If you’re a small business owner, you probably have a lot of things to do! The prospect of needing to add social media to your to-do list can seem a bit overwhelming. In fact, that’s where I find a lot of my clients. However, I know not every business owner can afford getting help from a marketer. If you want to cut back on the time you spend on social media without sacrificing the benefits, these tips are for you.
Here are our tips for how you can cut down your time spent on social media without sacrificing quality.
Not Every Platform is Right for Every Business
A lot of people want to jump on the newest social media platform because it’s trendy. However, that can be a big time suck, especially if your audience isn’t even using it (looking at you TikTok).
Don’t focus on an account without first knowing if your ideal audience is using it. You can still create an account on various platforms. For instance, it might be good to at least create a Twitter account so you have the username in the future but if your audience isn’t there, don’t spend time on it.
This will take some research to figure out what audiences are one each of the platforms. I recently wrote a blog that outlines different demographics of social media platforms.
The bottom line is, if you don’t have much visual content you can show off, Instagram could be out. On the other hand, if you only work in a very professional, B2B capacity, LinkedIn could be the network to spend more time on than Facebook. Think about your audience and your business before you get too invested in any social media platform.
Make a plan to manage social media
Don’t get to 4:30 p.m. on a Friday before you start thinking about what you want to post. You can schedule out your entire month so there’s no need to stress each day about what you want to do. It saves so much more time if you have just take a bit of time to schedule it out.
Figure out when you can make your plan and get it written down. Look at upcoming holidays (even the random ones), any company events or promotions, or things that you know to expect in the month. You know it’s coming so make the content for those in advance. Don’t forget about upcoming things a few months out, if you need to start promoting them ahead of time.
I’ll also make some generic things that I know I want to share. For instance, each month I may want to share at least four social media tips with my audience. Since I know that, every month I can say that Wednesday is the day I share a tip. Then I don’t have to stare at Wednesday wondering what to post. I have a general idea to start with.
In an ideal world, you’d have different content for each platform. However, there are certainly times where that’s just not possible. If you’re posting on Facebook and LinkedIn, consider using the same content for both. I know plenty of companies that do that to save time.
Worry-Free Content
You might make out your monthly plan and expect that you’re going to have time to record a short video when the actuality is that life happens. In those instances, you should always have some worry-free content in your back pocket.
For instance if I need a quick post for Facebook, I can find an article from Social Media Examiner. I know they have plenty of social media news and I just need to share a link with a quick caption.
This type of content that doesn’t require much extra work. It could be anything from an older blog post featuring evergreen content or a team photo that you shared a few months ago. It helps keep your page active when you’re busy.
Organize your Files
I’m a big fan of being organized. I spend time every week making sure things are in the right folders on my computer and my emails. When I’m looking for something, this saves so much time.
When you do need something to share, you’ll know exactly where to look for it. You can also see what you’ve done in the past when you need to get inspired.
The main point of asset gathering is to find a way to simply assign and keep track of the missing pieces you need to assemble before you get content scheduled. Speaking of scheduling content…
Schedule Your Content
Did you know you can schedule everything out so it runs without you thinking about it? On Facebook, you can even schedule it right from your Business Page.
This is key when you get busy! It’s nice to trust that your social media will keep running even when something unexpected comes up. You can use programs like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Tailwind, ContentCal, or Facebook Creator Studio to get things scheduled.
It’s really a game changer. You can schedule an hour once a month to get everything set up so you don’t have to worry about it.
Don’t Forget to Engage with Comments
If you’ve scheduled out your month, that does help you not have to think about social media as much, but make sure you’re still checking in. If someone comments or sends you a message, you should respond quickly. You can set up autoresponders to help make this easier.
If checking every profile seems like too much, use a system that brings it all together in one place. Hootsuite and Sprout Social have options to show you the messages and comments across all your social pages so you don’t have to log into multiple pages to check your notifications.
Responding to comments makes your audience like your business more and also make the algorithms show your content to more people. You want to encourage that engagement or handle problems before they get out of hand.
Get help to manage social media if you need it
One of the biggest obstacles can be setting up your initial social media system. If you need help feel free to reach out.