If you are really struggling to keep your social media usage to a minimum while still getting results, think about setting aside a block of time to use social media and social networking sites and then move on to other things when the time is up. Maybe you’ll want to spend 30 minutes every day, or maybe an hour 3 times a week. Whatever the case may be, this can help to keep your usage down while still allowing you to be active.

9. Use Relevant Buttons on Your Site

Voting buttons and widgets can be effective when they are used properly. I’m sure we’ve all seen blogs that seem to have a button for every single social media site. There are a few problems with this: 1) it clutters up the pages, 2) it puts less attention on each individual button resulting in fewer votes, and 3) it doesn’t show your visitors on which sites you would prefer them to vote.

To use voting buttons effectively, stick to just the social media sites that you are targeting and the sites that your visitors are likely to use. From my experience, it’s most effective to have 1 – 3 voting buttons on blog posts. Twitter buttons are especially popular and effective right now. The most important thing buttons do is remind visitors that they can vote for you and it lets them know that you would like a vote.

10. Only Promote Appropriate Content

Not all content is appropriate for social media. Even some types of quality content are unlikely to get results with the social media audience. Content like lists, humor, controversy, and breaking news tend to attract attention on social media sites. If you’re hoping to get results, then you should be creating and promoting content that will grab the interest of others. Trying to promote the wrong types of content will typically result in little success, however, an exception can be niche social media sites, as these audiences can often be more receptive to a wider variety of content types, as long as it is focused on topics relevant to that specific niche.