As a small business owner with no digital agency, no reputation management firm, and no offshore support boiler rooms, I have settled into my own groove for handling social media responsibilities. 

There are lots of folks out there who can wax poetic about theories and strategies, so I though it might be helpful to share the nitty gritty of my daily social media routine.

I look at social media as another outlet for helping customers and others, building connections, and learning/listening to what the online community is buzzing about. Every time we make another social contact, it's another ripple in the pond. Also, I LOVE meeting new people.  Yes, I'm in the right business.

So, here's my warts-and-all daily social media routine, which starts at 6am.  I'm offering it in hopes that it can help others who might be looking for a concrete starting point for their daily social marketing routine.

1. Drink Coffee - I could do social media without caffeine, but it might not be pretty.
2. Read Email - I don't like RSS, so all of my blog subscriptions come to my in box. Every morning, I try to read all of my favorite blogs.  I also have Google alerts sent to my email for all of our important keywords.
3. Blog Comment - when I have something to contribute, I try to comment on at least a couple of blogs each day. I feel it's important to give-back to bloggers who provide great content...and commenting is one way to reward them. Sometimes my comments are triggered by a Google keyword alert; fun to find new blogs with this mechanism.
4. Check Hootsuite - I use Hootsuite to manage our corporate and my personal Twitter accounts. I have alerts set up for keywords, so that I can respond to folks talking about relevant things.  I then check for mentions, RTs, and direct messages (we DO NOT have any automated messages in our Twitter accounts).  I also cruise through the new followers for all accounts and do followbacks; I also try to send a personal reply to each new follower.
5. Check LinkedIn - I like to check the Q&A first, to see if there are any questions I can answer, and then take a look at discussions in all of the groups I belong to.
6. Circle back to LiveCloud - I like to look at new members' profiles, befriend new people, and respond to any questions.
7. If I'm feeling frisky, I'll use Google's "updates" search to find anyone talking about online community or social platforms and do some engagement.  That's another fun way to meet new people!
8. Feed the kids breakfast

That's about it for the morning routine.  Throughout the day, I get alerts and pings from all of these sources so that I can stay on top of any critical issues.  You'll notice a glaring lack of Facebook in my routine---that's because I made the decision that the only way to control my Facebook profile was to remove it.  But that's a blog for another day..

So here's your challenge: send me a Tweet and see if I respond!  You can use either @socialstrata or @rhogroupee.