How would you rate your social media productivity?Would you say it’s a battle you might win, but tend to lose more often than not?If so, don’t beat yourself up. Staying productive while managing social media is tough.It requires:

• Organization
• Awareness
• Commitment

But the great news? Each of those skills is attainable with the right plan in place.So with a never-ending to-do list and a million shiny objects screaming at you - how can you avoid distractions and work smarter?With the 7 social media infographics I'm sharing today!Each one will make you more productive, efficient and effective.

7 Social Media Infographics That Will Make You More Productive

Infographic #1:

A Productive Day in the Life of a Social Media Marketer

Ever wonder what a day in the life of a social media marketer really looks like?I can tell you, it's not all fun and games.It's a lot of hard work that when paired with consistent processes can equal massive success.And not just for you as a marketer, but your clients, customers, and community.

Courtesy of: RazorSocial

Courtesy of my friend Ian Cleary at Razor Social.Infographic #2:

Social Media Workflow for a 40 Hour Week

If you want to build a better social media strategy, you need to get more done in less time.This means you need to:

• Stop working on tasks that don't deserve your attention.
• Stop giving too much time to tasks that can and should be done faster.

If you're wondering how long certain activities should take, the benchmarks below will help you set a baseline.These 11 components make up the hours that go into building a strong social media strategy:

1. Updating social networks – 4 hours
2. Planning, writing, and publishing blog posts – 7.5 hours
3. Research and planning internal and external content to share – 4 hours
4. Curate and share content – 2.5 hours
5. Engaging with your community – 4 hours
6. Monitoring brand mentions online – 2.5 hours
7. Developing campaigns, such as promotions and contests – 2.5 hours
8. Community growth – 2.5 hours
9. Strategy management and adjustments – 2.5 hours
10. Analytics Reporting – 2.5 hours
11. Contingency time for damage control or unexpected problems – 4 hours

by Mark Smicklas via Social Media Explorer

Infographic #3:

13 Productivity Tips for the Busy Professional

Social media productivity can be an elusive animal to wrangle. Just when you think you have a system in place, the rules change.Or worse yet -- the social networks change and you're starting from square one.To stop that endless cycle, it's important to plan and organize your time. One rule I live by is suggested by Hubspot in the Infographic below:Work in sprints to eliminate wasted (non-productive) time spent and avoid getting stuck on any one task for too long.To maximize my time, I've combined the Pomodoro Technique to the Lean Agile Methodology. This allows me to break down tasks into a one week sprint.To Do This in Your Business:

1. Ask yourself:
2. How many hours can you reasonably work on and in your business each day?
3. What are your high value tasks? (the tasks only you should be working on)

1. Now take each task and work on it in chunks of time. For me it's 25 minutes on, 10 minutes off. Sound hard to do?

Consider what you're losing by bouncing from one shiny object to the next.According to the American Psychological Association’s overview of multitasking research, there are three types of multitasking:

1. Performing two tasks simultaneously. This includes talking on the phone while driving or answering email during a webinar.
2. Switching from one task to another without completing the first task. We’ve all been right in the middle of focused work when an urgent task demands our attention; this is one of the most frustrating kinds of multitasking, and often the hardest to avoid.
3. Performing two or more tasks in rapid succession. It almost doesn’t seem like multitasking at all, but our minds need time to change gears in order to work efficiently.

Each one has been proven to decrease your productivity. In fact, only 2% of the population can actually multi-task successfully. Yikes!So stop bouncing from one task to the next. Use a tool like Tomato Timer or a plugin like the Chrome Pomodoro Timer to manage and track your daily tasks and time.

Infographic #4:

Advanced Social Media Checklist

Contrary to what some marketers think, social media isn’t just a channel to blast out promotional content.Doing this without building relationships isn't going to magically produce a ton of website traffic.While that may have been common practice in the past, social media marketing has matured.Now there are a variety of ways to leverage the power of key social networks to grow your business.In fact, the role of a social media professional has grown so much that keeping up with everything that needs to get done on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis can be overwhelming.That’s why Sprout Social put together the only social media checklist you’ll ever need.And why I asked Michael Patterson, Digital Marketing Specialist with Sprout Social to break it all down for you. 

Infographic #5:

Create a Social Media Presence for Your Business

A big part of managing time on social media is knowing how and where to spend it.But here's the good news:

Marketing your business on social media isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

Want to know why?

Because you don’t have to have a huge following to do it!

As a small business, instead of connecting with a lot of people — you just need to connect with the RIGHT people.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Peg Fitzpatrick.Peg is the co-author of Art of Social Media and works daily with Guy Kawasaki. Between her booming business and Guy's, she manages a whopping 13 million followers.Holy wow, right? Peg knows her stuff and she came ready to share her top tips.If you’re ready to make social media work for your small business, grab this Infographic and read my full interview here.

Infographic #6:

How to Share Your Content with a Social Media Strategy Template

This one isn't so much an Infographic as it is an awesome social media template.CoSchedule has put together a social media strategy template to help you map out your promotional plan.Why do you need to plan before you launch a piece of content?As Ben Sailer from CoSchedule puts it, "an effective plan helps you do better and work more efficiently... with less stress."I don't know about you, but I'm all for that.He goes on to say...A good plan also includes:

• A clear list of goals and objectives
• An audit of your existing social media presence
• Competitive analysis
• A basic social media content strategy outline
• Building a social media calendar
• Established methods for measurement and analysis

Building an effective strategy for social media takes time. But it's time well spent!Plus, added benefits are:

• Maintain consistent posting schedules across channels
• Avoid last-minute rushing to find content to share
• Stop missing the boat on trending topics due to poor planning

You can download the 6 page template here to get started.

Infographic #7:

How to Share Your Content with a Social Media Strategy Template

I know you might find this hard to believe, but I can tell you from experience...If you want to improve social media productivity, you need to create better habits.And this isn't just online. It's in every aspect of your life.Set yourself up for success from the start of your day with these 44 Ways to Be More Productive.

Final Thoughts

There's no secret formula that will make you productive on social media overnight.But you can take immediate steps to improve your habits.My Challenge to YouFocus on one social media task at a time. Complete it with no distractions before you move on to the next.When you start to multi task, you force yourself to stop. Think of the wasted time it takes to get back on track?Take the challenge and stick with it for one week. See how it makes you feel...

• Less stress?
• Reduced overwhelm?
• More productive?
• Getting things done that matter?

Stop running and instead, get results through increased productivity.I guarantee it will inspire new energy and drive.