Social Media can sometimes seem like a chore when trying to balance your daily tasks, work and family time!  An average of five and a half hours a month is spent on social networking sites, with Facebook leading the way. That’s 82% more time on social networking sites than just a year ago, according to Read Write Web. So, how are you expected to stay connected to the world whether it is for business purposes, with friends, or family and still have time for everything else?

The first rule of social media is that there are no rules. But, in order to keep a healthy media diet, maybe it’s time to put some rules into place. I have created a list of rules of my own to help efficiently manage social networking for BlindAcre. My rules and tips are as follows;

TIMING: Find a time of the day that works best for you to network. Try to set aside at least an hour or two at the same time everyday. This will become a nice daily habit and can help eliminate wondering onto posts, tweets and sites that may be off topic.

ORGANIZATION: If you are into a few social media sites, it may be time for you to use a platform that helps you organize your different networks and allows you to work from a single interface. My preference is HootSuite, see Top 10 Favorite Features of HootSuite. This platform will help you swiftly update posts, tweets and even blogs by allowing you to switch between your different accounts. This is a great way to save time!

RATIO: If you help your business on networking sites, make sure you have a nice ratio of personal to business posts/tweets/topics. I like to follow a 4:1 ratio on twitter and a 3:1 ratio on Facebook. This allows you to stay up to date on industry news while also keeping your postings personal and allowing customers, followers and friends to stay connected. This also helps to weed out information that may not need to be posted and can help you decide which posts are the most important for your readers.

MEASURE: See what posts and topics are most popular by the feedback and comments. Check the stats and click rate through HootSuite’s Summary Statistics. Noticing a trend on your posts? Maybe it’s time to post more about a certain topic or area.

BLOG: Because Blog postings can sometimes take a lot of time, I have a designated folder on my desktop where I like to keep a list of topics I feel may be relevant to write about. From here, I can begin to grow a database of information and articles as I stumble upon them. This makes the writing process smoother with resources readily available for my next post.

The BlindAcre team has also created a blog schedule to follow. This allows for a variety of information to be posted to our blog per division and takes the stress of blog writing off of one person. Having a schedule to abide by allows each division to communicate to our readers and followers, allowing for very dynamic content and information.

Next time you find yourself beginning to feel the stress of balancing work, life and your family, assess your situation and make a schedule that works for you. If you are looking for a more in-depth plan, don’t be scared to make your own rules to follow. Wired provides a great pyramid on Balancing Your Media Diet by breaking up the time you should spend on different media outlets.