Are your social media habits undisciplined?

I’m not bragging—there are plenty of people with more—it’s just a fact of my life. How do I manage to do all that every day and still run a full-time business? Great question. I don’t. Nobody else does either, at least not by themselves and definitely not every day.

Here’s the big, deep, dark secret about using social media for business: You’ve got to have discipline. If you get derailed by Farmville for an hour every time you go onto Facebook, your business may have a problem. If it’s open all day in your browser while you “work,” then you may need an intervention.

Don’t claim social media takes too much time when the issue is that you aren’t focused on how you’re using it. I don’t mean you should constantly push out your marketing messaging and talk about business. You know as well as I do that you don’t approach a new client, stick your hand, and say “Hi, I’m Janet; buy my stuff!” You have to get to know them first. Listen to what matters to them and what they care about; then you can help solve their problem with what you have.

Turn off Twitter