Are You Up to the Social Media Challenge?

As I set up my Google+ profile, I thought “How am I going to find the time to manage yet another social media account?” I already have three Twitter accounts, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, two Facebook Fan Pages and let’s not forget my YouTube account, which has an endearing video of me and my 79-year old dad singing “Happy Birthday” to my nephew.

Not too long ago I was consistently posting updates using TweetDeck (and HootSuite on my iPhone and iPad), and it only took me about 15 minutes per day. My 2-3 daily posts seemingly kept me top of mind with my network, and it was paying off. I maintained dialogue with many existing contacts as well as established new connections. I had a good system going, so what happened? Well, at some point I just got too busy. Then it didn’t take long before my scheduled morning and evening tweets and posts fell by the wayside, leaving only ad hoc status updates to my Facebook profile so that my family knew I was still breathing. Sound familiar?

The good news is signing up for Google+ gave me pause to reflect on my old reliable TweetDeck system. So the other day, I took a few minutes to write a short post alerting my surf buddies that the O’Neill Cold Water Classic competition was in Santa Cruz and should not be missed. Five minutes and a few posts and tweets later, I felt like I had made progress immediately! Love that instant gratification.

Experts agree that it takes a minimum of 21 days to change a behavior, whether it’s adopting a new exercise regime, diet, quitting smoking­—you get the idea. It’s all about consistency. I’m confident that this theory will also apply to my goal of reestablishing my social networking routine to increase its effectiveness.

Join me by creating your own 21-day challenge program! And follow, like , friend, and connect with me to see how I’m doing.

Next blog in 21 days with the results!