Entrepreneurs realize the importance of social media presence.
In fact, it’s not only important. It’s necessary. Not only do your customers expect it, but it’s a great tool for learning more about your target audience and connecting with individuals online. With the use of organic social media marketing, you can get to know your followers. You can also find better ways to promote your products and services. But the biggest question that goes along with that is, “how do I make the time for social media management?” And it’s a valid question. You’re busy running your business from all angles. How in the world are you going to find the time for social media management on top of everything else? Social media has become an integral part of everyone’s lives, and it has an audience for just about any business. So how can you manage that audience in the most efficient way? I’m not going to say it’s easy because it certainly takes work, but it’s definitely doable!
Entrepreneurs are keenly aware of social media’s potential ability to expand their audience, generate brand awareness, and produce leads.
But let’s face it, social media marketing and the management that is required to go along with it doesn’t just happen. No matter which way you look at it, researching your audience, creating content, and engaging with followers takes time. Time that, as an entrepreneur, is needed for a million other things. Failure to keep up with social media management, however, often results in less engagement and slowed overall growth and/or sales. This can feel like a never-ending battle. Not only are you balancing time management, but also the ever changing algorithm. It may seem like you are constantly trying to keep up while also working to build authentic connections with real people. Oh, and trying to run a successful business at the same time.
Social media management can feel like a full-time job.
It can be exhausting just to think about! But there are ways to minimize the work while maximizing your efforts. Trust me. Here’s how…
Understand the Basics of Social Media Management
Effective social media management requires a solid understanding of what it entails and why it’s critical for your business. Knowing this can help busy entrepreneurs have a more positive outlook when it comes to making sure social media management is a priority. It can also help you realize what you can get done without having it take up too much of your time. Let’s break it down.
- Social media management is an ongoing process that involves creating, scheduling, analyzing, and engaging with content. This content can be spread across various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In, Tick Tock, YouTube and Twitter. This process is vital for businesses aiming to reach their target audience, enhance their online presence, build brand reputation, and establish an active relationship with their customers.
- The importance of social media management cannot be overstated. It’s not just about raising brand awareness or staying current on the latest internet trends. Social media management is key to building more personal connections with target audiences. The rapport developed on social media can build brand trust and loyalty.
- Effective social media marketing for small businesses gives you the unique opportunity to humanize your brand and drive traffic back to your website. Many small businesses even use social media for customer service by allowing customers to message them directly. Customers may inquire about their services, have issues related to their services resolved and have questions answered.
Create a Social Media Management Strategy
A social media management strategy is like a roadmap guiding you to your desired destination. Without one, your social media efforts might end up just being a random act of posting. This won’t bring the results you desire. A well-crafted strategy aligns your social media efforts with your business objectives, allowing you to create impactful content that resonates with your target audience. It also helps in refining your approach by listing posting strategies, engagement strategies, and tactics for finding new followers. Before you even open social media, make sure you know exactly what you want to do and/or accomplish when doing your social media management. Start by making your plan to get the most efficiency out of your time. Writing everything down you want to accomplish the old-school pen or pencil on paper way can be helpful. After you get all your thoughts down on paper, go back and prioritize everything. Do this BEFORE everything else in order to help things flow smoothly.
Set Measurable Social Media Goals
KNOW THE GOAL. When it comes to effective social media management, setting attainable and measurable goals is the cornerstone of success. This approach helps you align your social media activity with your broader business objectives. Whatever the goal, choose one that requires you to measure engagement, rather than passive viewing. While a large follower count means broad awareness, it’s more important to build a follower-base that’s actively participating with your content. Successful social media marketing in not only about gaining followers. It’s also about converting passive followers into engaged audience members and potential customers. It can be too easy to become wrapped up in the numbers game, constantly striving for more followers. Instead, focus on building relationships with your followers which can then draw more people to your page.
Schedule the same content formats monthlY
As a busy entrepreneur, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every social media post. Instead, develop templates to allow for easier content creation. I suggest building your content around relevant topics and themes based on your business. Create posts that fit into personal, educational, engaging, and promotional categories. Finding the best time for social media management may take some trial and error on your part. To go along with creating a social media strategy, it can also be helpful to diversify your time slots when you schedule your content. Deciding what posts you want to go out to each social media platform in advance can allow for a much more organized approach to your over social media management.
Prioritize quality over quantity
Instead of posting multiple times a day on as many platforms as possible, focus on delivering consistent, quality posts. This can also help prevent posting from becoming overwhelming and problematic which could wind up hurting your strategy rather than helping.
Another way to prioritize quality posts is to ask yourself the following questions:
- Does this content help my followers?
- Is this original?
- Is this actionable, inspiring, or entertaining?
All of these questions can help you create quality content that will engage and attract followers. Plus, it does so without much additional effort on your part.
Manage interactions in real-time wisely
When you’re a busy entrepreneur, you want to get the most out of your time spent on social media management. Don’t just randomly like posts and reshare random content. Instead, understand what actions result in high engagement and conversions. This will help you when you set aside time to accomplish the tasks critical to your goals. If you only have an hour total for social media management, divide that hour up accordingly for each of your platforms. Use a timer to keep yourself on track. It’s amazing how much you can get done when you know you only have 15 or 20 minutes to do it. Regular engagement is essential in building trust and fostering relationships with your followers. By engaging regularly, you show that you value their input. Doing this boosts loyalty and can even lead to improved sales. Engagement could be as simple as liking and commenting on a handful of content, responding to comments on your content, or simply answering questions. It does not have to take a lot of time.
When you’re done – be done!
This is one of the most important parts. When the timer beeps, get out. You don’t have to respond in depth to everyone who engages with you. Sometimes a one-word answer or even an emoji response is just fine. LESS IS MORE. Saying something quickly is better than not saying anything at all. Respond and move on.
Productivity decreases when you switch between activities that use different parts of your brain. This means that your brain works best when it is focused on one type of task. Social media marketing, however, involves diverse tasks. In order to prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed to the point of not doing anything at all, creating a plan. Sticking to this plan can help even the busiest of entrepreneurs with social media management.
Remember, doing a better job with fewer moving parts is better than not being great at any of them.
