Time management for social media marketing proves vital to improving your efforts in this space.
Since social media never sleeps – but you must – you need to find that perfect balance between the time you spend on social media and maintaining a successful online presence. You just need to remember what’s important here. Social media shouldn’t waste your time; it should be an investment of your time.
Social media tasks
Social media absorbs time in various ways. From the most time-consuming to the least, here are the basic tasks on social media, also, the causes for lost time:
- Learning the platform
- Finding and posting content
- Analyzing efforts
- Checking the competition
- Responding to comments and questions
Everything considered, you don’t waste time because you’re on social media. You waste time because you’re using it the wrong way. The right way can save you many precious hours, freeing them up for other productive tasks. Here are some simple tips for effective time management for social media marketing.
- Use networks that fit your business
There are various social media platforms. You might be tempted to join them all, just because they all seem popular. However, take some time to consider which channels are the right fit for your business. If they don’t align with your goals, or connect you with your target audiences, then your efforts in that platform will be wasted.
Create accounts only on those platforms that you can commit to, and from which you derive benefit. Simply being present on social media is a waste of time.
- Automate
It takes time to visit each social media platform and post customized content for each. Automating this entire process will prove to be a powerful time management strategy for your social media marketing efforts.
Automated systems also allow for a regular social media schedule and streamline your social media efforts across all channels. You need automation for scheduling, curation and monitoring. Find a tool which will help you do this and stick to it. Here are some suggestions:
- Hootsuite – This is probably the most popular of social media tools, offering a broad spectrum of services. It is a powerful tool for finding, scheduling, managing and reporting on social media content.
- Buffer – The highlight of Buffer is scheduling and automatic posting. It also reports engagement.
- Socialoomph – It has powerful features for scheduling and monitoring. You can also track keywords.
- Planoly – It presents the Instagram grid, helping you visually plan. You can also manage and schedule your Instagram posts.
- Allot 1 hour for social media scoping
Even though social media tools post your content, it’s up to you to find the content in the first place. However, there’s always the risk of losing time chasing links and hashtags and ending up without anything to show for it. To curb this, set a time limit on your scoping.
Spend no more than an hour to trawl the internet for relevant content to share. With a fixed time limit, you will work faster, find better content and save time in the process.
Start by opening your social media management tool or a live Google sheet on Google Drive. Then spend 5 minutes on each of the social media platforms you use and copy relevant content that you’d like to share, into your document. These could include articles, quotes, infographics, stories and so on. Spend some time on niche blogs or websites and ensure you save some with consistently good information. Creating an editorial content calendar is a great way to save ideas and save time too.
At the end of your hour, you should have enough content for the next few days. This is a great means of time management for your social media marketing.
- Have a dedicated person to respond to questions
For effective time management for social media marketing, delegate. You could assign a customer service team or someone dedicated to answering questions and responding to enquiries on your social media pages. This will ensure that you are not taken away from your regular work, and other social media efforts. Make sure that you have discussed the tone of voice for your posts with them.
- Measure the relevant metrics
The number of likes on your post or retweets are not accurate measures of return on investment (ROI). They’re simply a waste of time. Instead, the social media management platform you use will probably have built-in reporting features, so you can analyze reports once or twice a week.
Once you discover which social media platforms are performing well and which are not, you can set specific action points and configure your social media strategy to best attain the desired goals.
Time management is extremely necessary for social media marketing. Especially because it’s not just about saving time; it’s about maximizing ROI. Be mindful of your time, your money and your ROI, so you can maximize your business revenue.
At Them You & Me, we specialize in social media and digital marketing strategy. Give us a call if you need help with your social media efforts.
To know about what we do and the services we offer, please visit our website.
Digitally yours,
Marie
This content was inspired by a very comprehensive article that may be found here.
