There are a bunch of little social media shortcuts I use on a daily basis to make the most of the time I have available to do everything. They aren't really trade secrets, but writing this helps me answer properly the question: "how do you find time for it." This is a run-down of some of the newer things I'm using, and some of the shortcuts and ways I use some of the older social media systems.
Twitter as your feed reader: Use Twitter between things from your phone to follow the news and buzz. Load Twitter on to your phone and ask your followers the best app to use. I almost always use the official Twitter app, but no reason why Tweetdeck or something different shouldnt be better. Subscribe to news channels and blogs then use Twitter as your news reader. You'll find you can keep track of the media agenda even when you have 'no time'.
Email is good: Email-enable your blog, Flickr for photos, Tumblr and Posterous for groups and so on. Most social networks have email as an input option, so think about how you can send a quick email of something you have on your phone for example when you're waiting for something else to play nicely. I tend to use time in the tube or waiting for a meeting to start / computer to boot up so send some content to my socialnets.
Twitter for your story bookmarks: Use Twitter's starring / favouriting function to 'read it later'. When you're on the move, you might not have time to read full articles, so star them then work through your starred items when you're in front of your computer later.
Evernote for lists: Use Evernote for list keeping and screen grabs. If you ever need to scribble something down, then doing so in Evernote means you always have that list on you, whether you're on your phone, tablet or computer. If you ever need to take a screen grab of an image, such as for presentations, if you have Evernote turned on then Evernote will automatically keep the image. I use this and have a three year long archive of images I use in presentations. It's invaluable.
Turn off alerts: It might sound counter-intuitive, but turning off alerts - whether it's the beep of your Tweetdeck, ping on your smartphone or something else. You'll find batching up your social media work allows you to feel more able to turn on and off when you want, and you'll feel less like you need a ton of time to devote to doing social properly.
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