Recently, I participated in a webinar produced by Leadtail and DNN. In the webinar, Leadtail presented findings from a recently published Social Insights report. Leadtail analyzed tweets from 500 North American B2B marketers over a 90-day period. One of their findings was a list of the Top 50 People Most Mentioned by B2B Marketers (on Twitter).

Leadtail then analyzed the Twitter activity of these "most mentioned" users and shared insights on WHY they were so frequently mentioned. One of their findings was: "Top influencers tweet a LOT: 10-20+ times daily."

Finding Time for Social Sharing

During the Q&A portion of the webinar, a very good question was posed to us. The viewer observed that she simply doesn’t have the time to tweet 10-20+ times per day. We answered by saying that the 10-20+ frequency was not set in stone – and that B2B vendors (who aim to reach and influence thought leaders in their market) ought to tweet (and share) at a frequency that’s comfortable to them.

The goal of this post is to show you how to get started with social media sharing in as little as five minutes a day. The post is geared towards individuals (rather than brands), although some tips certainly apply to brands.

If you can find five minutes in your day, I’ve got a system just for you. This is a system that’s proven to work (or your money back). There are a few prerequisites to complete first.

Prerequisites to Complete First

Minimum Completion Time: 2 hours.

Photo credit: Flickr User The Daring Librarian via photopin cc

Sorry to bust your time budget here, but take the time here to do a thorough job with your profiles. If you implement this system well, you’ll be generating attention. And the last thing you want to do is drive attention to half-populated social profiles. Friends don't let friends leave the default "egg" on their Twitter profile.

Here are the simple steps:

1. If you don’t have one already, create a Twitter account.
2. Populate your Twitter profile. Here’s a useful guide on how to do just that.
3. If you don’t have one already, create a LinkedIn account.
4. Populate your LinkedIn profile. The LinkedIn blog provides some good tips on this.
5. If you don’t have one already, create a SlideShare account.
6. Populate your SlideShare profile. The SlideShare blog provides a good set of tips to get started.
7. Connect your SlideShare and LinkedIn accounts. Here’s the page to make that happen.

If you already have accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn or SlideShare, I encourage you to check out these articles (above). Still spend the two hours here to complete and optimize your profiles. Believe me, your social sharing will be the better for it.

Sharing Content in 5 Minutes a Day

1) Review presentations on the SlideShare home page (3 minutes)

Visit SlideShare.net. If you’re already logged in, you may get re-directed to your “Newsfeed” page. If so, simply click the SlideShare logo in the upper left to go to the home page. The first place I look is “Top Presentations of the Day,” a set of three presentations curated by the editors at SlideShare.

From there, I proceed in “top to bottom” order, checking out “Featured,” followed by “Hot on Facebook,” followed by “Hot on Twitter,” followed by “Hot on LinkedIn.” Presentations in these lists got there for a reason: they’re good. So it won’t be difficult to find a few that (a) interest you and (b) are worthy of sharing.

Some of the things that catch my attention are (a) an appealing image on the cover slide, (b) a compelling title and (c) slides that give me actionable information.

So take the full 3 minutes here to find interesting presentations and flip through the slides. Every time I do this, I learn something new!

2) Identify the handful of presentations that are share-worthy (1 minute)

Go for quality over quantity. If you share 15 SlideShare’s during a 5 minute burst each day, followers on social media are likely to tune you out (or unfollow you entirely). I recommend going with a set of 2-3 presentations that you found the most interesting.

3) “Like” the presentations on SlideShare (30 seconds)

There are two ways to “Like” a presentation on SlideShare. The first is to find the button at the top of the SlideShare. The second is to mouse over the thumbnail image (e.g. from the SlideShare home page) and click on the “Like” icon that appears.

If you’ve connected your SlideShare and LinkedIn accounts, then the “Like” (on SlideShare) will automatically appear on your LinkedIn profile. This, in turn, “publishes” that update to the Newsfeed of all your Connections on LinkedIn. Guess what? You just shared content on social media.

4) Click the “Tweet” button on each SlideShare (30 seconds)

Clicking the “Tweet” button launches a new browser window with a pre-composed tweet ready for you to review. SlideShare does just about everything you need: it includes the presentation title, auto-generated hash tags and the Twitter handle of the presentation author (if available). All you need to do is review the tweet, ensure there’s at least 10 characters to spare (to make it retweet-friendly), then click “Tweet.” More sharing on social media, completed.

CONGRATULATIONS.

In 5 minutes, you’ve completed Day 1 of this proven program. You’ve successfully shared interesting information on social media.

Benefits of Social Sharing

1) Let the world know what interests you.

In working closely with people, I get to learn about their capabilities and competencies. Tools like Twitter and LinkedIn help round out the picture: I get to better understand their interests and passions. By sharing on social media, the world around you gets to know you better. And that’s a good thing.

2) Become a useful resource.

If you consistently share information that informs others, you’ll become a useful resource to them. Do this consistently over long stretches and you’ll become a trusted advisor. You add equity to your personal brand and you increase the likelihood of being consulted or contacted in the future.

3) Generate some social credibility.

The more you generate Likes, comments, retweets and mentions, the more you become known on social media. From there, the more followers you’ll naturally accrue.

Side note: on LinkedIn, I’ve discovered that “Liking” a presentation on SlideShare will generate more LinkedIn likes (from my Connections there) than my sharing of articles there. How do you "Like" that?

Advanced Activities: Going Beyond 5 Minutes a Day

1) Publish your own SlideShares.

Have you recently provided a webinar or an “in person” presentation? Consider uploading the slides to your SlideShare channel. Remove the logistical slides (e.g. the “Webinar Q&A” slide), so that what remains is the “meat” of your presentation. This can take as little as 5 minutes per presentation. Feel free to tweet your SlideShare, but I’d hold off on “Liking” it (out of concern for being called a narcissist).

Side note: at DNN, we’ve assembled a content-generating machine by simply posting all of our webinar slides to our SlideShare channel.

2) Pre-schedule your social sharing.

Instead of doing all your sharing in a five minute burst each day, you may want to spread things more evenly during the course of the day. This is especially true as you assemble larger collections of content (e.g. more than the 2-3 SlideShares). Experiment with tools like Buffer and HootSuite, which make pre-scheduling a cinch. In addition, if you’re a customer of Twitter Ad Products, you can now do scheduling directly within Twitter.

3) Mix it up: content.

Once you have this formula down pat with SlideShares, expand the five minutes you’re spending each day to branch out into other types of content. For instance, as I read blog posts and articles throughout the day, I ask myself whether to click the “Tweet” button to share the article on Twitter. Make sharing part of your reading routine.

4) Mix it up: destinations.

This post has revolved around SlideShare, LinkedIn and Twitter. Look to share content in other social networks, such as Google+ and Pinterest. Also, consider sharing content to particular LinkedIn Groups in which you’re a member.

5) Add commentary to your shares.

Go above and beyond the “default” share text and include some of your own thoughts. If you find a particular SlideShare compelling, tell us why via the tweet text.

Conclusion

It might seem intimidating (or excessive) to consider doing 10-20+ tweets per day. In reality, sharing content on social media can be quite easy, especially if you make it a part of your consumption routine. For newbies, I recommend starting off with five minutes a day and then building up from there.

I began this post by referring to a Leadtail presentation. I’ve included the full slide deck below.

How to Engage B2B Marketers Using Social Media from DNN