14 #hesm pros share tips, techniques & tools to manage time and social media

Social media takes time – a lot of time. It never stops.

Managing time is one of the challenges most often mentioned by the 14 Higher Ed Social Media Professionals I interviewed for a previous post who presented at the 2nd Higher Ed Social Media Conference (now available on-demand).

Like yours, their day is only 24-hour long. That’s why I asked them how they maintain balance in their life & work given the 24/7 nature of social media work.

Tyler Thomas, Social Media Specialist at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln

To be honest, life and work balance isn’t the easiest with my job. Social is 24/7 and working in Higher Ed is tough as most events or campus happenings happen outside the normal 8-5, so to maintain balance I do a few things:

Alicia Nestle, Assistant Director-Multimedia and PR at Nazareth College

I definitely feel the pressure of trying to keep up with “the latest and the greatest” offerings in social media. I try to remember that these are just new tools for good old fashioned communication, and the most important thing to communicate is who we are as a College.

Right now, I work full-time and am about 3/4 of my way through a master’s in management degree. I’m a wife and a mom to a 7-year-old. About a year ago, I took up running which is now my new passion that I fit in 4 X’s a week at 5 a.m. So my plate is pretty full!

For work, I use a social media management tool called Sprout Social and I really love it. It is very user-friendly and allows me to monitor, post and reply on our main Facebook and Twitter feeds easily. It has great reporting features (analytics) and I’m also able to add smaller department accounts to keep an eye on their activity as well.

Work really started creeping into my home life this summer and fall. When my daughter started asking me to put my cell phone down and talk to her, I knew I had to make a change.

So I implemented a few rules for myself:

1. No looking at my phone from the time I leave work(4:30 p.m.) until 8 p.m.
2. At 8 p.m., I check social media on Sprout Social and respond/retweet/like, etc. anything new that’s happened from the time I left work until then. I do not look at the social feeds again for the rest of the night
3. I do not look at email at all from the time I leave work until 6 a.m. the next morning. If it’s an emergency, someone will call or text me. Otherwise, it can wait. I look at social feeds again at 6 a.m. for any overnight activity.

Corie Martin, Creative Web Services Manager at Western Kentucky University

My job like so many others is 24/7/365. Social media never sleeps, and neither apparently do many of our students. Personally, I work full-time, I’m a full-time doctoral student, and I have two children and a husband at home. I don’t see any of this as work though. All of these facts about me comprise who I am, and I love what I do. Everything I do, I do by choice. I do a lot of my work after my kids go to bed, and sure, there are times when I’ve missed field trips or events during the school year. My family is incredibly supportive, and that support system makes all the difference. I know that I am providing an awesome example for my two daughters. I am teaching them that there is no task they can’t handle, nothing they can’t learn, and that they will get more satisfaction out of working hard and earning their way without excuses than if someone just walked up to them and handed them a golden opportunity on a silver platter.

The best advice that I could give someone seeking work/life balance is this: Create your opportunities and own them. Stay out of your own way. Learn to say no. I repeat: Embrace the “No.” It’s really hard at first, but it is empowering and liberating to allow yourself the freedom to choose your battles where you can. A lot of times we can’t do that professionally, so for me it manifested in dropping a few pro bono gigs and volunteer slots – at least until after I graduate, then I have promised my kids all bets are off.

Katherine Hasenauer Cornetta, Assistant to the Dean of Students for Programs, Communications & Technology at Boston University

I have a second career (I’m a freelance sports writer), and having that helps force balance. It also helps, since my second career also has a huge social media component. If something pops up I need to respond to on social media for BU, I can without much interruption. In addition, I personally adore social media. I’ve met some outstanding people, overcome shyness and grown both of my careers all from my use of social media. Even if it didn’t factor into both my jobs, I would be an active user. My boss, Dean Elmore, says it best: “I’m the type of person that even if my position didn’t make it important for me to be on Twitter, I would be on Twitter because it’s interesting.”

Social media tool wise, I am a giant fan of the Twitter application for Mac. It may not be as fancy as other options, but it’s so easy to use! I use Hootsuite as well. Canva is my favorite thing to come around for social media graphics – I made this adorable Laundry Tips series using it when I temporarily oversaw our Residence Life Facebook page.

Stephanie Hatch Leishman, Social Media Strategist at MIT

Automate what can and should be automated, so you can spend your valuable time on the engagement that can only be done by a human.

Although analysis, assessment, and defining metrics will be thoughtful and manual, find ways to automate the actual reports. For example, set up hashtag archiving through tools like HootSuite or Hashtracking so you don’t have to go back and create a history manually.

Also, social media teams of more than one person should be using a project management system (even a free one), not email. Managing your time means knowing what can be delegated to tools and what you should do yourself.

Rachel Esterline Perkins, Associate Director of PR and Social Media at Central Michigan University

Focus your time and efforts on the social media channels that give you the most impact.

