5 Ways To Be a More Efficient Social Media Marketer

Businesses have complemented traditional marketing tools with social media strategies to grow their business. Social media is cost-effective and enables any business to reach out to a bigger and broader market in ways that would not have been possible decades ago.

Recognising its importance as a marketing tool is one thing; using social media efficiently, however, is a different story. Many marketers spend as much as 16 to 20 hours a week posting, checking, and tinkering with their social media accounts and get just a meager return on their investment. Even CEOs, who have a lot of critical tasks on their plate, spend a lot of their precious time on social media.

In reality, these decision makers can actually allot less time and effort on social media initiatives and focus more of their energies on expanding their business if they knew how to be more effective social media users.

Here are some ways to do it.

1. Work in batches

Here’s a tried and tested productivity booster: batching, or doing a particular task all at once instead of scheduling it at regular, frequent intervals. Batching enhances productivity because first, it reduces the time you need to figure out what you need to do. Minutes are wasted transitioning from one activity to another. Second, batching simplifies your day; you know that you must focus on accomplishing a few key tasks and not spread yourself thin across different responsibilities. Third, batching enables you to work quickly; your momentum builds up and you’ll be at your most productive. Finally, batching allows you to schedule tasks ahead of time so you don’t miss out on anything.

Here’s how batching can help you in your social media initiatives:

• You can generate many social media content ideas in one go. Come up with quotes, blog posts, video ideas, trivia, tips, infographics, announcements, and updates interesting and engaging to your followers. You’ll have a content bank you can draw inspiration from should the need arise. The Internet has a wealth of information on how to come up with creative social media ideas.

• You can schedule posts in advance. Many businesses don’t realise that they can save a lot of time by scheduling posts on a weekly or monthly basis, instead of logging in and updating their accounts daily. Designate a specific time of the week or month to schedule posts, and don’t forget to adjust accordingly should a special event come up.

• You can set the amount of time you allocate to social media. Don’t fall into the trap of checking your social media network by the hour, worried that you’re missing out on important updates. With batching, you can limit the time you spend replying to important queries, posts, and messages to one to two periods of your day consisting of 10 to 15 minutes each.

2. Log in with a purpose

Social media can be a notorious black hole that eats up time, our most critical  resource.

Work around this by always logging into your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram accounts with a purpose in mind:

• Do you want to build a base of followers? The rule of thumb is to follow people in your industry and audience (a fraction of those will follow you back) and post engaging content to retain their interest.
• Do you want to generate more website traffic or leads? You can do this by posting links to your blog posts or other content or by sharing content within groups.
• Do you want to build relationships? Thanks to social media, you can now reach out to just about anyone by sending them messages, sharing their content, and commenting on their posts. Instead of interacting with random influencers, save time and aim for a small, potent group of influencers you want to nurture connections with.  

3. Focus your energies

Many marketers think that they need to have a presence in all social media platforms. What they don’t realise is that they are compromising the consistency and quality of their posts in the long run as their attention is divided across so many fronts.

Start with just one or two social media networks and just add more after you have successfully established your presence and following. Here’s how to choose the social media channel that’s right for you:

• Check out your competition. Pick a few of your top competitors and plug their domain into Buzzsumo’s top content tool. See which among their content is most shared and which networks are responsible for those shares. A network is worth your time if it contributes more than 25% of the post shares.
• Know the demographics of your audience. Look at the age, gender, income, education, and location of your target market. Know what the demographics of each social channel are and go for the network that matches your audience. Facebook is always a safe choice, but if you’re aiming for a more affluent market, LinkedIn is a good place to start.
• Choose a network based on content you’re planning to create. If you’re in a creative, image-driven business, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are platforms that can best showcase your work.

4. Create a content calendar, and stick to it

When it comes to social media, consistency is key. A social media content calendar will give you the consistency you need to post on time, track post performance, and determine your progress.

A social media content calendar could be as simple as a spreadsheet. Key in the date and day of the week in one row; allot columns for the time of the post, title of the post, copy, the link to be included, and the number of clicks the post generated.

How detailed your calendar should be would entirely depend on your business and what you want to measure.

5. Track post mentions with tools

The good news is, there are tools to help you track each time a reader or customer mentions you.

• Search brand mentions with Mention.com. After creating an account, enter a keyword and it will track mentions in social media sites. Adjust settings so you can receive a daily email on the results generated on the site.
• Know what’s hot with Hootsuite. Hootsuite will monitor mentions of keywords added to any social media network. See a live stream of all mentions of keywords or your username in your main Hootsuite dashboard.
• Get alerts of Reddit mentions. To get an email anytime someone mentions a keyword, such as your brand name, on Reddit, you would have to use a free tool called IFTTT, which stands for “If This, Then That.” If a certain word is mentioned (“This”) then you will receive an email (“That”).

While a strong social media presence is helpful for any business, you need to make sure that the effort you put into it generates a good return on your time and resources. Streamlining your social media activities will help you navigate through the social media jungle with ease, giving you more time for things that are just as important for your growing business.

How do you create efficiencies when managing your social media?