One of the most common predicaments we hear when we are out training is ‘how do I find the time to do all this?’ We can completely relate to this – managing your Social Media is a full time job in itself, so how are you able to run all your channels when you are busy running your business? As we always point out, it is fundamental to use social media within all your marketing and so we are here to help you save time.
It is hard to manage your time effectively if you haven’t got a comprehensive content marketing plan in place. If you haven’t planned campaigns, or considered what content you will be putting out, then you will be left wondering what to write at 9am on a Monday morning! We recommend having a good weekly & monthly plan which you can refer to and then distribute that content throughout your social media channels.
Make sure you have a range of content going out over all your channels, and try to keep that content organic to each channel. Examples of content includes images, video, infographics or blog posts. Try to share other’s posts around 80% of the time and share your own original content 20% of the time. To increase engagement make sure the content you are sharing is shareable for others too!
Alongside the planning, also listen to what is being discussed and trending on social media and so you can keep your content in context with what your customers want to hear. It is no good planning something for 3 weeks time to find it is no longer relevant.
Both Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are tools that not only help you schedule your posts, saving you time throughout the day, but they also enable you to listen, and hear what others are talking about. You can then look for key words you can be using in your content, and tap into conversations that you may have otherwise missed. You may find one tool easier to use than the other, so try them both out before you make up your mind.
Using columns (or streams) you can decide which hashtags or accounts you want to follow, and each tweet will be included in that stream. This is invaluable if you are away from your laptop or phone for a while but need to keep up to date with a certain subject, you can just scroll through that stream and find what you need.
You can also schedule your posts, spending a short amount of time on a Monday morning (for example) making sure you have your tweets and facebook posts going out over the week. You can then get on with your work knowing that you have regular communication going out to your followers. Even though we recommend scheduling, it is still vitally important to engage and interact with your followers, so always respond to replies and retweets. However, these can be done in your coffee break and don’t have to take a huge amount of time.
Buffer is another useful scheduling tool which distributes your content at time decided by Buffer. You can keep adding updates to your Buffer queue and they will be posted for you well spaced out over the day – and at the best times. This means that if you see a number of great articles or you have lots of posts that you want to share, you don’t have to worry about bombarding your followers as Buffer will distribute it for you at spaced out, and optimum times.
We talk of Klout a lot at Cosmic, but mostly for the online reputation that you can build through it. What it can also do for you is schedule your posts on your networks – but not just that, it suggests posts for you to send out based on your expertees! So if you are stuck with what to write, just take a look at the top suggestions and you can share your chosen one with one click.
However, as much as these tools will help you save time, your time management discipline is extremely important. We all know how easy it is to log onto Twitter to send a tweet and then half an hour later you find yourself still reading news reports, watching videos and catching up on gossip. As important as keeping connected is, it is vital that you use it efficiently for your business!
If you would like any further information on any of the tools we have spoken about in this blog, please do not hesitate to get in touch.