You know how it goes. You pop onto Facebook or Pinterest, and before you know it, you’ve lost 83 minutes to a 30-second task. You’ve “liked” your friends’ updates, read an interesting article, and browsed a few new recipes…but you still haven’t written an email to your subscribers.
Sound familiar?
The trouble is, as online entrepreneurs, we need those social media accounts to help drive traffic, engage readers, and build relationships. We use them to build backlinks, promote our products, and grow a tribe of raving fans.
But…if we spend too much time on our social media platforms, other areas of our business suffer.
So today, we want to share 3 ways to help you get the most out of social media, without it sucking up all your precious time.
Plan It
As with most things in business, the key to success lies in the planning. You wouldn’t launch a new product or coaching program without first planning out the details, and you shouldn’t leave your social media engagement to chance either. By planning out your updates in advance, you’ll ensure you’re promoting your most important content and products, and not wasting time on ineffective strategies.
We personally know how much time you can waste thinking about what to post in the moment. But when you plan in advance, you’ll become more efficient with your updates and you’ll be able to “get in and get out” without getting sucked down the rabbit hole.
Schedule It
If you really want cut down on the time you spend on Facebook, then schedule your social media time. Put it on your calendar, and set a timer. When your 15 minutes (or 25 if you’re a fan of the Pomodoro Technique) are up, log off and move to the next task.
By forcing yourself to stick to a schedule, you’ll be much more motivated to get the important things done. Only when you’ve connected with your groups, shared your latest blog post, and checked in with your “must read” pages will you be free to surf – and then only for a few minutes.
Try it for a week. You might be surprised how much more you get done when you don’t get sucked into a day-long Facebook binge.
Automate It
If you’re still struggling to limit your time on your favorite social platforms, try adding automation to the mix.
There are several affordable tools available that will allow you to upload and schedule your updates in advance, not only on your personal accounts but also on business pages and in private groups. In fact, the only social account that cannot be fully automated is Instagram.
When you’re considering costs, just look at what it’s costing you to get sucked into social media while other things in your business don’t get done. Or if you have an assistant who helps you out with social media, giving her access to a tool like this would actually save you money, because she would be able to do her job a whole lot faster.
You don’t have to automate everything, but it sure comes in handy for the days when you’re not working and can’t manually post updates 😉
Here’s the tool one we use:
Meet Edgar – This powerful scheduler lets you build a library of updates you can recycle again and again, further increasing your productivity.
And here are a couple of others that we like:
HootSuite – With this tool, you can upload a spreadsheet of updates to roll out over time, plus you can even read your Facebook, Twitter, and other feeds right in the app.
Buffer – This tool lets you build a list of RSS feeds from which you can share updates, plus it features a browser add-on to share articles on the fly.
We understand that you do have to be present on social media, in fact, we’re going to be kicking our own social media activities up a notch in 2017. But you also don’t want your business to suffer because you’re not managing your social time in a way that is beneficial to you and your business.
We’d LOVE know how you manage social media and what your favorite tools are. Leave us a comment below or share with us on Facebook.
By the way…
Do Your Clients Struggle With Social Media Automation?
If they’ve tried (and tried, and tried) to build better automation systems around your social media marketing, but still feel as if they’re struggling, then our new Teach Your Tribe kit will help. We’ve done all the research and discovered 10 ways to automate social media posts, get more buzz, and increase visibility—and all while spending less time. We’d call that a win!
Or maybe you’re the one who struggles. If that’s the case, we’d love for you to use the materials we’ve created to build better systems for yourself, then “Teach Your Tribe” what you’ve learned! It’s a great way to grow your business.
