How much time should you spend on social media management?

By Ashley Wymer | @ashleywymer Somewhere between balancing business and personal affairs, it can occasionally be a challenge to make time to manage your company’s social media. However, it’s also easy to get caught up for hours on end, losing track of time altogether. Professionals must walk a fine line between bombarding their followers and starving them of content. So how much time should you spend on social media efforts?

While some sources state that you should spend anywhere between 4 to 14 hours a week managing your pages, our resident social media guru Eve Mayer Orsburn, who happens to be our CEO, says the ideal amount of time you should spend monitoring your page is roughly 32 hours a month. This means that to push your social media to its maximum potential, you need to clock in around 8 hours a week supplying quality, relevant and entertaining content to your followers. The real challenge here lies in actually following through with your schedule. With looming deadlines and meetings, penciling in “frivolous” Facebook and Twitter time may seem like a stretch, but the results from a properly managed social media agenda is priceless in the business world.

A seemingly abandoned Facebook or Twitter page indicates to your consumers, clients, and customers that you don’t care about reaching out to them, getting their feedback or building a relationship. Not to mention, setting up a social media account and then abandoning it sends the message that you don't follow through on what you start. On the other end of the spectrum, virtually harassing your clients is irritating and off putting; nobody likes a feed full of spam.

A well maintained social media portfolio will show your clients that you care about interacting with them, and will listen when they have something to say. It gives voice to your business, allowing them to see you as more than just another cold, faceless company. Devote just over an hour a day to your profiles and your business will reap the benefits that social media can provide.