“You can be professional while also ‘keeping it real’ with your customers. By interacting with customers in a less formal way, you’ll build a strong human connection that helps build brand loyalty.” ~David Hauser

One of the challenges business owners have with social media is that they feel the need to respond to everything people post. This is just not possible.

Your newsfeed is full of posts. Whether on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, new content is always being shared. You don’t have to respond to everything. Be selective.

Let go of the need to respond to everything happening online.

Here are 3 areas to ignore on Facebook:

1. The newsfeed

Depending on how many friends you have on Facebook will determine how many posts you see in your Facebook newsfeed.

There is no way to keep up with all of the posts in your newsfeed. And remember that not everything your friends share shows up in your newsfeed.

You need to be selective in identifying which posts to read and respond to. And that also means being proactive in visiting the pages of people you want to develop a relationship with.

Now, I’m not suggesting you ignore the newsfeed all of the time. The newsfeed allows you to quickly see what people are posting and respond to them. However, I am suggesting that only checking the newsfeed guarantees you will miss some important conversations you could be having online.

2. Your Facebook Groups

Facebook allows you to join an unlimited number of Facebook Groups, although I wouldn’t recommend joining any more than 100 groups. And frankly, you will probably be overwhelmed with even 50 groups.

Here’s a simple tip for using Facebook Groups. Pick one group to visit per day. Take 15 minutes to read and respond to other people’s posts. And if you have something valuable to share, post it in the group. Just be careful not to spam the group because the moderator may block you from the group.

There is no need to try to participate in all of your Facebook Groups every day. That is just not a good use of time. Instead, devote time and attention to sending private messages to develop relationships one at a time.

3. Filtered Messages

It’s a good idea to check your private messages on Facebook daily. In fact, make sure you do that every morning. You never know who may be trying to reach you, including your clients.

By the way, your personal Facebook account has 2 main message folders. The main inbox and the Filtered Messages folder (previously called Other Messages).

For the most part, you can ignore the Filtered Messages because they are probably spam. But, occasionally, you might find a good message there, so check it every few weeks.

It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by Social Media. But If you prioritize and focus on the most important activities, then you will find it’s easy to manage.

You can apply the same approach to other social media sites including Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Good luck in your online networking.

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer