Time Saving Social Media Tips for You and Your Business
Social media has become so important in the business world these days. Not only must you be on social media, but you most interact on it as well. So what are some of my tips on saving time on social media?
I would suggest you start a social media content calendar. This will help you be organized and ensure you are dotting all of your “i’s” and crossing all of your “t’s”. This is also a great way for you to plan ahead, and for you to also get creative with your posts, because it is all about quality, not quantity.
With every platform, there is one consistent best practice to keep in mind: quality over quantity. Make sure what you are posting is relevant to your audience, pertinent to your business or industry, and high-quality content that your followers will find valuable. Never post just to post. Each piece of content should have a specific goal in mind, whether that’s brand awareness, making a sale, getting event registrations, gathering donations, or just to make your customers smile.
You want to plan ahead, so you get the holidays in there with some cool and unique posts. And think about it. If you have Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – even TikTok, Twitch, Discord, Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Caffeine, Instagram Reels or Telegram. How often do you post and the worst thing you want to happen?
With Instagram, I recommend a couple of times a week. It’s also good to take advantage of those Instagram stories. Think about it. There is a funny trending story and you re-share it. Think about how many more eyes will be on “you” because of someone else’s story. If it is a story you resonate with, and is in your niche – well, obviously followers of them are probably good followers for you as well – so if you share this story, it just easily attracted you to your target audience. Also, don’t be afraid to share your “own” stories. Make a raw video of you working or doing something you are passionate about that would be ideal for “your” target audience to see you doing. Same thing – someone else may share this also and now “your” story is trending.
Facebook, again, post a couple of times a week and think about what photos you can add, show photos of your team, showcase your expertise, share something that’s entertaining and adds value, post something to educate so you are seen as an expert in this area.
Now, with Twitter, you can get a little bit more frequent to stay on top of that newsfeed, so you should be posting every day once a day, at minimum. I’d suggest twice a day and keep it short and sweet and like normative. Let’s say that you are a hotel, and it’s the off-season. You could show a picture of the beach with a note. “Wish you were here. Wouldn’t this be exciting?” Take this post and put it top of mind for your customers, so they don’t forget about you throughout the year.
Now, if you are a business owner and just simply do not have the time to do this, there are platforms where you can schedule posts in advance. There is Godaddy, who has a team that writes and handles all of that for you (for a fee of course). If you want to handle this on your own, there’s HootSuite TweetDeck, Promorepublic, Sendible, etc. These are scheduling apps, so that can help you to plan ahead and get that content. Some of these even offer content that you can repost or personalize for yourself. This enables you to plan in advance, post for a day, week, month or even a year in advance. You can create recurring posts to re-post the same thing daily, weekly, yearly, etc.
I also recommend to keep in mind, especially on social media, that you don’t always have to create original content, which does take more time. You can also share content from relevant folks in your industry. So let’s say you have a restaurant and you read this great tweet from Bon Appetit. Oh my gosh – click retweet! There’s your content for the day and it’s super relevant to your audience.
Maybe some cool recipes and cooking tips, or maybe you are a landscape artist and you read something about homes and gardens or better homes, and you get excited about it, like this is something my audience will love again. Well then, repost and retweet and don’t forget user generated content. Your customers are already big fans of what you do. They might be taking photos of your food, your products, capturing their experience with your services, pay attention to that when you’re mentioned and repurpose that. Share it, retweet and that’s going to save you time. Just like the scheduling apps that I mentioned, so you don’t have to come up with everything yourself.
What’s so cool about these social media channels is they are very social and, yes, it’s not always about you and it shouldn’t be just dishing out your content, your expertise, sell, sell, sell. You want to drive some conversation and engagement with the help of your friends on social, like other businesses in your industry.
As mentioned, just being on social isn’t enough – you need to interact and engage. You should definitely set aside some time where you take that time to really focus and your social media content and also go and check out what other people are doing.
Posting, so you can get new followers. You can get eyes on your brand by just following like-minded people, and in addition to that, I’m a big fan of setting alerts and reminders. One last thing to think about: I’m all for it. I live by my calendar.
So have an alert, have a reminder, and then, when that goes off, this is your time to hone in and see who’s commenting on your posts. Did you get any reviews and if you did, take the time to respond to them. Read them and respond in a personal manner and any mentions that you have, which I just talked about user-generated content. This is another great time to check in settings that alert. Like “Hey Pristine, remember to check and see if your customers are posting about you and if so, acknowledge that, because this is clearly a testimonial to your business. If they’re out there mentioning you or taking photos of your services, your products.” Take advantage of it – set an alert, your users, your clients, your customers, are the best marketers for your business.
Another thing I recommend for a good time saver is write out the copy before you post, see your caption. I see this all the time with my friends. They got that great shot, they’re ready to post that awesome photo on Instagram and then they’re just hanging out stumped for words. So it’s something to think and put time aside to put these captions. Maybe in a word doc or even your iPhone notes.
I see my influencer friends do the same so that way, they’re not rushed to come up with a witty creative caption. They have a Caption Bank, If you will, so basically you don’t have to do everything in the moment. You could plan it.
Now in talking about captions and having a Caption Bank, some folks also have a Photo Bank. So if you come across some compelling photos that you think you might use one day to represent your brand or your team or your business store, put those in a place that you can easily access. It’s going to save you so much time versus that day. Let’s say, for example. you’re coming into the kitchen, you haven’t posted on Instagram in a week and you’re already rushing to get the orders out, you can be like, “Oh team, get together we’re going to take a behind the scenes photo of what we are doing.” And then someone says, “No. This is our busiest time of the day. People need to be served.” Well, yes, of course. Customer service is still important. So what would you do? You quickly get a photo, store it in your photo bank and pin a comment so you remember the feeling at that moment. Post it later when you are no longer pressed. It will save you time in the end.
Lastly – posting your content when your followers are online is one of the simplest ways to improve your organic reach.
The best times to post on social media overall is 10:00 AM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
- The best time to post on Facebook is 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- The best time to post on Instagram is 11:00 AM on Wednesdays.
- The best time to post on Twitter is 8:00 AM on Mondays and Thursdays.
- The best time to post on LinkedIn is 9:00 AM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Comment below with your favorite time-saving tip. Would love to hear what everyone else does to save time in their marketing journey.
Contact us to learn how we can help YOU in your Marketing/Investor Relations/Public Relations and Media Relations — we are experts in our field and can guide you on your social media journey.
Patricia Baronowski-Schneider
President
Pristine Advisers
Tel: 631–756–2486 | Fax: 646–933–0177
E-mail: pbaronowski@pristineadvisers.com
Follow Us Online!
www — http://www.pristineadvisers.com/
Wikitia — https://wikitia.com/wiki/Patricia_Baronowski-Schneider
youtube — https://www.youtube.com/user/PristineAdvisers/videos
Vimeo — https://www.youtube.com/user/PristineAdvisers/videos
LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/company/1674911/admin/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciabaronowski/
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/PristineAdvisers?sk=wal
Twitter — https://twitter.com/pristineadvise1
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/pristine_advisers/
Blogs — https://pristineadvisers.medium.com/
#businessadvice, #marketing101, #publicrelations, #marketingstrategy, #successfulbusiness, #investorrelations, #IR, #PR, #corporation, #howtobesuccessful, #businesslessons, #PR101, #IR101, #bloggingtips, #marketinghints, #contentwriting101, #entrepreneur, #startup, #futureofmarketing, #ESG, #SDG, #IR, #socialmedia