Being successful with your social media strategy means having a schedule that allows you to participate and actively engage with your various channels.

I recommend you break up your tasks so that the work required to listen, engage, articulate, and demonstrate are staggered throughout the week.

A sample calendar might look like this:

• Sunday – LISTEN - Take a well deserved break but keep listing. Check your Google Alerts and make note of any mentions that sound interesting. If you have a smart phone, then I recommend you push alerts to your mobile rather than having to sit in front of a computer.  Listening doesn't have to be disruptive.
• Monday – ENGAGE - Respond to mentions on blogs that you hear over the weekend.
• Tuesday – ARTICULATE - If you are writing a blog, publish your article today. Tuesdays are the best day to post an article or send an email newsletter because most people are swamped with emails on Mondays. Continue to listen and respond to mentions as required.
• Wednesday – ARTICULATE – DEMONSTRATE – Post photos or videos to your Facebook page/Flickr/Youtube accounts.
• Thursday – ENGAGE – DEMONSTRATE – Review your social network profile pages and respond to comments or wall posts. Thank your customers when they post comments
• Friday – LISTEN – ENGAGE – Listen and respond to mentions and tweets.
• Saturday – LISTEN -  Listen only. If you can, respond or just wait until Monday.

You will probably find that as you become more comfortable with the social web, your mentions and hits will increase requiring you to listen and respond more quickly or more frequently.

In most cases, responding can be done very quickly using an Android, iPhone or Blackberry application for Twitter. In the case of the fan page or other blogs, simply make note of the mention and respond to it accordingly.

Not every mention will require a response.

Stephen A. Joyce has been working as a travel & tourism technology consultant since 1995. In 2005 Stephen and his company, Sentias Software Corp., began development on Rezgo.com, a next generation Web 2.0 tour and activity booking engine for SME travel suppliers and tour operators.

In June of 2007, Rezgo.com was officially released and now boasts a user base of 900+ companies. Stephen is also very active in fostering tourism technology and is co-chair of the Board of Directors of the OpenTravel Alliance, a non-profit organization whose mandate is to develop and foster messaging standards for travel e-distribution.

http://tourismtechnology.rezgo.com