Social Media Strategy is something that every business owner and blogger should be investing time into. It’s the way you can interact with your customers, potential clients, and other creatives.
While it’s something that it’s necessary and should also be fun, it can be quite overwhelming, not to mention that is very time-consuming and when you are juggling your work and personal life, it can be almost impossible to maintain a consistency in each one.
Let me tell you, social media has never come naturally to me. It is something that I really have to put my mind into, to be completely aware of the fact that I need to participate in it. Have you felt this way? Well, not to worry. Today I bring you what I’ve learned since starting this business, in the way I interact in each social media platform, as well as how to make a schedule that works for you.
Make the Switch
When you start your own business or blog, you strategy needs to switch from posting your personal life in there, to what works best for your brand. This may sound confusing, but it’s important that you have a strategy. Questions like “What are you going to post?”, “What is your color palette?”, “What tone are you going to use?” will help you define this.
Sure, you want to share some content that shows more about who you are, seeing the behind the scenes of a business is always exciting, but make sure that you are showing what your brand is all about and that your content appeals to your ideal customer.
Be active
The other day, I shared a post on Twitter that mentioned some things you need to avoid on social media. One of them was not being active. My favorite part of this article was that it said something so obvious, but that we often forget about – “Social media is for being SOCIAL”. So, don’t be scared to get involved in any way you can.
Reach out to other users, don’t just focus on promoting. Join a Twitter Chat, a couple of Facebook Groups and start the conversation. Be helpful to others and show that you care about sharing what you know.
Also, remember to reply when someone tags you or posts your content on their profiles. A simple “thank you for sharing!” goes a long way.
Do your homework
Part of having a consistent social media growth is making some research on what your target market likes and where they might hang out in. Do your homework and search for hashtags, Facebook groups, twitter chats that your ideal audience might see.
If you just wait around for them to find you, you might be waiting for a long time. Make it easier for them and focus on those clients or readers that will be appealed by your content.
Part of this homework is to create a strategy that fits each platform. For example, you might want to share mostly your own content on Facebook and use Twitter to share other articles you enjoy. Each one is different, have this in mind.
You don’t have to do it all
Confession time. I used to be the girl who thought “Oh, of course, I can be on every social media platform out there”, disregarding the advice of social media experts. Of course, I later I realized I couldn’t, it was too much to handle. The time I was investing in this platforms was insane and I didn’t even get the results I wanted.
Avoid making this mistake and find those platforms that are right for you and your audience, mostly that you enjoy participating in. If you just do it because everyone else is doing it, you will end up giving up on consistency at some point.
Try to focus in only 4 or 5 at the most. Create a strategy for each one and focus on growing your engagement, instead of your followers.
Schedule like a Pro
Having a social media schedule can save you time and make you more productive throughout your day. Even though some creatives avoid this because they feel they sound robotic or just stop interacting with their followers, you can find a way to make it happen in your own terms and still create a consistent engagement.
This doesn’t mean you leave everything to automatic messages, pop in each platform daily and see what’s going on, interact with your followers and find new ones you can relate with. This way, you will have most of your messages planned, so you don’t have to worry about not having time to do it later, but you can still check things out when you want to.
To start scheduling like a pro, here are 4 steps you need to follow:
- First, you need to define the content you want to share on each social media platform. On Facebook for example, it’s best to share your own content, while in Twitter you might want to share more tips you find on other people’s blogs or sites. Define that before scheduling a message.
- Make a list of the time you want to post in each one and what you will be posting at each time. For example, if you are going to be posting 10 times on Twitter, maybe 4 of those are going to be content from your own site, the rest from others. Balance is key here, you want to promote your brand, but also support what you like.
- Don’t be scared to try a program that can help you out, it will make life way easier for you.
- Track your progress every month and adjust if you need to. See if your strategy is giving your more engagement and followers.
