Social media has opened the doors to engaging customers in ways we never thought possible only a few years ago. After spending countless hours on your social media platforms you might not see the results you were expecting. Without losing your mind, here are a few tips on how to maximize your social media efforts without losing too much time.
Plan & Execute
Creating a plan for your social media is essential. Think about your purpose for using social media in the first place. Are you promoting new products, gaining brand awareness, reaching out to others with similar interests, and so on…? Once you create it, stick to it. Don’t get side tracked by reading too much or replying to way to many posts, keep in mind that time is money. You can end up spending hours browsing so simple rule of thumb is get in and get out. Reply to only the necessary things that are related to your plan and strategy and set time boundaries. Keep to them!
Be Consistent & Relevant
It’s important to provide your followers, readers, information they have signed up to see. Don’t get too crazy about posting every five minutes a new update. Chances are nobody wants to see what you had for lunch. Post about things related to your business. New product updates and offerings, short announcements, articles, or breaking stories. Is there any industry news headlines? If someone makes an inquiry, make sure you reply promptly. It’s ok to make a few daily posts you can go up to five a day if you want, but keep them consistent and relevant to your plan and strategy.
Manage Your Platform
There are many social media platforms and each with its own benefits. But keeping them all neatly up to date while conserving our time for other daily business tasks can prove challenging. Now you can do this at a set time of a day, where you would manage each platform individually, get your updates, and get out. Or you can use tools to help you manage your social media platforms and maximize your efforts. You can take a look at HootSuite and BufferApp. At the time of writing this article, in my opinion, these are the two leading horses when it comes to social media management. They allow you to automate some of the process and streamline your activity by managing your social media. Which one is right for your business? This all depends on you. Head on over to their websites and compare them side by side and choose one that will fit best into your strategy.
What tips do you have to share that have helped you in your social media? Let us know if you used any of the management tools mentioned above, how you like them, and if you use any other ones that you’d like to recommend.