Do you ask yourself…
“How much time do I need to dedicate to my social media marketing?”
Or;
“Where can I save valuable time in my social media marketing efforts?”
You’re not alone, these are two of the most common questions I’m asked by clients or when I’m speaking on digital marketing at seminars.
I find that there’s a popular misconception that the only way to save time is by scheduling and automating. If you’ve attended an event where I’ve presented… You’ll know I’m not a huge fan of either of those practices… Here’s why…
If you’re not present to be able to publish your post, then how can you be present to join the conversation that will eventuate from that update? And let’s face it, that’s what it’s all about, joining the conversation. To maximise engagement, it’s really important to treat your social media channels, more like a telephone and less like a megaphone.
To that end, I want to share five simple steps to saving time on social media without scheduling a single post! My marketing brain will always turn topics and ideas on their heads, so today instead of thinking directly about saving time, I’m going to concentrate on maximising the results you get from using the time available to you… The same, but different!
- Plan! All great things start with a plan. Here’s how to develop yours… Firstly define your goal (you may find this blog post helpful); then define and find your audience, you don’t have to be on every social media platform, work out where you’ll find your audience, and use two or three platforms really well, rather than spreading yourself too thinly with diminishing returns. Of course, you’ll also need to plan your content, look at your overall marketing calendar for the year ahead, ensure that you ally your online strategies with your offline marketing.
- Collaborate. Identify “digital marketing” partners, and use them to expand your audience. Some practical ways to make this work might be to use another industry expert to “guest blog” on your website and use their tips in your social updates, (you’ll likely find that the guest blogger will share your status updates, don’t forget to @tag them). Or you could grow your social fan base by identifying complimentary businesses and running a joint Facebook promotion that you can both cross-promote. There are heaps of other ideas, and stay tuned, because I’ll cover them in a separate blog post in the near future.
- Recycle. This is the number one way that I save time and maximise results across my channels. I’ve written a whole blog post about it HERE.
- Get your fans to do the work for you. Always include a social share facility on your blog posts. I use shareaholic. Guess what… Other people are sharing my content on social media so I’m getting more reach for less work!
- Get expert help. Maximise your results by engaging professionals. You’ve probably heard that it’s free to use social media, and indeed it is free to set up accounts and create pages on all channels; but once you have done so if you’re going to use those channels successfully, an investment in time is required. Time is money… Your time may well be better spent on serving your customers or developing your products. If that’s the case do contact me to find out how I can help you develop your social strategy, and analyse results so you see the growth you should.
