Social media has become an important part of our marketing aspect in our small businesses. With so many different platforms to work on a daily basis, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stay on task without losing a ton of time.
I'm sure there are many people reading this right now who have been a victim of a social media time warp. You login for a few minutes to check your page, update posts, and reply to comments. You're only meant to be on for a quick check. But all of a sudden that 30 seconds became 30 minutes.
And then it happens time and time again. You begin to wonder if social media marketing is all it's cracked up to be. How does your time invested equal a good ROI?
Here are 7 things that you can do to escape the social media time warp and still have it be an effective means of marketing for your business.
I know that sounds funny but honestly it's the easiest way that you can stay on task. Whether it be five minutes or 10 minutes, you determine how much time it will take on a daily basis or multiple times a day.
If you're logging into Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc., only go to your business page to do the updates. It's easy to get sucked into what's happening in other people’s lives while you're on your personal profile. Keep it business only during office hours so you can get on and off in a hurry.
While these are great for Twitter and other channels, sometimes you will get less interaction when used on Facebook or Instagram.
While not always the optimum answer, it does work well to keep you focused on and on task yet still have your marketing done to your specifications. Spot checks will help make sure that they're following directives and your business voice.
Sometimes you login and end up staring at the screen while you try to come up with something witty or engaging. By planning ahead a week to a month, you will already have your basic posts and lined out but still leave a few slots for spontaneity. This would work well especially if you are outsourcing your work.
While it can be helpful to have a notification when someone leaves a comment, that also means you're probably going to hop over to that page to see if it is something you need to address immediately. That takes you away from other tasks.
Leaving issues too long can be an irritation to your customer, but we can't respond every second either Logging in twice a day should be sufficient.
Escaping the social media time warp can be done. It is an effective means of marketing yet we all know time is extremely valuable as well. Focus and stay on task for the most effective use of your time and incorporate these seven tips to help you manage your accounts.