“Not enough time” is not a reason, it’s an excuse.

How much time do you spend on social media (for your business) every day? Do you wonder where the time goes and then fret that you don’t have enough time to create content or products or learn new strategies and tactics to grow your business?

The “I don’t have time” complaint has been addressed by me and others many, many, many times. And after seeing the infographic below, let’s look at it again.

Yes, social marketing takes time. All marketing, social or otherwise, takes time.

Yes, it’s about consistently marketing your business so you get the traffic, leads, gigs and opportunities to grow your business.

And, it’s vital to have a strategy so you don’t fritter away your day on social media. It’s got to work for you, not against you.

Can you really “rock social media in 30 minutes a day”?

I’m skeptical. Only 6 minutes to engage, promote and share each day on Facebook? Really? I don’t know about you, but to craft a decent status update and include a relevant image or quote and a call to action, takes me a bit more than 6 minutes and that doesn’t account for responding to comments and questions from previous posts. Or commenting on other people’s posts.

Then, there’s creating content for your blog, your primary real estate. That’s not included on the infographic, yet in my opinion that’s where you need to put the most effort and time in order to build your reputation and provide your readers and fans to easily share your message with their networks.

So what do you do?

The infographic provides a good initial road map.

• You start by identifying the social channels your clients are active on.
• Create a simple strategy for publishing long form content on your blogsite that tells your story about who you are, who you serve and how you do it.
• Identify the tactics you want to use to get your story out into the stream, in front of the right eyeballs.
• Automate where you can and schedule time that is realistic for your objectives. It may be 30 minutes a day, or it may be more.
• What tasks can you outsource and do you have the resources to do so?

My advice – that I share with my clients and students – is to [pullquote position=”right”]budget a minimum of one hour a day for your social marketing, including attention to the content on your blog[/pullquote]. That’s a total of five hours a week which is really not very much at all. By focusing on your content and getting it amplified around the Web, you’ll be able to create more paths to your virtual door and let in more connections and opportunities.

Below the infographic is a sample visibility schedule you’re welcome to download and adapt for your business.

Check out the sample Visibility schedule below. It’s a word document so you can modify it to fit your business and schedule.

I’d like to hear from you on the time and social marketing issue. How much time do you spend each day using social media to market your business? Do you think the suggested scheduled on the infographic is realistic?