The advantages of social media marketing are numerous and include increased brand awareness and customer engagement. But in such a hectic world, how do you find the time to do it right?
Social Media Today reports that, “In fact, 63% of marketers spend six or more hours a week on social media marketing activities and nearly 19% spend more than 20 hours a week.”
To make the process more efficient, author Julie Graff offers tips to save time while truly engaging with your audience.
1. Limit It
“Nobody has time to engage on all of the networks they ‘should’ be on,” writes Graff. “The only real reason to be on a social network is because your audience is there, and you believe you can engage with them there.”
So, first do a little research and make sure you know what networks your target audience uses and begin with the most popular for them.
2. Automate It.
Automation can really improve your efficiency, but use it judiciously; automated “thank you” tweets for sharing should be avoided.
Three types of tools can help keep you on top of social media and help you communicate in real-time.
- Scheduling tools enable you to plan your posts in advance so you don’t have to be on social media every time you want a post to go out. Graff uses Buffer and Social Jukebox.
- Curation tools aid in monitoring media streams from industry influencers. In addition to Tweetdeck for those streams, Graff uses the RSS reader Feedly for blogs and subscribes to forum digests and industry newsletters for information to share.
- Monitoring tools help you keep tabs on social media mentions “so that you can engage in those conversations and address any issues,” writes Graff. She recommends Tweetdeck for Twitter streams and Mention and SEMRush for internet mentions.
For more tips, see “How to Manage Social Media Without it Taking Up All Your Time.”