I have been very busy lately with a big project. And like any good small business owner, my clients’ needs always come before my own. Which means the hours I used to spend on Facebook, Twitter, and other blogs have shrunk down. Way down. I now give myself thirty minutes to promote my own blog everyday. I honestly feel like I could spend 3 hours a day, and some days I have, but it’s no longer in the cards. So here is what I do to maximize my thirty minutes.

1-4 minutes — Post my newest blog post to Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter I try to take a few minutes to think of a catchy phrase that will get people to click.  There are services you can go to that post everything to one site, such as Postling, (I interviewed the VP of Customers at Postling, read it here) or Ping.fm, but I like doing it myself for some reason.  It’s just part of my routine, and I like my routine.

10 minutes — I have approximately 70 blogs on my Google Reader that relate to social media, and it’s always growing. Reading all these posts is where I could spend the majority of my time, if I had it. There really is no better way to improve social media skills than reading as many other bloggers’ thoughts, advice, and stories as possible. But I do not have that luxury, so I skim the headlines and pick out the top five that I think will really be worth my time to read. They are often from the same bloggers everyday, but I try to mix it up a bit.

10 minutes — I take the time to actually read these posts. Sometimes it frustrates me that I have to spend 1/3 of the time just narrowing them down, but I am very reluctant to remove any blogs from my Google Reader. I think I’m afraid one of the blogs will post the quintessential blogger post and I will miss it and die alone and cold and hungry as a result.

6-9 minutes — Once the blogs are read, I comment on them. I really believe it helps draw traffic to my own blog, and I like that I am being a part of the community.

And that’s it. If I had more time, what would I be doing? Reading more, that’s for sure. Commenting more as well. I’d also be promoting myself more, building an email list, starting a weekly newsletter, building up my Facebook page etc. My project comes to a close in two weeks, and after that I am going to put aside the time everyday to work on the goals I just mentioned.

So what could you accomplish at 30 minutes? Do you have a routine you engage in everyday in order to promote yourself? I’d love to hear your thoughts.