Hi Anon,

You are not alone! This is something I hear from SME's everyday. It used to be you could schedule some posts with a scheduling software and off you go. Not anymore, social media has become more and more complex. I would suggest if possible that you outsource it to an expert and focus on what you do best.

If this is not possible here are 3 tips to give you some structure and manage your time more effectively.

1. Plan - take some time to decide what your key message is and set up a content calendar for the whole year if possible (On what days will you post, at what time and what will your message be) Consider what value you will be adding to your audience and how you will engage them. This will help you avoid the 'what do I post' blues when you do find a minute.

2. Schedule - Of the ones you have planned, use a scheduler (even if it is just facebooks inbuilt one) to do as many in advance as you can. Chunk your posting time; this discipline will mean you will have regular posts and allow you the freedom to make more spontaneous post if and when they happen. Lastly,

3. Respond - set aside 15 min everyday to respond and engage with your audience, both on your own page and within any relevant groups you may be a part of.

Good Luck!

Hi there,

Yes, I hear you. social media management can be an enormous time sucker and it's not easy to to know how to get consistent "Return on Investment" of your time.

My two-bob's worth is that most small businesses can not survive without a focus on social media in their marketing mix. You've just got to be there, because if you're not, people simply don't trust you anymore. 10-15 years ago it used to be that if you gave someone a business card with a web address on it, they'd check you had an actual physical presence, bricks and mortar, then it turned around, people wanted to know that you had a functioning website before they'd trust you, and now it's increasingly so, that if you're not all over social media, at least some of it, people assume you're not serious.

The bottom line though is that it's all about time and money, and what you want to get back for your investment. If you're getting enough business without giving much time and attention to social media, then I'd suggest there is little reason for you to spend any time on it. The only reason you want to spend time on social media is because you've identified it as a viable route to generate more business. With social media as with every other activity in your business (nearly anyway) the rule is that if it doesn't generate new business, you shouldn't devote any resources to it.

So if you don't need it... don't do it... and if you do need it... it's just like any other marketing... either you go and walk the streets and drop 5000 leaflets in letter boxes and attend networking events and make a thousand cold calls... or you pay someone to do those things for you... same for social media... you spend the time or you hire someone to do it for you... and you measure the return for your money and if you spend $10,000 a year on social media management and you make $50,000 worth of gross profit in return... it's worth doing.

The trick is not to think of it as anything else than any other form of marketing... if leaflets work... do that, if radio advertising works, do that... if social media works, do that

Hope that helps

cheers

roland

Social media as with most things will vary based on your goals. What works for one may not work for another.

Being able to understand what sort of business, the sort of customers and why they are there, their similarities, etc help to understand what sort of social media tactics will be worth your time and which won't!

Alan

I'd start with understanding who your buyer persona is, what social channel is their preference. Then master this one first instead of (as most businesses do) trying a scattered approach across all channels. Next look at a Content Strategy - plan your posts so that they are meaningful and above 'shareable'. You are after 'engagement' here not just 'likes'. Review your buyer persona again and think about the content that would most interest them, be creative and above all 'non salesy' - social is not the place to promote products or sale stuff in my opinion. It's the platform to have conversations and share commentary. Finally, as time poor as you may be - you only get out of social what you put in. Dedicate an hour a day first thing to planning/scheduling your posts, responding to comments and engaging with other people's posts - remember, 'sharing' is caring. Good luck.

Hi there!

Yes, this is the challenge that many businesses face.

My input here is to consider the following:

1. Who is your Target market and where do they hang out on social media ? For examples, professionals may be in LinkedIn and Facebook, 30s and 40 s like Instagram, young generations like Snapchat. Journalists use Twitter.

2. There are many social media platforms (hundreds) - work out 1 or 2 where you know your target market are and then post regularly and build a following there.

3. It really does depend on your type of business - some businesses depend on digital marketing and some don't - if social media / Digital marketing is important to your marketing mix then there are ways to stream line this. You can appoint a Virtual Assistant and for not too much of an investment you can really raise awareness of your business and use someone with the expertise which will also save you time.

There's lots to consider, there's my three , all the best, Adrienne