Have you ever thought about how you use social media and the return you get on your time investment? Or do you just wander from Facebook to Twitter to StumbleUpon to Delicious to FriendFeed to Google Reader and hope it all results in more traffic for your blog? I love to experiment with social networking sites, but I soon discovered that these sites are a serious time-suck if you don’t have a solid plan.  This post will outline how to create a routine that will maximize your social media return on investment (SMROI).

First, let’s be clear on the goal: Our goal is to increase traffic and community to a blog or web site. The four things we need to do to effectively grow our blogs are: Target, Read, Write, and Share. Let’s break these down.

Step One: Target

What social media tools help you hit your target audience? Don’t spend time on sites populated by tech professionals if your blog is about knitting. First, read this article on How To Identify & Target The Right Niche Social Media Sites. Next you can check out this List of Social Media and Social Networking Sites.

There are two general-purpose social tools that I believe everyone should be using: Twitter and  StumbleUpon. Both are proven traffic-generators. Beyond that, I recommend choosing three to five sites, depending on how much time you have.  (I’ve decided to focus on Facebook, Google Reader Shared Items, Kirtsy, and I’m testing Likaholix.) From there, watch and listen.  What social media sites are your peers using? Try new tools as they are launched and determine if they might be added to (or replace something in) your routine.  Analyze your traffic and pay attention to what sites bring you the most.

Step Two: Read

Now that you’ve chosen the social media tools that will get your blog in front of your target audience, become an active participant. Carve out a specific block of time when you will visit each site and read posts that are interesting to you. Comment prolifically. Cultivate your community.

Also in the “Read” category is time spent reading your favorite blogs/feeds. Find a good feed reader (I recommend Google Reader) that makes it easy to categorize and scan feeds so you can quickly pick out the posts that look enticing.

Step Three: Write

If your blog doesn’t have good content that is updated on a regular basis (and “regular” will vary from person to person, but twice a week is a good goal to shoot for), all your work reading, commenting and participating in social media is for naught. If you spend an hour each day active in social media and reading blogs, you should come up with plenty of ideas for blog posts of your own.

Step Four: Share

Here’s where it all comes together. Your ultimate goal is to share your content with others in your social media circle. Make a checklist of ways to let your network know when you’ve posted new content.  Then make a checklist of sites you want to notify when you find relevant content to share.

There are lots of ways to streamline this process. For example, I share pretty much everything through Twitter using Twitterfeed. Everything I write, Stumble, like, or bookmark gets posted to Twitter, which in turn posts to Facebook and FriendFeed. My checklists go like this:

1. Write new blog post. TwitterFeed picks it up (via my RSS feed) and from there it goes to Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed.
2. Find a post I want to share. Stumble it, share it on Google Reader, and/or bookmark it in Delicious. Any of these results in a Tweet (thanks to Twitterfeed), which again goes to Facebook and FriendFeed. Then submit post to Kirtsy and Likaholix as appropriate. I keep links to all these sites in my browser’s bookmark toolbar so they are right in front of me at all times.

There’s much debate on whether it’s appropriate to submit your own content to some social media sites, so be sure you know the protocol on your site of choice. If submitting your own posts is frowned upon, make sure you’re an active participant and your friends can – and will – do this job for you!

To review:

1. Determine what social media sites will help you connect with your target market.
2. Decide how much time you will spend on social media, then commit that time each day to reading, commenting and sharing.
3. Write your own content regularly and share it in an efficient way.
4. Streamline your sharing process.

Don’t get locked into a time-sucking social media routine. Follow the steps in this article and develop a plan that will get you your best Social Media Return on Investment.

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