Small business owners, be real… When was the last time you actually wanted to post?
Having social media be a part of your business’s marketing strategy isn’t really an option anymore; it’s a must-have for some businesses. Using social media for your business gives you a cost-effective way to build brand awareness and connect with your audience. But we get it, you’re probably focused on many other aspects of your business, so, unfortunately, social media is sitting at the bottom of your list.
But, it doesn’t have to! Your social media can be successful and easy to handle if you plan ahead (or if you have Signalfire handle it). That’s why we put together some quick and easy tips on how to handle your social media, even when you’re busy working on other parts of your business.
1. Plan Your Social Calendar Out in Advance
Planning out your content calendar in advance is a great way to help you manage your time when it comes to content creation and posting. At the end of the month, spend some time planning for the upcoming month. Set aside a few hours to research, brainstorm, and create a monthly calendar that includes the content you plan to post on specific days of the week. Try to incorporate things like national/fun holidays and trends that are happening within your industry. Use posts to answer questions that your current and/or potential audience is asking. You could also include ‘hashtag days,’ like #WaterViewWednesday or #MarketingMonday. To take it a step further, during this time you could also batch write your captions and hashtags for the entire month or stick to completing it week by week.
2. Block Time Out for Different Social Media Tasks
Once you’ve created your social calendar, you’ll want to block off some time for different social media tasks. Whether you’re planning to post short-form videos, carousels, still images, etc., plan out time to shoot and edit all of this content for the different platforms you’ll be posting it on. Once you’ve got your content ready, take some time to write captions and research hashtags. As mentioned earlier, you can do this all in one sitting for the upcoming month, or you can do it weekly as you’re scheduling out your content.
Lastly, schedule a little bit of time every day to monitor and engage on social media (this is an important part of managing your social accounts). You’ll want to go through any comments, DMs, mentions, and shares that you’re getting on a day-to-day basis. Just posting and logging off won’t be enough. You have to show that you’re active on your social platforms, you have to listen to what’s going on on your feed, what people are talking about, and interact back with that content.
3. Different Tools for Social Media Management
So, you’re ready to give it a go and start managing your social media, but don’t know what helpful tools are out there? Well, for content calendar creation, it’s easy. You can use an Excel or Google Sheets, or a Word Doc, or whatever format is easiest for you to keep track of content.
For scheduling, you can use a scheduling platform like Hootsuite or in-platform scheduling options. For example, Instagram and Facebook have Meta Business Suite, which is an all-in-one platform used for scheduling, responding to messages/comments, and tracking social media data. For platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube, you can just go in there and manually schedule a post, monitor, and track data. A little like Facebook and Instagram, TikTok has TikTok Studio, which allows you to manage, edit, and track your TikTok data.
4. Disconnect & Decompress
An important part of managing social media is taking a step back, disconnecting, and decompressing when you need to. I (Alexia) find that when I’m able to do that, my creativity recharges and the times when I’m least thinking about social media are when the next most exciting idea pops up in my head. If you don’t take breaks & close your social media app for a few hours, you’ll get sucked into doom scrolling and social media starts becoming a bit overwhelming.
Social media should support your business, not stress you out
But social media doesn’t have to feel this way. Planning and staying consistent will help you get into a flow of managing your socials, but if you’d rather hand it off and focus on what you do best, our team is always here to help. From content planning and writing to posting and engagement, we’ve got it. Reach out to Signalfire today!