July 29, 2015 by luna

VD52: Social Media Planning Under 1 Hour

Does the thought of managing your social media stress you out? Would you rather procrastinate and put it off until later because “it can wait”? Do you feel like you never have enough time to perfect your channels? Never fear! Today, I’ll share with you some tips on how to manage your social media in under one hour! Yes, you heard me correctly: one hour.

Get Organized: I feel like a parrot because I mention this so often, but it’s just that crucial to help you stay organized: have an editorial calendar! Simply print out a calendar for the week or the month where you can write down ideas as they come to you that you can eventually post. It’s a great brainstorming process, and if you establish different themes for different days, you can create varying content throughout the week. For example, post more fun content on Fridays and the weekend, and use the weekdays to promote more business-related content, like videos, blogs, podcasts, etc. This will help you be more efficient, more organized, and gather ideas that are linked to one another.
Create a List of Content to be Produced: Whether it’s videos, photos, written content, etc., make a list of everything you wish to produce, prioritize it, and bulk it up. For Instagram, you might want to take pictures ahead of time and have a list of what you want to upload so you can have a solid bank of content. The more content you have ready to go, the better because you want to upload about once a week. That way, there’s no constant stress or scrambling! If you have a blog, set a specific day to post and think ahead (ideally about a month). Treat your small business’ social media content like a magazine. Think about what will appeal to your audience and always plan in advance!
Content Repository: Where can you store all your produced content to share later? Dropbox and Evernote are great tools to use to keep your bank of content. From there, you can schedule all your content ahead of time, which brings me to my last tip…
Schedule Your Content: There are several apps out there to help you schedule your posts in advance. For Instagram, use schedugr.am where you can upload the picture, write your caption, include any hashtags, and plan the post way ahead of time. For Twitter or Facebook, I highly encourage you to use buffer.com. What’s so great about buffer.com is that it links your Facebook to your Twitter and other accounts, and it also provides you with suggestions for content. (It comes in handy when you sometimes fall behind; you can just click on the suggestions to always have something to post.) I’ve even been trying out SnapChat recently to have a little more fun and connect directly with my audience. Your snaps don’t have to be polished, so it’s laidback and playful to use. To film and schedule your snaps in advance, use SnapUp. No matter what social media outlet you use, there is always an app to help you get ahead of the game!

Remember, it’s important to know where your demographic is spending time (you can watch my previous episode for more on this topic). Use platforms that appeal to them and are appropriate for your business.