Editor’s Note: We are pleased to welcome Russ Thornton, independent financial advisor, to the Arkovi blog. Russ was kind enough to provide an inside glimpse of how a successful advisor has developed a workflow to integrate social media into his business. We found it compelling that he has found an approach that enables him to leverage a broad menu of platforms while managing content creation (Hootsuite - which we happen to love too!) and archiving/backup (ahem, using Arkovi) from consolidated tools.
Hi there. I’m Russ Thornton. I want to share with you how I typically spend a day engaged in social media from the perspective of a busy financial advisor.
Getting the Day Started
7:30 AM - This is usually when I start my day. Despite warnings to the contrary, I’ll usually check my email and collect my thoughts on what needs to be accomplished for the day.
8:00 AM - I’ll usually login to Hootsuite (@hootsuite), and quickly assess what’s going on in the wonderful world of social media. I follow a lot of financial advisors on Twitter, but I also like to keep up with designers, technology thought leaders and some of the vendors whose solutions I use in my business.
8:15 AM - I will check my primary Twitter stream along with a couple of lists I’ve created. I’m looking for the opportunity to share valuable content and information from others into my followers’ stream. And the beauty of Hootsuite is that I can schedule these throughout the day.
Let’s say I find 12-15 tweets that I’d like to re-tweet to my followers. I might spread these out over the next 4-5 hours of the day. This allows me to “batch process” some of my social media activities and be more efficient with my time.
8:30 AM - I will check Google Analytics to see what’s been happening on my website and see if there’s anything unusual that needs to be addressed.
8:45 AM - I will check Wordpress, my blogging platform of choice, to see if there are any blog comments that I need to approve or respond to.
9:00 AM - I typically post 1-2 times per week to my company blog. If I have a post I’d like to publish today, this is typically when I would do it.
In the Office
9:15 AM - Work. Emails. Phone calls. Meetings.
Often, between calls or meetings, I’ll take 2-3 minutes to check my Hootsuite account where I can monitor Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook all in one place. This gives me the opportunity to engage in conversations or reply to items where I can add some value.
This is my pattern throughout the typical workday.
Wrap up the Day
4:00 PM - Check Hootsuite again to find opportunities to engage with others. Will batch process items I’d like to share. Confirm that my blog post has been automatically fed into Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Check my blog.
I usually wrap up my day around 5:30 PM or so. Of course, in the course of any day, my schedule can get thrown into a tailspin and it’s all I can do to keep my head above water, but in the rare event of a relatively calm day, this gives you an idea of my schedule.
As a financial advisor, I have some other considerations to make while engaging in social media like Twitter. Primary among them . . .
Compliance
So, what do I do to make sure I’m taking all the necessary precautions and steps to ensure that I don’t run afoul of the regulators? Well the first thing I do is think before I type. Common sense will go a long way in helping you avoid problems.
However, my secret weapon in using social media is Arkovi.
Just like Apple computer is known for creating elegant solutions that “just work”, Arkovi has created an archiving solution that “just works” in the background. It’s unobtrusive and doesn’t alter the way I interact with the tools I choose to utilize.
Currently, I use Arkovi to back up:
- Facebook - Personal Profile
- Facebook - Business Page
- YouTube
- My Blog
And if a new social media platform pops up tomorrow, as long as it has an RSS feed, I can back it up. And if it doesn’t, Arkovi’s development team has proven to be nimble and responsive to use requests.
Sure, I could be an active participant in social media without the peace of mind that comes from working with Arkovi, but why would I want to take the risk?
Arkovi Media announcement - http://tinyurl.com/34gzd4u - posted on 30/05/2010
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for inviting me to share how I use social media and the tools that make it easy for me to do so. Chief among them . . . Arkovi, of course
@ Russ good read, if you can do all of the “checking” within 15-30mins great work, I am employeed full time as a social media adviser and let me tell you its a full time gig. Great to see you engaging nonetheless! twitter.com/carl_mogridge
@carlmogridge - Don’t be mislead by what I’ve outlined above. Social media could very quickly and easily take over my entire day.
However, I’ve purposely done some things, many of which are described in this post, to help me focus on being engaged while still balancing my other commitments and responsibilities.
Other things I’ve done to help maintain this balance is limiting the number of people I follow on Twitter to about 100, use of Twitter lists to keep up with others that I don’t follow directly, and using my Facebook Biz page as my primary presence on Facebook even though I have approximately 6X more friends on my personal Facebook profile.
Thanks for your comment.
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