6 Ways To Simplify Your Social Media
Simplifying your social media is crucial for entrepreneurs, as it’s the top marketing tool known to man today! We have various apps that tell us our analytics and best days/times to post. Businesses and entrepreneurs can now reach their targeted audience, in places allover the world! With the hustle and bustle of everyday tasks, posting on our social media accounts can get quite overwhelming. Here are 6 ways to simplify your social media and work smarter not harder!
Set Your Goals
Identify what you want from each platform and whether it’s adding value to your life or distracting you from life. By asking yourself these simple questions, you can narrow down which platforms benefit you.
- What do you expect to get from your social media accounts? For example, exposure to your product and/or business, networking, entertainment etc.
- Which platforms are the most important to you and why?
- Do your platforms bring you joy? If not, why are you still using it?
- Do your platforms bring you a return on your investment? Keep in mind, a return on your investment can be as simple as gaining happiness.
Narrow Your Focus
There are so many social media platforms and oftentimes we feel compelled to be on ALL OF THEM! I get it. . . as an entrepreneur and blogger, I understand that different demographics are on different social media sites. However, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, then you’re doing yourself a disservice by being on everything. Narrow your focus down to two or three platforms and build a strong audience on those. You’ll feel less overwhelmed and the quality on your accounts will show.
Declutter Your Accounts
I spoke about the importance of decluttering in Nine Ways I Improved My Life post. You know how you clean up your house, room etc. physically? Well you also need to clean up mentally. . . and that includes your social media! We spend way too much time on these sites to not keep them squeaky clean. So if you do not like a platform or hardly use it, please DELETE IT! There’s no point in investing time to a social media site that does not serve you and your goals. Once those space filler platforms are gone, it’s time to clean up within the account you enjoy and focus most on!
- Remove all accounts/users that are toxic. This means any account that gives you negative vibes, drama, feelings of jealously or makes you start comparing. As I said in 3 Ways To Finish The Year Off Strong, if it doesn’t bring you joy, IT MUST GO!
- Or mute accounts that you don’t want to unfriend. I understand, unfriending someone can cause drama. . . so mute them instead lol.
- Leave irrelevant groups that are useless to you.
- Unfollow or unfriend any accounts that no longer interest you.
Plan Your Postings A Week Before
Planning your social media postings at the beginning of the week, is definitely a way to simplify your social media! I know, social media is supposed to be “spontaneous” but if you take it seriously then you need to plan. Start off by choosing what you want to showcase for that week. If you have a carefully curated feed, then your new photos should match your old. I’m still a work in progress, but I try to make my feed look cohesive with a pattern for my blog posts. It’s quite harder than one would imagine to create a pretty Instagram feed. So here’s a few things I do over the weekend.
- Plan out my outfits and accessories that I want to shoot in. (This is usually the day before shoot day.)
- Take my photos ideally on Saturday. . . sometimes we shoot on Sundays too.
- Edit the photos I want to use on Sunday.
- Plan out and schedule my feed/posts on Sunday.
- Relax and not worry about a thing all week!
RELATED: 6 Ways To Become A Productive Blogger
Automation Is Your Friend!
Automating my social media is the best thing I’ve ever done. . . no seriously! I schedule my tweets, Instagram and even these blog posts to upload automatically! Having your social media automated requires your time earlier in the week, though. I’ve recently dedicated an hour to each platform so I can schedule my posts days/weeks ahead. Here’s how!
- Create everything in bulk so you’re ahead of the game.
- Got a Facebook or Twitter? Download Hootsuite and schedule your tweets and Facebook posts to upload automatically. I spend an hour planning my tweets (mainly blog post marketing) for two days in advance. On Sunday I’ll schedule tweets for Monday and Tuesday, then on Tuesday I’ll schedule tweets for Wednesday and Thursday. This way, I know my blog posts are being tweeted every hour and I don’t feel obligated to always be on Twitter marketing.
- Got an Instagram? Download UNUM and not only plan your feed, but schedule it! I love UNUM because I can move the photos around to see which layout will look best with my current feed. Additionally, the app gives you the option to write out your captions too. So when it’s time to post, all you have to do is hit “paste.” Although UNUM doesn’t post automatically, it only takes 30 seconds from the time it alerts you to post. I prefer this because I can add my hashtags from the moment the photo is uploaded.
Step Away!
Planning your posts and scheduling them, should give you the ability to step away from your accounts for the majority of the day. Yes, we all want to be responsive and engaged with our followers! However, we should not be chained to our accounts 24 hours. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have to engage at all, though. You should still take 5-10 minutes three times throughout the day, to respond and engage with your following. Also, don’t feel obligated to respond to every comment as soon as you receive it. Taking that 10 minutes to respond to everyone at once (remember, do things in bulk) is simpler. Personally, I feel responding within 24 hours is completely acceptable. Mission simplify your social media is in full effect!
Essentially, social media is supposed to be an enjoyable networking experience! With these simple six ways, it can be just that! What tools do you use to simplify your social media? I’d love to know in the comments! Please make sure to subscribe and I will talk to you soon!
Until Next Time ASSASSINS. . . Stay Motivated!
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Love the UNUM tip!!! Great post! I do need a mission for my IG I post whatever I want which isn’t really effective or useful!!!