social media managers

6 Time Saving Tips for Social Media Managers

Now more than even businesses are realizing the influence of social media. Although some businesses are able to allocate significant resources to keeping up with social media, other start-ups and growing businesses aren’t so lucky.

If you’re looking to keep a consistent presence and grow your brand on social media, and want to do so in a reasonable amount of time, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, I will outline some tips to help you manager social media efficiently.

1. Determine a pre-set time to work on social

Social media is fast-paced and always working. This can be tempting for social media managers to check into social irregularly. However, this strategy can often leave you with spending more time on your social platforms than needed. I would suggest setting aside time at the beginning of your day to check into social. Since social is all about interactions, you also may want to schedule some time in the afternoon for a check in. Depending on how interactive your social media is your time will vary. However, scheduling time specifically for social media will allow you to remain consistent on social while having control over how much time you spend of it.
 

2. Use a scheduling tool

During your time allocated for social media, you’ll need a scheduling tool to organize your posts. Some great choices for social media management tools include HootSuite and Buffer. These tools are great for setting up posts well in advance on your social media platforms. Another great thing about using a social media management tool is that you can schedule posts across a number of platforms.
 

3. Create pre–written posts for old content and other resources

As you determine what kind of things you want to publish on social, you’ll of course want to include some of your own content periodically. This can include older (but still relevant) blog posts, white papers, and other resources. For these pieces of content write up a series of posts that you can archive and pull from easily. Format these posts with the appropriate hashtags and shortened links to make things even easier.
 

4. Don’t hesitate to re-post the same content across platforms

As mentioned earlier, social media offers a continuous stream of information. With that being said, there isn’t an easy way for users to be able to view or interact with every piece of content that is posted on all platforms. Take advantage of this by posting the same or similar social posts across various platforms. The likelihood of one user coming across all of these posts is slim. Just remember to take into account the unique properties of each social media platform when using the same messaging.
 

5. Develop an image archive

Images are highly effective in creating visual interest and clicks on social media. In fact, visual content is more than 40x more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. However, each social media platform requires different types and sizes of images. Create image templates that are easy to update. For your owned content like white papers and reports, create custom and re-useable images.
 

6. Build Twitter lists

When it comes to saving time on finding relevant 3rd party content to share on your social media streams, use Twitter lists. Twitter lists can help manage and organize your streams into specific topics of interest. For example, we have a number of lists including: sales resources, marketing resources, customers, and thought leaders. When you’re looking for an article on a specific topic pop into a list of your choice for relevant and timely content.

Social media management doesn’t have to be time consuming. In fact, great tools in combination with best practices can yield in efficient social media management. What other tips would you add to this list to save time on social media management?

If you’re looking to get started on social media for your business, check out our white papers: Twitter for Sales and Marketing and LinkedIn for Sales and Marketing.
 

6 Time Saving Tips for Social Media Managers