Until I am measured,
I am not known,
Yet how you miss me,
When I have flown.
Oooh a riddle…what could be the answer?
Time is our most precious commodity; yet we’re seemingly always running out of it in our day to day lives. You only need to listen to conversations in our office to see how true this is as you’ll no doubt hear phrases being used such as, “Sorry, I don’t have time to…” or “Erm, well….I don’t think I’ve got time.”
So we prioritise everything constantly; from which element of our platform is to be upgraded first for a client, right down to which item of lunch we choose to eat first.
Quite often ‘doing social media’ ends up sitting at the foot of this metaphorical table of priorities, or should I say ‘doing meaningful social media’ is at the bottom. Obviously if something unexpected happens; like a bird flying into the office, or if someone brings in some fantastic homemade flapjacks, then of course that only takes just a minute to post a quick witticism about the event in under 147 characters.
Meaningful social media does use up time, but it’s worth it. Sharing fresh content pieces, commenting on the latest developments within your sector, keeping up with competitors actions, getting back to potential client enquiries and ensuring you’re building a relatable and useful online presence are all absolutely brilliant free* methods of boosting your marketing efforts as well as building your wider reputation.
So with the fact that we’re all very busy, time deficient people, here’s 4 really basic and simple tips you could employ to help you with finding the time to use social media properly:
TIP 1 – Schedule your Social Media
Yes, this will take up some of your precious time at the beginning, but trust me it’s worth it! Set out your posting schedule in a week-by-week format. Plan to post a case study every Wednesday morning. Block out 20 minutes on a Monday morning to catch up with content from the weekend. Get used to spending that scheduled bit of time everyday for social media and soon you’ll forget why you even moaned before about it as it becomes part of your daily activities in work.
TIP 2 – Automation
Now by suggesting that you use your computer to automate posts, I don’t mean we’re going to let this turn into some sort of skynet-esque apocalyptic nightmare where your computer takes over all signs of your brand’s personality. You will still need to carry out interactions with other people, however having your blog and social media posts automated will save precious minutes from your schedule as you no longer have to post them one-by-one.
Go try Hootsuite for this – there’s even a Blurrt widget you can install too!
Blurrt’s Hootsuite app in use
TIP 3 – Create content and graphics in advance
It’s not absolutely essential, but having an image accompanying your posts really bloody helps with audience engagement. Nowadays this is easier than ever, meaning you don’t need to spend ages messing on photoshop or hassling your design team.
Tools such as Canva have really snazzy social media templates you can play with and create attractive images from within minutes. It’s also useful to have some plain images ready too, with just your logo in so you can drop a title in on the go.
TIP 4 – Don’t spread yourself where you shouldn’t be spread
For the record, that title above isn’t an actual phrase, but by this I mean if you’re spending time on a platform that’s just simply not working for you, don’t be afraid to drop it and focus on platforms that are working better. There’s no shame in walking away, plus the chances are if it’s not working for you, it’s not where your audience are anyway!
*I say it’s free because for the most part social network platforms are free and you can achieve a lot from them. But of course you can spend your money to help you out a little bit more with things such as paid facebook ads and social media marketing agencies.