How many social accounts do you manage?

According to eMarketer and The Altimeter Group, the number of corporate social accounts is growing. Among the biggest companies, the number of social accounts is really large.

For small businesses, it can be just as daunting for one person to manage multiple accounts and blogs. We want to give enough time to each of the communities, but we also have responsibilities that deal with general business activities.

From Social Media Accounts and Conversations on the Rise:

The Altimeter Group surveyed social media program managers in Q2 2011 and found that, on average, companies owned 178 total social media accounts, not including individual employee accounts. This includes an average of 39.2 Twitter accounts, 31.9 blogs and 29.9 Facebook accounts. Forums and message boards were more popular than YouTube, with an average of 23.4 accounts per company, compared to YouTube’s 9.4.

There isn’t enough time in the day to manage every social account or company blog.

Here are a few tips for managing multiple business blogs.

Manage Multiple Business Blogs

It surprised me how many blogs some companies have.

Some corporations have blogs for their internal community. There are blogs for various products and services. There are also general blogs for sharing insight and point of views on recent happenings in a given industry.

There are blogs for everything these days.

In order to manage these blogs and provide value for the customer and profit for the business it’s important to have a system for managing multiple corporate blogs.

Scheduling Posts

The scheduling feature in WordPress is something I use for all posts.

Being able to stick to a calendar is what keeps me sane when writing posts for multiple accounts. I have personal blogs and business blogs and client blogs. In order to keep things straight I need to have a schedule in place for each.

The regular schedule and timing of each post is what allows me to fall into a routine. The routine is what keeps me focused and on track with each blog post. I have time set aside each day for specific blogs. The day I write a post is usually at least 3 to 4 days before a post is scheduled to publish or scheduled for delivery to a client.

A blogging schedule and routine allows you to keep things organized. Use the schedule feature and create a calendar and you should stay on track for multiple blogs.

Post Topic Idea Generation Process

That’s a mouthful, but I wanted to throw in all important words.

Streamlining the process of coming up with blog ideas will save you so much time. I have a few methods for generating blog post ideas. I like to keep a steady stream of incoming content, which I read. I’ll take an idea that is seeing attention in an industry and expand on it with my own thoughts. I always give credit to the source of the idea and simply use the idea as a jumping off point for further discussion.

Blog audiences like interpretation of news. When a company can give a point of view on a certain news item it can be valuable to their social community.

I have also trained myself to pay attention to things that happen in my life. Inspiration for blogging ideas can come from anywhere. I keep a pad of paper with me at all times. I have a pad in my truck. I have a pad at my desk. When inspiration strikes – like hearing something on the radio, seeing a billboard, or hearing someone say something – I’m ready to jot down a note and save it for a future post.

Many people struggle with blog idea generation. Streamlining the process will save you time especially if you have multiple blogs to manage.

There are other numerous ways to generate blog ideas as well.

Do you have any to share?

Managing Writers

Managing writers is important for multiple blogs as well.

With many blogs it’s impossible for one person to write every piece of content. In fact, it’s giving up the control of writing everything yourself that opens up the possibility to expanding a blog and seeing it succeed.

I always try to work with bloggers that are better than me. I’ve found this a great way to have people that know how to write well, but also know how to connect with an audience.

Once again, people like scheduling and consistency. When working with writers, keep things on schedule. Offer specific due dates for posts and make sure both parties are accountable for this schedule.

Provide feedback when you can. Use both positive feedback and suggestive feedback. You want your writers to feel like they are contributing to something that is important.

I’m not sure if I succeed at managing writers all the time. I’m still learning this process.

Any additional tips would be much appreciated :)