Do you have a love-hate relationship with social media? Does social media feel like quicksand?
- How many times have you gone on social media for just a second to post something related to your business, but then ended up wasting hours jumping from one news feed item to the next?
- Do you belong to lots of private groups you don’t have time to keep up with?
- Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by everything associated with staying in the loop that you’ve declared it’s time to go on a social media sabbatical?
We’ve all been there!
Stay sane with this system that I created.
Rule 1: Commit to no more than 2 social media platforms
Streamline your social media system and get control over one or two platforms before adding any others.
Rule 2: Choose platforms based on your audience’s preferences, not your own!
You’ve got to pick the platform(s) where your audience is “hanging out.” Poll or survey your existing readers or clients and ask them where they hang out online.
Rule 3: Set your social media goals
Are you on social media to increase your revenue? Do you use it to meet specific types of people (potential partners, connectors, the media)? Is your main goal to increase your brand’s visibility or build your list? Clarity about your goals will help you determine what actions you need to take and what types of content you need to share on your social media platforms.
Examples of goals:
- Grow my network by 30%
- Get 50 new list subscribers a month
- Build a strong “know, like, and trust” factor so I can sell 10 copies of my e-course when I launch it in 3 months
Rule 4: Add value
Social media is for communication and building trust. It’s not a platform where sales happen, but it’s crucial for cultivating the connections that prepare people to click “buy.”
Show your personality and demonstrate your values through your non-promotional conversations and messages. Sharing interesting and insightful information makes you look generous, informed, and helpful.
Rule 5: Embrace constraints
More constraints = more creativity. Don’t believe me? Consider this. . . .
Would you be more creative if you had to do “A” or “B”?
A. Create 40 Facebook updates (1 update a day, 5 days a week, for 8 weeks)
B. Create:
- 8 industry-specific tips for Mondays
- 8 conversation starters for Tuesdays
- 8 inspirational quotes for Wednesdays
- 8 aspiration-related images for Thursdays
- 8 fun facts for Fridays
“A” feels daunting, doesn’t it?
“B”—even with all its constraints—is so much more doable and fun, right?
I bet “A” would take you forever to complete, whereas the “B” would take no more than 1 hour, and then you’d be done with Facebook updates for 2 whole months!
Rule 6: Befriend technology
You need two tools to manage your social media system—an RSS Reader and a social media scheduler.
RSS Readers enable you to easily track, gather, and organize your online feeds—in one place.
Not familiar with RSS Readers? Take a look at this article
As for social media schedulers, there are a number to choose from:
Hootsuite, Buffer, or CoSchedule. They allow you to pre-schedule your updates so that you can keep up your social media presence and add value to your tribe even when you are not physically there.
My personal preference is Buffer + Feedly. They beautifully integrate with one another and allow me to look through new posts and share the ones that I like in just 15 minutes a day.
Rule 7: Do your homework!
Go back to Rule #5 and determine the categories of updates and conversation starters that are best for your business. Your categories might look like this:
- Monday—one of the benefits your services provide and a link to your services page
- Tuesday—your blog post
- Wednesday—random question
- Thursday—inspirational quote
- Friday—cool tip
Calculate the number of updates of each type you’ll need, book the time to create them, pop them into a spreadsheet like this one, and schedule them in bulk using one of the above mentioned social media schedulers.
The beauty of this approach is you can go back and reuse updates (every 2 or 3 months).
Now that you’ve laid the foundation, let’s put together your social media system.
See below how your social media system could look like.
Approaching social media in a proactive, intentional way makes the ultimate difference.
My system will allow you to manage your time on social media platforms and give you back your sanity.