People often ask, “Why don’t we have a presence on this other social network?” It’s important to be sure that a channel will help you achieve your goals. If it doesn’t make sense strategically, then I focus my time elsewhere.

Lori Packer, Web Editor at The University of Rochester

Delegate, delegate, delegate.

I brought on a new web writer this year, so now with my little team of three, we take turns for who is “on call” to monitor the big accounts.

Every week, one of us gets a week off, so you’re never “on” more than two weeks in a row. I think if you give people some training and guidance so they know what the expectations are, then give them some freedom to innovate and be proactive, you don’t have to *own* everything yourself.

Tony Dobies, Senior Writer at West Virginia University

Like you said, it never stops… and usually neither do I.

My bosses yell at me, because I work all the time, so I might not be the best person to give advice on this, but I can tell you what I’ve learned over time on the topic. It’s best to always have a backup, so that you can step away every now and then and go on vacation or just have a lazy day every once in a while. That backup person should be someone you can trust to do everything you’d need and really understands not just policies and procedures but how social media works. Make this is a priority, because that’s the only way I’ve learned to escape the daily constraints.

One more thing: allow yourself to escape from the rigors of your job for just a little bit each day. For example, I turn my phone on airplane mode during my run, so I don’t get texts, calls or emails. Those little spans of time will keep you from burning out as quickly.

Tiffany Broadbent Beker, Web Developer & Social Media Coordinator at College of William & Mary

I definitely struggle with the “always on” aspect of my job.

I love what I do and most of the time I am happy to jump online in the evening to put up a social media post or check work email on the weekends, but there are times where “turning off” can be really useful. Getting that reset away from the digital everything helps give me perspective on what I’m working on in the social sphere. For me that reset happens in the evenings when I go to the gym or play volleyball, or when I’m driving, I’m forced to focus on something else and that gives me perspective on what occupies the rest of my day.

I came across a new tool (courtesy of Ron Bronson) called Nuzzel that aggregates the links shared in your Twitter and Facebook feeds and shows you what articles are most popular, this has saved me a lot of time and helps with that “fear of missing out.”

Julie Winch, Social Media Director at Emory University

A healthy work-life balance has always been very important to me, and it remains so working in social media.

For me, I always make myself available after hours, but within reason. I don’t necessarily look at my phone every 5 minutes if I’m at dinner, but I’ll be sure to keep an eye on things throughout the evening.

The biggest lesson I have learned over the years has been that people will expect you to be as available as you make yourself. If you answer emails at 3am, people will assume they can reach you at all hours. If you make yourself available after-hours with the caveat that it may be a little while until you respond, people will understand and respect that. It’s all about expectations ¬- it’s almost humanly impossible to be on top of every single thing that happens on social media, so just manage what you can do and delegate from there. Plus, there are ALWAYS exceptions to the rule. Just be uber aware (follow hashtags, mentions on Twitter, convos on group pages on Facebook, Yik Yak conversations) of what’s going on on your campus, and know if you need to be in-pocket.

Andrew Smyk, Program Coordinator at Sheridan College

Research and planning are the big key components to maintain work/life balance.

Having the right tools to monitor and get feedback are a great help.

I would recommend Hootsuite University. It is a good way to learn social media metrics and how to properly use tools to manage your social media channels. I am still a big fan of Twitter and use Tweetdeck for managing and engaging in conversations with potential applicants and current students. The Twitter mobile app also provides the ability to carry on conversations and post content to multiple accounts easily while on the go.

Dan Zaointz, Special Projects Coordinator & Marketing Professor at Seneca College

It’s no big secret that tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck help social media users share content with followers even when you are away from your smartphone. I’m a big fan of those tools in terms of scheduling content at certain times. I’m also a fan of tools like Sprout Social that help you better understand who you are engaging with.

Angi Roberts, Information Services Manager at the University of Guelph (Ontario)

Using an iPhone makes it easier because I can check content, updates, respond to questions/tweets/posts all while I’m on the go.

I hired 7 students: Social Media Ambassadors. They each have a day of the week assigned to them, and they are each responsible for posts on those days. We follow a theme (that was developed in advanced) each week, themes are usually relevant to what is going on in a student’s life and/or on campus.

Sandra Ordonez, Assistant Director of Social Media at St. John’s University

This might sound cheesy but when you love what you do and are passionate about your job, it’s not bad at all.

It really helps to have an amazing group of administrators and Social Media Ambassadors to work with.

What about YOU? How do you maintain work/life balance with your social media work?

I would love to compile a few more tips from the community on this page. Please, don’t be shy and share yours by posting a comment below!

And, if you want to learn more from these great higher ed social media professionals, make sure you get a pass for your team for the 2nd Higher Ed Social Media Conference (now available on-demand).