5 Tips to Make Social Media an Easier Part of Day & Business Strategy
Social media is a critical part of any modern marketing strategy but without the time to devote to its mastery, or a social media management team behind you, we know finding the time and resources to invest in social media may seem like an impossible feat!
You’re a professional, an entrepreneur, balancing a complex business. With everything already on your plate, has managing your business social accounts felt… unreasonable?
I’ve worked with over 50 clients and in nearly every case, they come to me battling the same set of bad habits that have been eating their time and resources for social media. Here—tell me, have you found yourself in one of these situations?
You sit down spontaneously to make a post, only to find yourself deliberating over the caption for 20 minutes or more. Maybe longer. Over time this task becomes so tedious you start to avoid it.
You avoid posting because you don’t have the time to take new photos or videos to relate to what you want to discuss.
When you use social media, you see others in your field making pertinent and exciting content either on relevant subjects or for relevant events — or you see them running complex campaigns. But you often find yourself drawing a blank when you sit to come up with new ideas.
You feel unwanted pressure to do way more, outside of your normal schedule, in order to keep up with the demands of ever changing social platforms.
Sound like you? I thought so.
I wanted to write this blog to address some very simple lifestyle habits as they relate to social media and your strategy for business—ones I see all my business owners deal with. Making these simple changes will not only have you building your presence more passively but will increase your efficiency and effectiveness when it comes time to get posting!
If you read this and find yourself curious about other effectual shifts you can make in your marketing, reach out for a discovery session and stick around for more information at the end of the blog!
01. Check your Consumption
Do you spend your time scrolling through your favorite platform during lunch or at the end of the busy day? I do it too! However, used wisely, this time can easily be spent doing investigative research to inform your social strategy. It’s simple! Instead of scrolling for consumption, scroll with intention.
As you scroll, keep an eye out for posts that draw you in. Why did this post intrigue you? Look at what other creators in your industry are doing. Observe the media type, voice and other methods being used. What applies to your brand? What doesn’t? What could inspire you to create your own take, or commentary, on your channels? Most social platforms have a feature that allows you to save posts. Utilize this to create a database of inspiration for you to draw from in a pinch!
02. Don’t Let Inspiration Slip Away!
The handiest app you have when it comes to social planning, is already built into your phone! Yes, it’s your mobile notes app! Any passing thoughts, inspiration, or considerations for future posts, jot them down before they’re lost. When inspiration runs dry — as it occasionally does for us all — you will have these notes to spark brilliant content ideas! I keep lists of topics, video inspiration, notes for further research, good resources and more in our content banks. Believe me, you will thank your past self every time you sit down to plan your next few posts.
03. Be the Documentarian of your Life
How many times have you watched a video of a barista mastering latte art, or someone’s morning skincare or workout routine on social media? We severely underestimate how fascinating the daily occurrences of our lives are to others!
Don’t fall for the fallacy that your life is not interesting enough for social media. Often, personal and “day in the life” posts are top performers for our clients, and I’ve learned over the years that followers engage with content they can identify with.
Consider yourself the documentarian of your own life! Are you a realtor who tours awesome houses weekly—film it! Did you have a humorous client interaction this morning—recount it! Did you have a staggering realization over your morning coffee—enlighten us! Is your pet doing something hilarious—share it!
04. Great Content is Timeless!
If you look closely, you’ll see you’ve probably already been doing number 3 already. One of the first things I have many of my clients do is scroll through their digital photo bank and add images to a shared folder between us. This works especially well for personality based brands and businesses that focus on a central individual.
What engaging content is lurking in your camera roll? Unless you are posting about an event, launch, or a recent accomplishment, rarely will the photo or video you pair with your post need to be taken that day. There are two things I’m addressing here:
Kill the belief that you have to post an image perfectly matched with your caption, and that the image has to be taken day-of.
Use pictures you already have to tell your story! Make it easy on yourself!
05. Stick to your Content Pillars
Now for a little more hard and fast basic social strategy. If you haven’t set up Content Pillars for your business’ social media strategy yet, don’t waste another moment!
Your content pillars are 3-5 repeating topics specific to your business or personal brand that create the foundation of your social media strategy. These pillars should reflect the core messages of your brands and everything that you talk about should be clearly identified as a part of one of these pillars.
The reason this is such a time-saver is because it eliminates guesswork thinking about what you’re going to post. You already know what you need to post, and are instead tasked with crafting something in that model. This does a world of good getting you out of ideation mode and into a problem-solving/production mode.
I’m not going to go into great detail on how to craft Content Pillars here, because I already have over here. Master your content pillars, and make the most of your time!
BONUS TIP: Know When to Ask for Help!
Don’t underestimate the value of support systems and feedback loops as you venture into the world of creating content. Every major social account these days likely has a team of players making it possible. I don’t say that to overwhelm you but instead to illustrate that yes, it can ultimately be time consuming to manage social media — that’s why it’s management is a whole industry now! So when you decide social media is going to be an important part of your strategy — craft the resources to support your vision!
Would you benefit by having a coach, accountability partner, or outsourcing a part of your process to make your workload more manageable? Does caption writing stress you out? Or perhaps video editing? OR, do you know you should be networking on social media, but feel shy to do so? Find someone to support you in that — or in all of it. For example, here at Numinous, we build custom packages to alleviate these burdens and provide social media support to make you a consistent and impactful creator on social media. Plus, our services are as hands-on or hands-off as you choose. Take a peek here to see what support could look like — get in touch if you like, or take what you’ve learned and build your own version!
Best of luck and come back soon!
NEED A REFRESHER?
Actively scroll through your feed for inspiration!
Jot down your passing thoughts — when brilliant ideas strike (and they will), record them in a notes app and refer to them during your next content batching session
Capture your daily life through recordings and pictures. Engage with your followers on a more intimate level and save content for future posts.
Old photos and videos make for great content!
Stick to your content pillars!
And of course… Reach out if you need support!