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Mari Smith and Tea Silvestre have both released the results of their surveys of thousands of solopreneurs. (You can read the results of Tea's survey here.  If you have been a solopreneur (or any kind of business owner) for long, you won't be surprised at all when I tell you that the majority of people said that their biggest marketing challenge was lack of time.

Creating a small business has always been a big task, but it seems like lately there is more to learn than ever before.  And, even if you are a curious person who loves to learn (me!),  there are only so many hours to devote to learning and still get your work done!

Here are some of my best tips for keeping a decent social media presence and getting your other work done.

1.  Choose two.  You do not have to be on every single up and coming social network.  Pick the two where your audience hangs out and do those well.

2. Automate. Connect your blog to facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest.  If you submit articles to ezinearticles.com – sign up for their tweeting service.  Add the Tweet old post plug in to your blog and old posts will be periodically tweeted for you.

3. Schedule.  Use hoot suite or sendible to pre-schedule your posts.  Use Buffer and Tweriod to discover when your audience is paying the most attention.

4.Set a timer.It is very easy to get caught up in social media… you start answering messages and then the day has gone.  A better use of your time is to set a timer for 5 minutes three times a day.  Use that time to respond to messages, pose questions, etc.

5. Outsource  Who says that you need to do all of this yourself?  Smart business owners hire accountants, web designers and virtual assistants. Why not consider hiring a social media manager?  The Global Social Media Managers Association can connect you with a qualified social media manager.  A few hours a month with a good social media manager can quickly pay for itself with more customers and leads coming in to your business.

What are your best tips for managing your social media time?