Keeping a tight schedule is generally considered to be a good thing. We associate people who schedule their lives well in advance with being in control and organized. It’s certainly the case that having a full and well-planned schedule can help to make sure that you stay on task and not miss out on important meetings. But it’s also true that being too scheduled can have a negative impact on your ability to get things done.

Generally speaking, if you have schedule a meeting for a set length of time, it will go that length of time even if it doesn’t need to take that long. People want to feel like they blocked out a set amount of time for a reason and they will find ways to use the time — even if the use of time isn’t productive. This can lead to endless meetings where you are accomplishing a lot less than you should be with your time.

One way to solve this is to keep your meetings short — perhaps a half-hour in length. This gives enough time to discuss what needs to be discussed without inviting meetings to run on incessantly. If something needs more than 30 minutes, plan ahead and schedule multiple meetings. This will force you to address the problems in bite-sized chunks, which can be helpful in tackling complex issues.

You should also schedule time for yourself in between meetings to do something like take a walk outside of go get a coffee down the street. You might say to yourself that you are going to “find time” between meetings to take a break but it’s easy to let that time slip away. If you put breaks on your calendar, you are more likely to take them.

Scheduling phone calls the same way that you schedule meetings is a great way to avoid losing time to idle chit-chat. Unless it’s something urgent that needs to be dealt with immediately, you will almost always be able to schedule a call for later in the day. This gives you time to research the issue and be informed before having a conversation and it also sets parameters for how long the call should go.

The key to any successful relationship is communication and this is true when it comes to the relationship between a freelancer and who contracts with them for their services. When a person knows what to expect from their freelancer, they have the right basis for evaluating their success. It also gives a freelancer clear parameters to operate under since they know what their client is expected to receive.

This is especially true when it comes to the world of online content marketing. When you work with a freelancer or an outside content marketing service like eVisible, it’s critical that you set your goals before the project starts and communicate regularly with the outside freelancer or firm to make sure that objectives are being met. Expecting that they “know what they are doing” and are taking care of everything perfectly on their own is typically an invitation for headaches down the road.

When you are interviewing potential agencies or freelancers to help you with your content marketing, make sure that they are being realistic in presenting the services they provide. You don’t want to hire someone only to realize that they can’t deliver what you thought they would at the start of your relationship. Ask tough questions and don’t always be limited by talking about “best case scenarios” — find out what they think are the obstacles to the success of a content marketing campaign and what they plan to do if these roadblocks occur while they are working for you.

Ultimately, freelancers and content marketing agencies thrive when they are able to end projects with satisfied customers. This comes from setting expectations that are realistic but will also meet the marketing needs of their clients. In order to do this, it’s important for clients to be very clear about what they want to accomplish with their content marketing. Just saying that you want “better content” isn’t enough — you need to know what goals you want to use the content to achieve and have a way to communicate this clearly with the freelancer or agency.

If you’ve spent any time on social media site such as Facebook, you’ve likely come across plenty of brands offering you a chance to win something just for entering a contest. What you have to do in order to win — answer a trivia question, post a photo or simply like a post — or what you can win will vary, but one thing is constant. Companies run contests to engage their audience and grow their social media base.

While some people might think that running contests on Facebook are tacky, the truth is that they can be an effective social media marketing tool — if done right. Here are a few things to consider before you dive into the world of social media competitions:

New Facebook Rules Impact Contests: At the start of 2015, Facebook instituted new rules attempting to keep contests that are simply driven by “liking” a page from showing up on News Feeds. Instead, Facebook wants brands to create contests that engage their customers and create an exchange of information rather than just asking for likes.

Have a Clear Goal for Your Contest: As with any other online marketing campaign, you need to have clear objectives in place before you start planning your competition. Are you looking to get more people signed up for your newsletter, or is the ultimate goal to get them onto your site and looking at your products? The results you want to achieve will dictate what type of contest you run.

Pick the Contest That’s Right for You: You have many different types of contests that you can choose from when running a contest. Asking people to submit photos through Instagram is a great way to boost social media sharing and increase your followers. Having an instant “lottery” prize drawing pulls people in immediately and is an outstanding way to get them to sign up for your marketing newsletters. You can work with a social media marketing consultant like eVisible to determine which type of contest is right for your brand and objective.

Make the Contest Easy to Understand and Enter: If you can’t explain the contest to followers in more than one or two sentences, people will be too confused or bored to enter. Remember: being creative is great but being overly complex only drives potential entrants away. In addition, you don’t want to give people too many steps to undertake in order to enter your contest — asking them to fill out a large questionnaire is only going to serve as a barrier to entry.

Set a Fixed Time Limit: People will likely only enter a contest when they know that they deadline is approaching. It’s human nature to want to be a part of something that is ending soon. Set relatively fast deadlines so that people don’t get bored with your contest and you can wrap it up and start a new one.

Have Your Contest Engage Your Audience: Using custom banner ads, images and other concepts are great ways to move beyond text and get customers to notice your contest. It’s great if you can show potential entrants some of the best entries that you’ve received so far — this spurs their interest and makes them think that they can do better. This is one reason why contests that require creativity and that ask a customer to explain why they love your product can be so effective.