As a small business owner, my days are often filled with lots of connections and meetings.  My day often starts with some sort of networking, like Rainmakers; and then meetings with clients, prospects, referral partners, etc.  In between, I slice out enough time to work on projects and manage the business.  The challenge is how to manage all the electronic communications that arrive as my day is flying by.

Recently, taking a tip from Tim Ferris, author of ‘The 4-hour Work Week‘, I created an auto responder for my email saying that I was checking email once a day now.  If someone had an urgent need, I asked them to call my Google Voice number.  (Side note:  Google Voice is cool because if you miss or can’t take a call, it will transcribe it and send it to you as a text.)  Generally I’ve gotten good feedback on this effort with lots of folks saying ‘I wish I was brave enough to do that.’  It has also helped with the quality of emails that I end up with.

Today, I got an email from a friend of mine who said he found it ironic that while I only respond to email once a day I do regularly tweet on Twitter.  I smiled and thanked him, but started thinking about the crazy quagmire today’s electronic communications can become.  I do tweet, especially if I am working at my computer.  I recently found the new Social Media browser Flock which allows me to keep a Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube stream on my browser sidebar.  Very cool for the quick retweet or random thought.

But I’m left with a lingering question – is it inconsistent, rude, or otherwise unacceptable to ask those who know me enough to email me to wait for my attention; while others – many complete strangers – get the benefit of my time through Social media like Twitter?  As I write this, my question seems a bit pompous, but is not meant to be.  The reality is that quality time is different than normal time.  Responding to email takes quality time; Twitter and Facebook do too, but not all the time.

Going a bit deeper, it seems to me that while this is totally logical to my frame of mind (and I’m assuming many of you who use SM alot), it may not be so obvious to those who are not connected to multiple SM platforms as a matter of daily existence.  To that end, I’m feeling it may be necessary to help educate my friends, colleagues, and potential contacts that my efforts to manage email once per day is actually to their benefit.  They get more of my ‘prime’ time and also have a sure-fire way to reach me (by phone) if their need is urgent.  It makes total sense to me, I just need to make sure it is understood to those who really matter!

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