Staying Connected In A Time Crunched World

We all lead busy lives. It doesn’t mat­ter if you are a 9am-5pm cube dweller or a stay-at-home mom and dad. From the time we wake up until we finally close our eyes, we are busy. Time is already at a pre­mium, so how are we sup­posed to add social net­works into our jam-packed schedule?

One of the great things about the social net­works, Stay­ing Con­nected,  can also one of the the biggest draw­backs. Sure we want to chat with folks from around the globe, get news as it hap­pens, learn about peo­ple mak­ing a dif­fer­ence and even find out about amaz­ing shop­ping deals but it does take time to par­tic­i­pate on the net­works in order to be privy to the lat­est news. If you’re already busy, it seems like a daunt­ing task to take on Social Networking.

Here are a few tips to help you make the most of the time you do have to par­tic­i­pate on the Social Networks:

1. Choose at least 1 but no more than 5 Social Net­works. Remem­ber each net­work requires your active par­tic­i­pa­tion in order to work for you. So take the time to inves­ti­gate the net­works that best suit your needs upfront.

2. Find the mobile ver­sions or tools for each of the net­works. Almost all of the Social Net­works have a mobile ver­sion or inte­grate with exist­ing mobile tools. Think about the time you cur­rently spend stand­ing in line at the bank, post office, store or wait­ing for a con­nect­ing flight. These are prime exam­ples of how you can use what would be con­sid­ered wasted time to stay connected.

3. Tim­ing can work to your advan­tage. While all the Social Net­works are avail­able 24/7, there are opti­mum peak times to dip your toe into the busy con­ver­sa­tion stream. By the same token there are also off-peak times in which your voice can carry fur­ther by inter­act­ing closely with fewer participants.

4. Par­tic­i­pate in the con­ver­sa­tion daily. Sure we’re crunched for time, but if we don’t take the time to at least post an update or two daily, we’re miss­ing out on keep­ing our con­nec­tions cur­rent. The last thing you want to do is take the time to build up your pres­ence only to have it fade away due to ane­mic posting.

While there are many more tech­niques for stay­ing con­nected these four are a way to get off to a good start. Feel free to add your tips and tech­niques for stay­ing con­nected in a time crunched world.

photo credit: Mani­ac­World

Tags: mobile, Social Networking, staying connected, techniques, technology, tips, tools