by Jonny Ross November 7th, 2014
by Caro’s Lines
With so many social media platforms to choose from, trying to divide your time equally between your businesses several social media platforms can seem almost impossible. How do you decide which platform to visit first? How do you share content across different platforms whilst engaging the reader? Which blog post needs to be posted today? How do you manage and reply to all comments made?
It can be difficult to juggle all of your different platforms – but do not panic! You are not alone. This blog will provide you with five top tips to ensure you are able to decide how and where to divide your social time.
1. Put Together A Content Calendar
One very simple way to easily manage your social media posts is to create a content calendar. These can be created weeks if not months in advanced and will ensure that you always know what content is going to be posted and when. A content calendar will also aid you in keeping to a posting routine. This is extremely important, especially if you choose to create a blog post content calendar to sit alongside your social media calendar, as one blog post can be split into several social media posts.
Creating a content calendar requires the same process, regardless of whether it is for a blog or social media. You first need to make a list of dates for the upcoming months, highlighting key events such as Valentine’s Day on February 14th. This key event could be used to create several valentine related social media posts and even a blog informing readers about products or services you offer that would be perfect for their loved ones. Other key dates to look out for could be:
New product launches
Events
Industry news/announcements
Local events
Seasonal events
As you can see, creating a content calendar requires hard work and forward thinking, however once it has been created, will save you lots of time when posting on social media platforms.
2. Use Apps That Automatically Post Your Social Media Posts
One of the key benefits of creating a content calendar is that you are then able to schedule your posts. By scheduling your social media posts, they will be automatically posted at the agreed time on the agreed day. You do not have to log in to your different accounts as it can all be managed from one website, saving you precious time which could be better spent elsewhere. There are many different websites that can be used to help manage your social media content, however, two popular examples are BufferApp or Hootsuite.
All that you need to do is sign up to the website, and from there you will then be able to instruct the site as to what you would like posting, on what platform at what time. Then you can sit back and relax knowing that your posts will be sent out, even when you are not in the office. The main benefits to using a social media management system is that you can guarantee regularity with your posting, you do not have to worry about posting when you are out of office and you are able to save vast amounts of time by simply not having to log in to your several social media platforms and manually posting yourself.
3. Use Guest Bloggers
So now you are able to create content easily using a content calendar and post on social media sites without even having to be in the office! However, there are more ways to save and equally divide your time on social media sites. The next method to use is to invite guest bloggers to write blogs for your website.
Guest bloggers are a great way of drawing new traffic to your website. The authors existing followers will see that they have written a guest blog and will often visit your website to view it. Encourage your guest blogger to post a link to their blog on their social media platforms, guaranteeing new visitors to your site. Guest blogs can also be a great way to ensure that blogs are posted routinely. If you are unsure as to whether you will be able to write a blog one week due to other commitments, inviting a guest blogger to write for your website is a fantastic way to combat this problem.
4. Monitor Your Posts
One very simple way to ensure that your time is not wasted when it comes to social media is to make sure that everything you post is relevant and will encourage engagement. The best way to do this is to look at your previous post and ask yourself:
What has worked?
What hasn’t worked?
What type of posts received the most engagement?
What type of post received no engagement?
What post encouraged new followers?
There are many tools that can be used to aid you when monitoring your posts. Google Analytics will enable you to see how your social media and blog posts have had an impact on your other platforms, predominantly your website. This tool is great for seeing how posts have affected traffic to your website and other social media platforms. It will also enable you to see exactly what types of posts have created a movement in traffic; therefore you can identify which type of post to use again. Facebook and Twitter also have their own dashboards that provide you with analytical information with regards to your posts and the engagement they received.
The main thing here is to ensure that you are creating a list of the styles of posts that work well for you and your business. Once you have a firm understanding of what works and what doesn’t work, you can then tailor your posts, ensuring you only post those that will encourage engagement or drive traffic. This will save you time and will boost your effectiveness on your social media platforms.
5. Create A Folder Filled With Content
The final tip in order to help you better divide your time between social media platforms is to create a folder filled with content. This is something that you should be constantly adding to, whenever you see something on Facebook, a specific tweet, an article from the BBC, very simply anything that relates to your business or industry sector that can be used on your social media platforms. Remember, it doesn’t have to be directly linked to your business but having a pool of content to choose from can be a brilliant way to provide you with inspiration for a blog or social media post.
These top five tips should have provided you with several techniques that you can implement in order to help determine where to spend your social media time. They will also help reduce the time spent on your social media platforms, therefore providing you with time to spend elsewhere. Do you agree with this blog post? Do you have other top tips that you use in order to save yourself time when it comes to social media? As always I would love to know what you think so get in touch. Tweet me or leave a comment below.
Next Steps
- Why Every Blogger Needs an Editorial Calendar (Laura Blaker)
- Scheduling Your Social Media Monitoring (Adrienne Erin)
- Get Your Own Content Development Process With This 4 Step Action Plan (Gabriella Sannino)
- 7 Content Marketing Tips For When You Lack Time & Resources (Chuck Sharp)
Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog
Aligning Content Calendar, Guest Posts, And Social Media
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Written by Jonny Ross, jonnyross.com
The post Aligning Content Calendar, Guest Posts, And Social Media appeared first on Search Engine People Blog.
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