Five time-saving tips for planning and posting your social media.
When you're a small business owner, you always have a to-do list as long as your arm, am I right? The Number One excuse I hear from my small business clients as to why they're not posting regularly is that they don't have the time to dedicate to it, and they feel overwhelmed.
Don't worry, I've got some time-saving tips that will help narrow down your planning and posting to under one hour per day . . . I promise. Keep reading while I share the tricks that I use every week.
1. Organize your posts for the week in one day
I like to sit down on Sunday morning with my notepad and write down what the topics of my posts will be for the week. I have a weekly template of themes to get me going that keeps my content consistent. Mondays are for posting a motivational quote, Tuesdays and Thursdays I post a social media tip, Wednesdays and Fridays are about me or my business, Saturdays I like to shout out to a local business or client I'm working with, and Sundays are for my social media horoscopes. Since I have this template, it's easy for me to develop my content for the week and figure out what photos I'll use to go with that daily theme. Photos featuring me or my life might be taken ahead of time or on the day that I'm making the post. But, I know that I'll need to have more personal photos and plan accordingly on Wednesdays and Fridays.
2. Use themes when it comes to your photos
To create a visually appealing grid on my Instagram account, I try to use consistent images. I use photos of plants and nature, office photos with a laptop or notebook, plain black and white text boxes with a border, and images of myself, my husband, my dog, and my friends for a more personal touch. I rotate through these images so that they are spread throughout the week, and it's not just a week filled with pictures of my dog (even though he's very cute).
3. Write your caption and schedule your post
I like to use Instagram Creator Studio to publish my posts, which is available for people with Business or Creator accounts, but many scheduling tools are free or low cost. Instead of posting on the fly, I like to schedule my posts, so I know they are published at a consistent time each day. https://business.facebook.com/creatorstudio/
4. Organize and post your hashtags
I have over five hashtag lists that I rotate through depending on my post's subject, and I have them all organized in my Notes on my phone. It takes some initial time to develop individual hashtag lists, but I promise you that it pays off. I like to post my hashtags in the first comment under my caption because it looks cleaner and doesn't detract from the caption that I created, so I set myself an alarm for the time that my post is scheduled to post and then copy and paste my hashtags in the first comment.
5. Spend 30 minutes engaging with your community
I make sure to check out my clients' posts and post insightful comments. I visit and comment on my audience's posts (people who regularly comment on or like my posts). I then post comments on other social media accounts that I follow to build a community and to get more engagement on my posts.
I also spend time responding to every comment made on my post and replying to my DMs daily.
There you go. What do you think of my time-saving ideas? Do you need help with coming up with themes for posts and photos? E-mail me to set up a free 30-minute call to get you started.