Improving your online presence is easy when you change the way you view time.  Many of us lose sight of the fact that time is a depleting resource or asset.  Putting it simply, once that minute elapses that minute is gone forever never to be used again. 

Here’s a sobering way of looking at time.  You’ve just left the doctor’s office and you were delivered the mind numbing earth shattering news that you had one week to live.  How would you spend those last days?  Would you sit around watching TV?  I know I wouldn’t.  Almost all of us…me included take time for granted saying things like…I’ll get to it tomorrow or I’ll do it later.

We also do things that make it seem like we’re busy but in reality the actions we take are time wasters with no real return value.  We’ve all heard the phrase “time is money” yet we fail to give it much meaning.

If you’re reading this post…if you don’t think you are going to be enlightened by it to take action then you are wasting your time…STOP READING NOW AND DO SOMETHING BETTER!  I’ll start of with the time wasters and then finish off with the HIGH ROI Activities.

Time Wasting Activities that do Nothing for Your Online Presence

  • Scrolling through Facebook or LinkedIn to read updates
  • Tweaking your graphics or perfecting layouts
  • Engaging in useless non-value oriented “chatter” on Facebook / Twitter / forums etc.
  • Surfing the net without purpose
  • Checking email on regular intervals (2 or 3 times /day is plenty)..turn off email notifications
  • Checking site stats…once a week or monthly is good enough
  • Doing way too much research
  • Doing any other task that could be outsourced or have another team member completed.

10 High value, High Return Activities to Boost your Online Presence

  1. Writing a new blog post to educate your prospects,
  2. Establishing a routine,
  3. Writing and sending out a Newsletter to your subscribers,
  4. Telling stories or creating case studies on how your customers improved their situation with your product or service,
  5. Sending out referrals that will help your clients,
  6. Participating and adding value on forums ( for example, Answers on LinkedIn) related to your business,
  7. Contributing articles or posts to other related sites in your business or industry,
  8. Promoting your newly posted content to Social Media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
  9. Online Networking, not just by adding people to your network…by reaching out and having meaningful conversation.
  10. Systemizing your business – i.e. outsourcing activities, or utilizing programs that allow you to leverage your time.  Things like graphic design, website optimization, article or video submission are all things that can eat up valuable time.  If you are doing repetitive tasks in your day find ways to automate it or have someone else do it.

Don’t make work for the sake of making work.  Remember the 80/20 rule, rank the high return activities and do more of them and watch your productivity soar.