take full advantage of it." I am happy to help / coach! Email me or call me at 707-933-0687

"SM serves as a customer service for us. It is critical to monitor what people are saying about our food, service and over all dining experience. The time I spend on SM each week varies. The amount of time I spend each week monitoring boards/sites/reviews is in-valuable because it is our best opportunity to communicate directly with customers. This was a hard sell for me initially to the owners of the restaurant but, the results pay off every time I comment or respond to user feedback weather it's good or bad!"

For the complete report, take the survey via the below link:

http://216.34.99.34/servlet/show/299975/5046//?logo=1

If you have already taken the survey and would like an updated report (the numbers may change as more people participate) simply click through, the survey software should remember you, simply hit submit again (it will not count your answers twice).

- Margie

Do you help with your or Social Media coaching? Call me at 707-933-0687 or email me! margie@otlconsulting.com