I really appreciate the systems in place at my local deli. When I stop by each morning for my OJ, I really appreciate that there is an order to the process. In the middle of Manhattan, the crowds are large, but the wait never is. But you know when they hire someone new – everything is off. Your order comes out wrong, the line takes much longer and sometimes you even get charged the wrong amount. It’s frustrating madness.

I have a feeling this is how a lot of you feel when it comes to online branding. You’re tweeting, Facebooking, blogging, SEO-ing and more. It’s overwhelming, inefficient and downright maddening.

That’s where systems come in. Rhythms.

Rather than jump head first into online marketing, start slow and see what works for you. Do one thing over and over again until you can get into a groove. Then, add another step to your system. Keep doing this until you look back and are surprised by how much you can balance with so little effort.

I’m a huge systems/process person. If it doesn’t make sense logically for me and can’t be put into a system that can be replicated and sustained, it drives me crazy. Talking about abstract ideas or doing tasks ad hoc is more than my logisitics-driven mind can bare. The same is true for all our activities related to online branding – it’s all about a system. For example, every day I start off writing this blog post. I then update the hashtags on Triberr, share it on Facebook and have it set to automatically share on Twitter. Now that I’ve done all those things over and over, it only takes me about 30 minutes from beginning to end. It’s seamless and effective.

What strategies do you use to manage the overwhelming mountain of online branding?