Struggling with time on social media? Create a schedule

It really doesn’t matter at all if you are a small business owner, medium sized or an big organization, find the right people, time, and money to carry out new innovative digital strategies is difficult. Most businesses are scared to try out new digital trends and technologies because they don’t have the resources and time to manage it successfully.

Did you know that if you had a clear digital marketing strategy that focuses on social media to humanize your brand can increase your sales and also obtain new customers? I bet you will most likely make the time then. A social media strategy should never exist in it’s own silo and should always integrated with your other marketing initiatives to help you reach your business goals. I know it sounds easier that it actually is and it really takes quite a lot of effort and time, but how do you get started to make sure you don’t burn your fingers and business on the social web?

Firstly, integrate social media into every facet of your business. It should never be seen as an addition, substitute or a replacement to your marketing plan. Whenever you are working on your marketing strategy with your marketing department or group, always think on how you can integrate social media into your communication plan. It’s every important that social media should be part of your discussion so that you can take full advantage of all the opportunities that can promote your company and brand.

Creating a social media schedule
Once you have found ways that you can use social media in your overall marketing plan, it’s important to create a schedule to help you track how and when you are going to engage with your target audience. How many times a day are you going to post a status update to Twitter and Facebook? How often are you going to publish a new blog post? What are you going to say in your communication message? How often are you going to post information related to your business?

Created a detailed calendar to that you can use to schedule every update and blog post. This calendar/schedule should be followed with great importance and if you plan this in advance, you are going to save quite a lot of time that would have been spent trying to figure out what you are going to post and when. This will also help you keep your target audience engaged. There are many tools available online that you can use for the management of this process.

Encourage conversation
Social media encourages conversation with your target audience and this won’t happen if you are yelling sales pitches to them. Add a couple of “conversation starters” to your calendar that encourages engagement. This could be in the form of presenting an idea to your audience and then sharing interesting information and asking your audience to provide you with feedback
Integrating social media into your other marketing procedures with a schedule will help you manage your time with this medium so that you can carry out your daily tasks and engage with your target audience.