Time is Money: Optimizing Your Social Selling Productivity

Time is a concern for many people as they start a social selling strategy.

How will they carve out time from their already busy schedule to spend on social media in hopes of improving their revenue?

It’s a valid question, especially since we often view social media as a black hole of time, with little or no value to come. But the reality is that social selling IS valuable, and the time invested in it can provide real benefits.

In this article, I’ll share some suggestions on managing your social selling time to get the maximum results, without taking over your calendar.

How much time should you spend on Social Selling?

Let’s start with the most basic question – how much time should you spend on LinkedIn or other social media platforms for social selling?

My social selling survey from 2022 showed that most people spend between 3-5 hours a week on social selling, with 95% of those people experiencing positive results.

Most people can benefit from spending as little as 30 minutes a day on social selling activities. This will give you adequate time to connect with your network, post valuable content, and engage with others’ content.

For those dedicated to building social selling as the foundation of their revenue generation strategy, 60 to 90 minutes a day is appropriate. This is for people doing high ROI social activities, like creating more advanced content, leading groups, and hosting live events on social media platforms.

What tasks should you be focusing on?

Knowing your time is limited, focusing your social selling time on high-value activities is essential.

Pretend you were at an in-person networking event. What activities would you focus on to maximize your time at the event?

Would you sit off to the side and try to entertain yourself with off-topic conversations?

Or would you focus on building relationships, having valuable conversations, and (ideally) presenting on a topic you are passionate about?

Social selling is no different. You need to focus your time online, prioritizing the highest-value activities you can do.

If You Have 15 Minutes…

For the first 15 minutes of your social selling time, you should focus on engaging with content in your network. Do the following activities:

• Commenting - Engage with posts on your newsfeed from your connections and people you follow. React and comment on posts, adding your own thoughts and opinions on topics related to your interests.
• Connecting - Actively connect with new people and grow your network. These can include people like your prospects, customers, and other people you find interesting to expand your network into.

If you have 30 minutes…

After you’ve spent the first 15 minutes commenting and connecting, it’s time to do some proactive outreach. Use this time to do the following activities.

• Messaging - Direct messaging is a great way to start personal communication channels with your network. But let me be clear, don’t simply spam your new connections. Use DMs to send a personal message, invite people to meet with you virtually, or share a resource you think they might be interested in.
• Creating Posts - Content is king online. To expand your reach and build your authority, you should post content 3-5 times a week. Use this time to create educational content to share with your network.

If you have 60+ Minutes…

If you’re a real gangsta and have carved out a full hour or more to social selling, then you can spend time doing some more extensive social selling tasks. Here are two examples:

• List Building - With tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator enabled, you can spend time creating custom lists and saved searches. These powerful tools will allow you to actively build a prospect list (and current customer list) to have more targeted engagement with your network.
• Attending/Hosting Events - You can both attend and host events using features like LinkedIn Live. These live events are a great way to find new connections and have an active conversation in the chat section. If you are hosting an event, focus on educational content for your target audience and actively use the invite functionality to increase engagement.

7 Tips for Managing Social Selling Time

If you feel like your social selling time is spent in flux or that you don’t have a good grip on how you manage social selling into your schedule, here are seven tips that might help you.

1. Understand the Value – First, it’s essential to understand the value of social selling. It will benefit you in many ways, including increasing the reach of your content, positioning you as a content expert, expanding your network, and aligning yourself with modern buying behavior. You should see social selling time as a sales activity, not mindless entertainment.
2. Don’t Multitask – Studies show multitasking doesn’t work. Switching back in forth makes tasks take longer and reduces your performance. So this is my recommendation – don’t multitask your social selling activity. Focus on it 100% when doing it, then close the tab(s) when you are done. You’ll be able to spend less time on it and be more effective.
3. Block Off Time – Create dedicated time each day for social selling activities. Even something as simple as 30 minutes in the morning to focus on connecting, commenting, and posting content can ensure you stay active on your social selling networks.
4. Treat It Like An (Online) Networking Event – Begin to shift your mindset from social networks as “social media” to “ social networking” platforms. Treat them as if they were just an online networking event. You are there to meet new people, learn, and provide value to those you can help.
5. Check-In Later – The bulk of your social selling activity will be done during the time you have blocked off (see above), but you can then “check in” later in the day. Spend 15 minutes at another point in the day to log back in, answer any new messages and respond to any comments. You don’t need to leave your social media tabs open in your browser, as this is often just a distraction.
6. Repurpose Content – Not all your content needs to be brand new. In fact, most of your content should be “old” concepts you recycle for your audience. It’s good to reuse ideas and content your audience finds helpful for understanding your industry.
7. Be Intentional – Most important of all, be intentional. Focus your social selling time on genuinely trying to educate your audience and become a trusted guide. Don’t just scroll through mindless content. Become the “go-to” person by connecting and engaging with people through social media platforms.

As you continue your social selling journey, you’ll likely find it one of the highest ROI activities you can do. With just a few hours a week, you can expand your reach, connect with more leads, and foster more revenue generation.

This week I want you to think about how you use your most valuable resource - your time.

How will you be intentional with how you use your time on social networking?

Here are two simple action items you can do:

1. Schedule Your Social Networking Time - Put your social networking time on your calendar. Make it a recurring meeting so that you can get results by staying consistent with your strategy.
2. Focus Your Activities - If you have 15 - 30 minutes daily to spend on social selling, how can you best use it for your strategy? Don’t let distractions (which there are plenty of) get in the way of you doing the most valuable tasks. Set activity goals for yourself so you can be intentional with your scheduled networking time.

How do you schedule your social selling time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Also, if you’ve enjoyed this article, please forward it to your friends and colleagues. I appreciate you helping to grow the Sell with Social community!