If you would rather be updating your own personal social profiles instead of your company’s, pay close attention because I’ve got some time-saving tips for you—that will also improve your Social Media Marketing strategy. By using the new forms of SMM automation you can automate menial processes, freeing your time up for more creative and strategic social purposes.
So, without further ado, here are a few ways you can spend your time more wisely by working smarter—not harder–, with a few helpful tools:
Save Time with Basic Automation
First things first, start yourself off with automated ‘pushers’ (not that kind of pusher) like HootSuite, HubSpot and the like. HootSuite and other content-pushing tools are free, but have paid subscriptions available for those seeking a more powerful toolset (that’s right, they give you a taste for free then try to upgrade you to the harder stuff). These pushers give you a centralized dashboard to administer all your social media accounts from one place, so that you can post content across multiple profiles at a time, like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more. You can also schedule your updates to be posted as pre-determined times—perfect for those who do not want to login multiple times a day (bulk scheduled update are available but only with the premium version).
Be More Effective with Proper Scheduling
Social content is most likely to be read and shared at certain times of day. The time will vary depending on your audience, for example if your social profiles is primarily customers, vendors and other business contacts, mid day posts will work best. If your audience is primarily personal contacts or new contacts then posting outside of business hours, when people are most likely surfing Facebook, will benefit you the most.
Use the scheduling tools in your automation application to ensure that your content is posted at the best time(s) of day to ensure maximum impact. Scheduling posts, so that they are posted in a timely manner despite your schedule, remember to respond to comments, mentions and replies in a reasonable timeframe to keep your audience engaged.
Theme your Networks
You likely have users who have ‘friended’ you on multiple social networks, so auto-publishing carbon copied content across Facebook, Twitter and Google+ isn’t an effective strategy. Instead use your automation tools (and the extra free time you get) to vary your content. Your tools will make it handy to keep track what you have posted and where, in addition to providing you feedback about what types of content are most effective on which networks.
Alert Yourself
Many users who are new to automation tools take them too far and lose focus of the point of SMM: to be social. In order to remain effective in your socializing set up alerts for yourself to remind you to stay in contact certain people/groups. Also, use alerts to notify you of comments, retweets, and other activity—reminding you to respond promptly.
Automation software will help you to use your time more wisely by spending less time on the simply activities (like signing into various networks and making multiple posts a day) and more time being clever and creative. As a bonus they come with alerts, scheduling, and analytical tools.
For more Social Media Marketing tips and tricks click here.
Robin Wilding is a professionally trained Canadian journalist striving to bring journalistic-era intergity to online media. She has a second degree in Political Science--with a focus on International Relations and the developing world. Currently Robin is a contributor to several technology publications, including Brajeshwar.com, SocialTechnologyReview.com, HostingIndustryWatch.com, AnimationCareerReview.com and CompareBusinessProducts.com. She also works for several web developers; and does ghost writing for several high level executives within the technology sector. Robin's work is showcased in her portfolio: http://shownd.com/robinwilding
