As a freelancer or small business, you’ve likely heard of the benefits of keeping an active social media presence, but who has the time for that? Although social media is free, it costs a lot in time, primarily through trial and error. However, with these tips, you can spend less time on social media but still produce enough content to grow your brand and stay relevant.
Set SMART Goals
The SMART acronym has been used for goal setting since the 80’s because they help businesses create objectives that are available and lead to results.
To ensure your goals are reachable and clear, they must follow these guidelines:
- Specific: (sensible, simple, significant).
- Measurable: (motivating, meaningful).
- Achievable: (attainable, agreed).
- Relevant: (realistic and resourced, reasonable, results-based).
- Time-bound: (time-based, time/cost limited, time-limited, timely, time-sensitive).
An example of a SMART goal would be “Increase the number of clients I work for from 10-20 by the end of the year.” To obtain this goal, this person must increase (R) their client numbers from 10-20 (M) by the end of the year (T). This specific goal (S) is easily achievable (A) within a year.
Using a Social Media Management Tool
A social media management tool can monitor your platforms and automate a massive part of the process. For example, users can cross-publish content across all channels, plan months in advance by drag-and-dropping content to specific days, and create templates for their posts.
Use 2-3 Social Media Platforms
Marketers make the mistake of using too many platforms at once and getting bogged down by the sheer amount of work they have to do to maintain a social media presence. However, most small-business owners only need to spend six hours per week on marketing to be successful. When separated over a five-day workweek, that accounts for 1 hr and 12 minutes a day.
Some experts recommend a set number of posts per platform.
- Facebook: 1-4 a day
- Twitter: 5-20 a day
- Instagram: 1-2 a day
- Pinterest: 5-30 a day
- LinkedIn: 1-2 a day
- TikTok: As often as possible.
Depending on your business, you may need to implement more or less content.
Launch Takes Longer Than Upkeep
Businesses that don’t already have a social media marketing plan may look on in horror at how long it takes to get established, but this is only temporary. Once you create a launch plan, staying up-to-date with your posting schedule becomes easier. Small business owners will have to rip off the bandaid initially to spend less time on social media in the long term.
Bulk Plan Your Content in Under an Hour
Bulk scheduling can save you a lot of time throughout the week. However, coming up with unique ideas every single day can be challenging, so prepare ahead of time to stay productive.
Plan Your Content
At the beginning or end of each month, sit down and plan your content. If you’re having trouble coming up with unique ideas, search online for suggestions. Check your competitors’ website, google search suggestions, product reviews, YouTube videos, or your followers’ social media profiles for inspiration. Then, map out your content calendar for the rest of the month.
If you want to add or subtract content you’ve spent time on, do so whenever a good idea strikes after planning day. Of course, you’ll also want to adjust for new fads or unexpected events.
Create a Day Dedicated to Planning Only
Entrepreneurs prefer to take the weekend to create their content strategy for the week. It’s in your best interest to stick to that day consistently so you don’t miss out on content creation. You should update your content calendar every week to ensure your ideas are relevant and that you completed all of your tasks. Take 15-30 minutes to finalize topics of photos if needed.
Creating valuable content will limit the amount of time spent marketing or producing more content. Only post high-quality content that engages with your audience.
