Words by Amy Fowler

I love discovering inspirational nuggets online that motivate me in life and in work, and this video from Matt Cutts of Google practically made me punch the air in delight. Matt describes the phenomenon that if you try anything for 30 days, then it can become habit. I was so fired up by this idea that I decided to try it with yoga, doing at least 10 minutes a day for 30 days. I’m currently on day 17 (with about 4 days of not doing it), so although I haven’t completed the challenge fully yet, I’m certainly doing more yoga than I was before taking on the challenge, and I must say, I feel far better for it! Not only that but I realised the other day that I can now touch my toes without bending my knees, for the first time in my life. Result!

It got me thinking about how I can use the concept of the 30-day challenge to help my clients, and I realised that you could easily apply the challenge to using social media. Many of my clients who are still adapting to using social media to promote their business often say that time is an issue – with a moutain of pressing tasks on their plate they can’t possibly find time to check their LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles and respond to comments, let alone think of a witty or interesting thing to post on their wall every day. However, I always advise that the key to achieving commercial and brand success on social media is to use it little and often. So take about  half an hour every morning, checking and responding to customer comments and queries, connecting with people you met at the last networking event you went to, asking for an introduction or recommendation on LinkedIn, and sharing the morning’s news with your community on all your accounts. This daily housekeeping will help you keep dialogue with customers and prospects open and the addition of content to your pages will increase the likelihood of your audience engaging with your brand – further increasing your brand’s reach.

I challenge you to try this every morning for 30 days. Before you know it, social media will be integrated into your daily routine. You’ll be seeing the benefits of using social media on a regular basis while still being able to keep time spent on it to a minimum, so that you can go about doing what you’re paid for for the rest of the day.