One of the biggest complaints we hear from small business owners is the struggle with social media time management.
Our advice is always the same: use social media tools and create social media habits.
Remember that habits are not decisions. You just do it, like brushing your teeth after eating.
The key to forming social media habits is conscious consistency, deliberately choosing effective actions in order to tell your story.
Things to consider before creating a social media habit (that you can also apply in everyday life and work):
1. Multitasking is a myth.
Experts agree, there’s really no such thing as multitasking. What we have come to term multitasking is actually called task shifting, and it’s extremely harmful to our brains.
“Your brain was designed for thinking and reasoning, not for managing all of your to-do lists,” says productivity coach Kimberly Medlock. Staying on task may mean setting a timer and focusing on that one task for a specific amount of time.
2. Fragment your time and focus.
If you don’t know beforehand what you are going to do with your distribution content and how long it’s going to take to accomplish every task, most likely you’ll be wasting your time doing absolutely nothing. (Probably just looking at your friend’s cat picture or commenting the last soccer match).
Make a to-do list and jot down the amount of time each task on your to-do list will take.
You can group the tasks together by:
- Planning and creating content.
- Curating content.
- Scheduling content.
- Posting content.
- Listening, responding and engaging.
- Measuring and analyzing.
- Experimenting.
You don’t need to do all tasks every day. For instance, you can measure and analyze your results monthly.
3 Social Media Management Tools:
Social media management tools are crucial to your success. Here are four essential tools that can help you save time and make the most of your social presence.
1. Content Calendar
Related Reading: How to Create an Editorial Content Calendar
2. Social Media Scheduling Tools
Related Reading: 5 Best Social Media Scheduling Tools to Save Time
3. Google Analytics
This tool manages our social media. The data we gather from Google Analytics focuses on our efforts on the social media platforms. If you don’t analyze your performance in social media, you don’t know what works or not. Simply as that.
Be Creative | Be Social