Do you manage your social media, or does it manage you?
Do you manage your social media, or does it manage you?
I’ve often heard about people who are overwhelmed by social media in their business and their personal life, and they want to ‘unplug’ themselves from their platforms completely as the solution. I can understand that not everyone has a need to be on social media, but from a business perspective, I think making this drastic move could have a negative affect on your business. I think there are better solutions to this feeling, and I will share my strategy with you in how I’ve learned to manage my social media so it's not managing me.
Social media is not meant to be about popularity or sales. It's a place where as a business owner you can offer value and build relationships with the people coming into your life. It's not meant to do all the work for you, it is meant to enhance the work you do. When I meet with someone over the phone after being friends on social for awhile, they tell me my personality translates from post to person, and that they feel like they’ve been able to get to know me and build trust with me. What a huge compliment! It is not a place to just show our highlight reel, it's about being real and relatable, and attracting the right people into your business. Let’s get started with my 4 principles of social media management.
Discipline
So the first thing you need to do to manage social media is to be disciplined about how you are spending your time and how much time you will spend. You may have to take the app off of your phone for awhile, and then schedule in your calendar the time you’ll take each day. Set an alarm and stick to it. Only log on with the intention of exactly what you are going to accomplish within that time frame. Another great tool you can use is the Kill Newsfeed Extension for your browser. This will allow you to see your notifications and messages, and navigate most of Facebook, but you will not be distracted by the feed.
Scheduling
‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’ applies here. So not only is it important to schedule the time you’ll spend on social, but try scheduling the time you will spend creating and curating your posts, and then using a platform to schedule them ahead of time so that you can stop feeling like you are missing out. This is a great way to create some piece of mind. I like to work my business in time blocks, so I will take a couple of hours at the start of each month to schedule out my posts. I use Buffer, because I love that with the “Awesome” version, I am able to also schedule posts for my multiple Facebook groups for my various networks, and I don’t have to worry about missing a post when life needs me. This allows me to show up consistently, and then I schedule in daily the time to engage with my audience. I call it my Power Hour. The other great thing about Buffer is that it buffer your posts to the time that your audience is on and engaging, so your posts aren’t being sent into space when no one is watching. I also use a program called Monthly Marketing Solved where all my posts are planned monthly for me, so then I know what type of posts to use on which days, and I just have to personalize it to my business.
Investing
We all know the importance of social media and what a huge impact it can have on our ROI. We know we can reach more people in a shorter amount of time by properly utilizing this tool. We know that education can help further our progress in most areas, so why would we think that technology or social media is not as important of an investment as any other form of education or coaching? Time is money, and the longer you spend time trying to figure it out on your own, the more time and money is being wasted. There are some simple strategies that can be implemented to really maximize your time and effort, and they are worth the investment because they work, and strategies that work not only save you time and money, they give you more of both. I have invested in multiple resources and courses do build my online business, and I would say the easiest to implement, with the greatest results and the greatest value come from Katherine Sullivan with her Go Social Marketing Solved Program.
Converting
This is an important step that many business owners overlook when it comes to social media. Yes, you want to be able to offer value and build a relationship, but let's face it, none of us work for free, and we are worth what we give and then some! The best way to convert leads from social into sales is through an email marketing sales funnel. Social media is a place to promote your offer, but bringing people over to your email world, where you can continue to nourish the relationship with targeted emails, value, and offers, is far better than leaving it to chance that your audience will always see what you post. You need to have a plan in place for where you are going to send your people when they are ready to work with you, and list building in my mind is the best way to do this.
