In today's Sales 2.0 environment, sales professionals, consultants, and small business owners are told that they need to create an online presence if they expect to achieve their sales goals and targets. However, too many people take this advice to the extreme and end up spending far too much time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and the plethora of other social media sites.

It is very easy to spend several hours a day reading posts, adding comments to discussions, tweeting your actions, and sorting through scads of information. However, it is critical to realize that social media should not replace your other sales building activities. You still have to find other ways of marketing your business. You still need to actively prospect. And you still need to schedule face-to-face meetings with clients and prospects.

While I believe a strong social presence can help you, you need to guard your time wisely. Otherwise, you can fritter away too much valuable time while believing that you are proactively moving your business forward.

Allot a specific amount of time each day for social media activities. Choose whatever time works best for you. The key is to limit yourself to that allotted time and to not get sucked into the social media vortex.

As President of The Robertson Training Group, Kelley has helped thousands of professionals improve their business results with his engaging approach to sales training and speaking. Learn more at www.robertsontraininggroup.com

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