How to Create an Engaging Social Strategy Without Stress
It’s 5 pm, and you’re beginning to close out your tasks for the day. You’re crossing off your to-do list when you see the one point you keep putting off: posting on social media. Maybe you rush to snap a photo of a recently-arrived item, or openTwitter to post a quick note about an upcoming promotion. The post garners a handful of responses from your most-engaged followers, but you’re not sure it’s reaching anyone new. You add the same to-do for next week, and hope for the best. Does this sound familiar?
Many small businesses are aware that social media is a critical tool for growing business and building brand awareness. With business forced to move online, the importance of social media has become increasingly clear during the coronavirus pandemic. This shift in priorities leaves many of us scrambling to create content quickly. It is easy to consider social media as “free” advertising, but developing content that actually brings in new leads is mystifying and time consuming for everyone. The platforms may be free, but your time isn’t.
Social Media: Thinking Strategically
As a digital agency: we get it. Each of us has been in your shoes: we’ve learned the quirks for every platform to develop clear strategies for growing audiences. The hard reality? Social media takes commitment. Each site’s algorithm is unique, but posting intermittently at varying intervals is universally frowned upon, and not a best practice. If you want to see results, then you need to develop a consistent routine.
Think of your Social Media like starting a new hobby. If you want to get into jogging, the occasional run might leave you tired and aching. Over time, as you improve your form and start hitting the pavement more often, your running improves and you might even look forward to the change the activity brings to your day. The real pay-off comes from pushing through the early days, and developing smart strategies to help you develop a consistent routine.
We know that many of us want to develop consistent social media content, but without a few simple tools the task feels overwhelming. To make social media approachable, we recommend implementing these three regular habits: scheduling, hashtagging, engaging.
Regular Social Media Habits
Social Media Scheduling:
Consistency is key, but spending 40 minutes glued to your phone attempting to write the perfect caption isn’t. Instead, consider planning a month’s worth of posts up front. Spending one to two hours on your social media once a month is extremely liberating! Preparing content ahead of time ensures that your social media presence will be consistent, and lets you focus on everything else you love about your business.
Consider using an online scheduler with a free plan, such as Planoly or Later, to schedule regular social posts each week. If you spend 45 minutes a month developing & scheduling a handful of high-quality posts, your social media profiles will be cohesive and relevant to your audience. As your accounts begin to post more regularly, your existing followers will be exposed to your content & your brand awareness will naturally increase over time.
The best part? After you schedule your month, you can let it post for you, stress free.
Hashtagging:
Scheduling your posts will take a huge weight off your shoulders, and a huge time-suck out of your calendar. If you really want to take your social presence to the next level, start using relevant hashtags for your posts. Consider what services your business offers, and what values you wish to convey with each post, and begin incorporating hashtags that represent these ideas. Just keep in mind that general hashtags, such as #Art and #Music are overflowing with content. Try to use hashtags that are specific and relatable to get more eyes on your posts, which will mean better engagement.
If you don’t know where to start when it comes to creating hashtags, check out some of our favorite resources:
The 2020 Instagram Hashtag Guide - Via HootSuite Blog
Using Instagram Hashtags to Grow Your Audience - Via SproutSocial Blog
How to Identify Relevant Hashtags for Your Business - Via Convince and Convert
Hashtag analytics 101 - Via SproutSocial Blog
Bonus: Using these hashtags will ensure that your posts reach new, engaged eyes every day.
Engaging:
Once you feel comfortable with social media, the best way to build your following and brand awareness is to regularly engage with each social media platform. Engaging with content means liking, commenting on, or sharing posts. These engagements build community with your followers, and every time you comment on another post, your business is seen by a brand new audience.
We know that each of us only has 24 hours in a day, but spending fifteen minutes a day engaging intentionally with relevant content can have great benefits for your social media presence.
Here’s what we recommend doing to get the most out of those minutes:
Review and engage with posts shared using your regular hashtags
Interact with comments, on your post and other, relevant posts
Review and engage with posts shared using your local area’s geotag
Share, or Retweet, topical content such as news or industry updates to provide your own voice on the subject by commenting on and liking posts on your feed can have immense benefits for your business.
Tip: Engaging with your followers & the posts that use your relevant hashtags is the easiest way to grow your audience organically, with just 15 minutes of effort a day.
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These three steps can take your business’s social media presence to new heights, and we know you can use them with great success. We believe every business has the potential to explode on social media, but we understand that even these suggestions can feel overwhelming.
We’re here to help make things as simple as possible - and we’d love to talk with you more about how social media can work for you, whether you’re looking to hand over the keys to your social channels, or just need some help getting a strategy in place!
If you want to jumpstart the process & get started growing your business, our consulting sessions offer you the chance to talk through all of your goals and create a comprehensive plan to make sure you get there. Book today, no strings attached!
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