It seems like we’re on social media in a personal capacity 24/7, but trying to fit the same activities into an 8-hour work day can seem impossible. Most companies realize that there’s a benefit to having an active social presence, but there’s still a mentality that doing the bare minimum will suffice. Social media is complex. Social media is constant. In order to get the most out of social media you need to be dedicated to it. You also need to find ways to make time for it. Here are a just a few of the top social media activities you should be making time for.

Defining tone and targeting

The easy way to do anything on social media is to just start. It’s not a bad approach if you haven’t been doing anything for your company’s online presence, but there’s so much more to be done. If you’ve looked up social media tips before, you’ve likely seen that you should “know your audience.” It’s true. That’s why it’s in so many articles including this post. The problem is, it’s takes a lot of time to do right. You can conduct interviews with current customers and stakeholders. You can review brand mentions across various platforms. You can do a number of things, or you can just guess. My recommendation is to not just guess. When you formulate a complete picture of who your potential customers are, you can start to write messages in a way to reach them more effectively and in a consistent tone they’re expecting. This kind of road mapping will save tons of future work but if you really don’t have the time to devote to social media, research digital partners (like us, at Spyder Trap!) that are well suited to taking on that challenge for you.

Join some Twitter chats

It’s very possible that this is the first time you’re hearing about Twitter chats. They’re often weekly meet-ups organized by a specific hashtag where a moderator poses questions to whomever is participating. It’s a great chance to learn more about a topic. It’s also a great chance to show how much you know about a topic. It’s a brand building and thought leadership opportunity and a way to show your brand’s personality. Don’t be a robot or a brand, be a person—hopefully a person your audience likes. Chats are generally an hour long and require your attention for that whole time frame. However, it’s well worth the time and effort. Can you guess which days I participated in a tweet chat based on analytics chart below?

Those two spikes in reach are the result of a typical Wednesday after a Buffer or #semrushchat. Your organic reach can be greatly expanded with any chat, getting your brand in front of those that may have never heard of you before. Just search around for some relevant chats to join; not all of them will be right for your brand’s goals.

Listening and learning

Social media isn’t just for you to promote you brand. There is tons of data just sitting out there to help you create better campaigns and reach your business goals. Social listening tools can help speed up the process through efficient organization and automation. Users don’t always talk directly to brands, so you’ll need to monitor branded keywords as well as any industry terms you think might lead to some actionable insights. Social listening allows you to stop making assumptions and continue learning more about your audience.

Finding new platforms

Your business is likely on Facebook. Maybe Twitter. Maybe LinkedIn or Instagram depending on your goals. But there are constantly new platforms popping up that could benefit your business. The key is to find where your audience likes to be, and follow them there. That doesn’t mean you should jump in full-steam to every single new social media channel. Just keep up to date with what’s going on in the industry. Take a look at new platforms. Brands are jumping on the SnapChat bandwagon. But for every SnapChat there’s an Ello, which never really took form. My personal favorite is the List App. It’s perfect for some industries like news and entertainment publishers, but might not make much sense for a B2B play.