You can easily spend full-time hours on social media but remember that it is WAY more important for you to be focusing on working ON your business, not IN your business. It’s so important to simplify your social media approach so you don’t have Facebook open all day because that is really distracting.
I also don’t recommend delegating your social media in the beginning of growing your business. I never outsource social media until I know exactly what I want my branding and image to look like and until I test and practice and I know myself what is and isn’t working. Seriously, social media should really not take that much time. It’s about being disciplined and ONLY letting yourself be on social media at certain times of the day. Don’t get distracted or overwhelmed by social media!
Here are six ways to simplify social media:
1. Focus on one thing at a time.
Don’t get distracted. This is why I don’t recommend last minute posting on your social media sites and why I want you to have complete focus when you batch your posts. Set a timer and go! Schedule your posts only once per week. Give yourself only 1-2 hours to get everything up for the week. Watch how much faster you get it done when you are on the clock.
2. Organize your files.
I recommend using Dropbox.com and creating a folder labeled “Content Calendar.” This will be your library of photos, lists of articles, quotes and text that you can use over and over again.
3. Recycle content.
Check out your analytics reports and see what worked and engaged well in the past. Then, you can use it again and again or create other images and posts that are similar format. Most people won’t see it the first time anyways.
4. You don’t have to be everywhere.
Pick one social network where your ideal clients are hanging out and become an expert at it. Spend way more time there and focus. When you are growing your business, it’s important to become great at one site where your ideal clients are hanging out instead of being “just OK” on every platform.
5. Recycle
Don’t keep creating new content. What content have you already written? What prior blogs, articles and ebooks do you have lying around? Take quotes from content you have already created and schedule it on your Facebook page. A photo quote this week can be a text quote next week. A link to a blog article this week can be a text post the following week.
6. Link your sites.
Once you pick your profile that you are going to focus on, use apps that allow you to post the same content on multiple profiles. This is not a great engagement strategy but a great time saving strategy for when you are just starting your business. For example, when I was first starting my business, I focus only on Facebook because that is where I was getting most of my revenue from. I installed a Facebook app so that everything I posted on Facebook was also posted to Twitter.
