Social media may be a fantastic and free marketing tool, but it can be hugely time intensive. If you aren’t careful, you or even your whole digital marketing team could be spending their entire time managing your social media profiles – which, as time is always money in business, means spending lots of your money too.
The social media ‘timesuck’, as Marketing Land has dubbed it, is a real problem for today’s marketing professionals, and it’s incredibly easy to find yourself spending unnecessary hours online.
Here are the 6 vital tips you need to know to manage social media marketing effectively, without it basically taking over your whole working day:
- Schedule, schedule, schedule. Scheduling functions on social media management tools are a digital marketer’s best friend. With bulk uploads and the option to plan posts and updates far into the future, you can get a whole week or even month’s work done in less than half an hour.
- Use the right tools. You might need to spend a little time researching the best tools, apps and platforms for social media management, and there is a certain amount of trial and error involved, but it’s worth doing to find tools that will save time and make your life easier.
- Put a timer on. As managing social media often takes place in tiny snippets, it can be hard to work out exactly how much of a time drain it is. To get a better picture, use a timer to get a better picture of how long you’re spending on it – you’ll be shocked! You can then use this information to cut the time down to size.
- Draw up a plan and stick to essentials. To manage social media effectively, you need a clear strategy. Come up with the essential activities you need to do to achieve your goals, and stick only to these tasks. You’ll be amazed at how many you can cover in just a couple of hours a week.
- Make the best use of your time by engaging. If you spend hours reading Twitter feeds but there’s no evidence you were ever there, it’s effectively a waste of time. For the sake of your brand’s presence, make your time count by engaging at as many opportunities as possible.
- Avoid distractions by setting aside dedicated time for social media. With updates popping up all the time, it’s hard to get anything else done. Trying to do everything in real time is one of the biggest time-wasting social media habits, but if there are other things you need to get on with, turn notifications off (on your phone too!) and set aside a clear time to catch up social media work.
How do you limit the amount of time you spend on social media marketing? What activities do you see as essential, rather than distractions? Feel free to share your thoughts and tips for other digital marketing pros.
