Does managing your social media feel like it’s sucking up all your time? Do you feel like you could be making more money in your business if you had more time?

Money and time go hand in hand. And while social media is a valuable tool for many businesses to foster customer relationships, it takes a ton of time. I should know— that’s why I have had a career in it, and why we had a team of specialists dedicated to managing social media for our clients.

But what if there were ways for you to get more efficient online while getting better results? If that sounds appealing to you, check out these 4 tips to implement into your practice today to start producing better results.

Oh, and if you missed our Ask Social HQ Webinar all about simplifying social media in 2020, catch up here. We cover all these tips and more!

Tip 1: Get smart with your distribution

Work smarter so you can work harder. Your ideal customer isn’t on every social media channel— but are you on the right ones? Ask yourself a couple of questions to make sure you’re on the right platforms.

I want you to envision your top customer. Are they a man or a woman? How old are they? What’s their income level? What behaviors do they exhibit? Think about who that person is, crystalized in your mind.

Then ask yourself— where is my audience? What platforms are they actively on? Research demographic and targeting resources, like this study from Sprout Social all about demographics on social media in 2020, to give you a better idea of where your audience is.

Next question is: What type of content resonates with my audience? Do they like humor? Stats? Inspirational quotes? Don’t think of yourself yet when answering this question– simply consider what your audience considers to be interesting, engaging and relevant to their life. 

Then the last question is: Where can I add value? What content can I offer that is on brand and delivers to achieve my ultimate goal, whether that is sales, or engagements, or viewership. Not all business goals are the same, and it is up to you do think critically about what your business has to offer your audience.

Put these three answers together, and you have the recipe for success. The content from your brand on the right platform that speaks to the right audience (while being true to your brand purpose and value) is your jackpot. 

Tip 2: Plan, plan, plan

This is one of the hardest things to do, but will make the biggest impact in your social media efforts. 

If you post content day to day with no plan, you will end up spending more time flip-flopping back and forth between your other day-to-day plans, and trying to get content out the door. And it won’t even be work that’s making an impact or adding value to your audience because you are creating on the fly, and not always in your element. 

Start with an overview calendar. Work a month or even a quarter ahead here to help you stay focused. This doesn’t mean writing all copy, knowing every post detail, etc. It’s about putting down the foundation of what you will be posting, at what frequency, on which platforms, at a high level. This allows you to plan strategically, and execute effectively. 

Next step is to build a content calendar. Content calendars are where you include the full copy (text), image, link, video, etc. Plan a month ahead if possible, or a week ahead at minimum. This helps you build a stock of content at once, allowing you to focus on other parts of your business throughout the week or month.

Then remember to source content as needed— meaning, find valuable articles, images, studies, quotes, etc. to share with your audience. It should be content that is still on-brand, and make sure you always give credit to your source. If you are sharing a link, you don’t need written permission as long as you’re linking to their site. But if you want to use an image, be sure to reach out and ask for permission. Most creators are happy to share the love if they get a shoutout.

Lastly, be sure to schedule your content. Using a scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer is a great way to get all this content you’ve just created scheduled to post throughout the week, without having to remember to do it yourself. It’s a free resource that is worth the time upfront.

Tip 3: Utilize resources

2020 is the time to be in business because there are so many free and low cost resources out there to make life easier for you. Like I mentioned up top, a social media management tool like Hootsuite or Buffer is a free tool to make scheduling and managing social media easier.

For editing, I love VSCO for images, Splice for video editing, and Canva for designs. I use all of these apps for my business, and there are a ton of additional apps and softwares that you can use. Think about where you spend the most time or money, and do some research to see if there’s an app to simplify it for you.

Tip 4: Organize your time

Your time is a precious commodity that is finite— we all have the same 24 hours in a day, and need to make the most of them.

Ways to do this include committing your time for social media management. If you’re looking to maintain or grow your business, commit to 30 minutes a day engaging with your audience online. This means following potential customers, liking and commenting on their posts, responding to their engagements on your page, etc. This commitment syncs up your investment to one block of time a day while helping you build online rapport for your business.

Another tip is to check in daily. Whether it is once in the morning and once at night, or once in the middle of the day, check in on your notifications to make sure nothing urgent has popped up. Chances are nothing needing your immediate attention has come up. You can even set notifications through some social media management tools to notify you via text or email if your mentions increase, which can indicate an issue or viral opportunity– usually it will be business as usual.

But how often are you checking in now? Each time you check in throughout the day, or react to a notification on your phone, you are adding 25 minutes of distraction into your day. Getting disciplined about checking in daily allows you to free yourself of needing to be on call 24/7, focus on your business, and still monitor effectively. 

Time batching is another way to organize your time, which is the practice of taking a task that you already do, whether it’s going for a walk or commuting on a train, getting your hair done, going to the dentist, it doesn’t matter. But use that time to knock out that 30 minute practice of engaging with your audience. That gives you more time back into your day, while killing two birds with one stone. My favorite type of efficiency.

Last up is adding social media management to your calendar. Go into your calendar right now, and block off the time that you will spend every quarter or month creating your overview calendar. Every month or week that you will spend on writing your content calendar and creating your images. Every morning and night that you will check in on your notifications. Every 30 minutes that you will spend daily engaging with your audience. This method works wonders, and it isn’t set it stone– you can move it around if you need to, like happens. But it’s there, and you’re more likely to get it done when your calendar is holding you accountable. 

So there you have it! 4 tips to help you save time and money on social media in 2020. Of course, there are many other tips out there that we didn’t cover, but these 4 should get you on the right track.

I would love to hear from you — What resources have you used that have helped you be more efficient online? Any recommendations for those resources and apps out there? Drop them in the comments below— and don’t forget to check out our upcoming webinars to tune into for live Q&A’s and valuable resources to help you and your business online.

Wishing you a successful and effective 2020,

Hillary