From Frustration to Streamline
Ever found yourself sitting down to spend a quick half-hour on your social media accounts, only to realize a ‘quick hour’ dealing with several accounts can’t happen? Frustration set in!
Ever found yourself sitting down to spend a quick half-hour on your social media accounts, only to realize a ‘quick hour’ dealing with several accounts can’t happen? Frustration set in!
We’ve all been there. The fact is that social media has grown exponentially in its relatively short lifespan, and with such high volumes of constant content and activity, managing a social media marketing strategy can often seem like an uphill struggle.
But it doesn’t have to be. Below are some tips and suggestions I’ve learned over time dealing juggling social media accounts at once.
Schedule everything
Keep a sound content calendar. Remember a sound social media strategy begins with the content.
It might sound like a lot of work, but if you plan first and sort out monthly themes and messaging in advance, you'll save time down the line as you'll know who needs to write what when. Think in terms of a 45-60 day calendar and once built, keep the cadence going.
You should also establish your post-publication sharing process. Where are you going to share your content? What soundbites and snippets can you use from the piece? What time are you going to share it?
Constantly swapping between several social media accounts and trying to manage each one effectively is a highly stressful and time-consuming task.
Prioritize Your Channels
Not all social media channels are created equal, so customize and target content to each platform. You can’t stretch a tweet-sized piece of copy across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc., it’s a waste of everybody's time.
You need to know what works where. Twitter, for instance, is very useful for asking questions and reacting to customers quickly, while pictures are the preserve of Instagram and Pinterest. But, saying that, images win on most channels; Tweets with images receive 150 percent more retweets and photos on Facebook attract 53 percent more likes and 104 percent more comments than the average post.
Sometimes when it comes to the number of platforms, you’re active on, less is more. If your audience mostly uses Twitter and Instagram, then why waste time and energy on Facebook? It makes sense to focus your resources on the channels that are going to provide the biggest return. So, analyze which platforms drive the best results and make these a priority.
Batch it up
Once you’ve decided which platforms you’ll be focusing on, set yourself a dedicated ‘batch’ of time for each one, either daily or weekly, whichever works best for you. Rather than working for the odd ten minutes here and there on a social media account, be strict and set aside a longer, allocated period of time in which to focus on any tasks.
Also, be smart about when are ideal times to post on various social channels. You want to get the most eyes possible on your content and maximize your ROI.
Repurpose your content
Repurposing used content is a huge time saver and can help you squeeze all the juice out of a great piece of content that you worked so hard on. While duplicating content is bad, repurposing content can be incredibly useful.
Here are some ways you can do it:
- Turn your blog post into an informative podcast…podcasting is popular and gaining momentum!
- Use the results of a poll or quiz on social to create an engaging blog post…great way to know what your customers are thinking
- Create images using individual stats from a longer piece of research and post with a link back to your original work
- Turn some research you’ve done into a short video for social media to drive traffic. Like podcasting, video is powerful if used correctly.
Repurposing allows you to really think outside the box when coming up with creative ideas and enables you to breathe longevity into your content.
User-generated content
People love to see real-life examples of other customers using and, most importantly, enjoying your product, which is why user-generated content is such a hit on social media.
Encourage your audience to interact with your brand and generate their own content by tapping into people’s competitive nature:
- Run a Facebook competition where customers need to share their photos or experiences on social media for the chance to win a prize or free product
- Ask users if they would like to be a guest blogger and talk about the experience and benefits having used your products
- If you are launching a new product or attending an event, create a hashtag specific to your brand and incentivize people to use it when sharing their pictures and event experience on social media
About the author
Hi, my name is Rick and I thank you for reading this article!
I explore to learn new stuff every day and here I will share all my experiences and thoughts with you.
You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram. :)