3 Ways Having a Social Media Strategy Will Save You Time

Guest post by Anita Kirkbride

Have you ever noticed how being overwhelmed by something tends to make it suck the time right out of your day? The more overwhelmed you feel, the longer it takes to get it done? All entrepreneurs get that feeling about something and many have learned tactics to deal with it and get things done more efficiently.

Ben Franklin famously said, “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned,” and it has never been truer than for planning your social media marketing!

If your paralysis stems from social media, the best way to get moving is to create a social media strategy and plan out what you need to be doing. Here are three ways doing so will save you time:

Knowing what to post

Simply having a plan for what you need to post each day cuts the time you spend trying to figure that out. If you’ve ever stared blankly at your screen, wondering what to post on Facebook, you know what I mean. Taking the time to plan your content in advance means you cut out a lot of the noise that distracts you while trying to decide what to post. You know what you need to find/create and you can get right to it.

Knowing when and where to post

Part of the process of developing your social media strategy is determining on which networks you should focus your efforts. A little research time goes a long way. Asking your current, ideal customers which networks they hang out on regularly is one way to find out where you should be. There are also lots of great online sources of demographic information to help you if you’re new to social media. Taking the time to really understand your audience will save you from trying to create content for too many networks, wasting precious resources on the wrong ones, and understanding your audience better can help you optimize your posting schedule.

Committing to Content

There are numerous formats your social media content can take, from blogs to white papers, from photos to live videos. Trying to do everything contributes to that overwhelm feeling. Ask yourself which types of content you can honestly commit to making on a regular basis and add those to your plan. If you simply cannot create videos, there is no point in overwhelming yourself with a plan that includes a video every week. You’ll continue to procrastinate and get nothing done. Choose the types of content that work best for you and your audience and work your way up to the less comfortable ones later.

When making any kind of decision in business, eliminating the distracting ideas that simply won’t work, saves you time and helps you make better decisions. Absolutely spend some time brainstorming, researching and considering all the possibilities but then narrow it down to what you reasonably have the time, resources and capacity to commit to doing. Once you’ve done that, your social media marketing will come much easier, take less time and start to become routine.

Photo credit: Shari Tucker

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