How to Keep Up with Your Business’s Social Media
The lists are unending when you are starting a new business. This is still true when you are working to grow the business you’ve already started!
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But, you’ve done it. Your business is getting off the ground. You’ve put in the work to get your social media pages up. You’ve put your nose to the grindstone and created great content and graphics.
And it hits you: the work will only INCREASE. Forever.
Or so it seems.
It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with the grind of social media. Sure, it’s exciting at first. When you are getting your first followers. When people are starting to respond to your message.
But it is extremely daunting to realize just the amount of WORK required to keep your social media pages successful and relevant. (You know, in addition to your actual business and LIFE.)
But, take a deep breath friends. There are several routines and programs available to ease the load dramatically.
Social Media Management Programs that create Freedom
1. Sprout Social
Sprout is a program that allows you to plan and schedule your social media posts for months at a time (should you desire!). In one place, you can see everything that’s scheduled for your social media platforms of choice.
You can also see every comment, mention, tag and message online about your business. You then can respond right there within Sprout. The program also keeps a record of your interaction with customers. Example: if you respond to one tweet, you can see your entire conversation history with that person right there.
Another bonus: you can have your whole team in this program and assign tasks right within it. Working with an assistant has never been easier.
Why Sprout? It creates a massive amount of freedom and time in your life. No need to chase around to various pages. It’s all right there in front of you. Posts/Comments = Done.
2. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is very similar to Sprout. You can schedule posts for all of your platforms right within Hootsuite. It also allows you to respond to questions and comments online from within the program.
It comes down to personal preference between Hootsuite and Sprout. Both are powerhouse programs that get the social media job done. In my opinion, Sprout is more intuitive. But that’s just how my artistic brain works. I recommend giving both of them a free trial and seeing which one works better for you.
3. Tweetdeck
If you have chosen Twitter as one of your social media platforms of choice, it can get overwhelming quickly. Simply because of Twitter’s differences. A business often needs to post 5-8 times per day in order to find success on Twitter.
Tweetdeck allows you to easily schedule your Tweets so that you are not having to post in real time.
Why Tweetdeck? It’s FREE!
(Note that Sprout and Hootsuite also allow scheduling for Twitter, just not for free.)
Routines that create Freedom
1. Batching
Batching is simply grouping tasks that are alike together. This can dramatically increase your productivity because every time you are distracted by something unrelated, it takes an average of 15 minutes to get back on task!
Apply this to your social media. Block out a chunk of time (say 2 hours), and sit down to schedule your social media posts for the week. Set a timer. Tell those around you that you are busy until the timer goes off. Get a good cup of coffee, and get those posts scheduled! Then you just have to check in throughout the week as your posts go up on auto-pilot.
2. Time-Blocking
This is a similar concept to batching. Except you take the process a step further in your planning. When you look at your day or your week, plan several 60-90 minutes blocks where you will accomplish a certain task. During that time block you do ONLY that task.
My recommendation: Do your hardest task first. The one you are dreading, but you know that once it’s done, you will feel such relief! Plan a block of time (or several) and get it done.
This is especially for those of you who are into paper planners. (That would be ME!) I love to have something in front of me that I can write on. I think best when writing.
This planner has blown me away as I’ve been using it. Because it’s not just a planner, it’s a whole system. You can walk through a planning process each month, each week, and even each day to quickly figure out what YOU want to accomplish. What’s most important. And mostly – how to get it done.
This planner has allowed me to create focus in my days, and I’m actually seeing goals accomplished both with my personal life and work. (And yes, social media planning is scheduled in!)
Though somewhat more expensive than other traditional calendars, this is the one I use and recommend.
Really, when it comes down to it – all of these tools help to provide some FOCUS to your day.
Overwhelm is not fun. But actually accomplishing your goals and tasks with time and energy to spare – there’s nothing better.
