It’s a no brainer that social media marketing works. We see tons of advertisements every day from brands. I often hear from clients that they feel like they’re going in blind or have no idea what they’re really doing. Some clients are spending several hours each month and seeing no results.
I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks on how you can reduce the amount of time you’re spending on social media.
A content calendar.
Plan your content in advance! This will allow you to implement more strategy and ensure you are consistent with your content. Test different ideas for content: branded content, authoritative, questions/thought provoking, informative, a play on emotion. Think of the four P’s: people, pretty, process and product. People love seeing faces, your content needs to be pretty and appealing, showcase your process and show off your product!
Schedule to post automatically.
If you are using Facebook and Instagram for business, you can remove yourself a bit by scheduling your content to go out automatically. Look into Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Sprout Social or another alternative. This will save you from having to remember to post and will allow for you to lessen your load a bit! Don’t forget to check in though and respond to comments that are left on your post.
Leave meaningful, authentic comments.
Really look at the content you’re engaging with. Leave them a positive and friendly comment and try to pull from the post. For example, if you see someone showing off their outfit of the day: comment on the boots! Ask where they got them, tell them about your favourite boots, etc.
Tagging others in the post and in the caption.
Don’t forget to tag businesses or people who are in the post. For example, if you post a photo of you at a provincial park holding your favourite drink – tag the park + the drink company! This will give you the chance to be discovered in their tagged photos and let’s the algorithm know that your content might appeal to their followers.
Add a location when you post
If you add a location to your post, this will also help others find your content if they are searching by location. If you have a local focused business, this will help people know what areas you service or where you are located.
Use 5-10 relevant hashtags.
I’m big on not over doing it with too many hashtags! I personally think it’s best to change up the hashtags you are using based on the content you are posting. Use “big” and “small” hashtags. For example, if you’re a blogger in Canada you might want to include #canadianblogger as a bigger hashtag and then use #bloggersoftoronto for something a bit smaller. Ensure the ones you are using are relevant!
Take more photos!
The more photos you take, the easier creating content will be. I have a hard time remembering to take photos myself but I love when I have a bank of photos to pick from to post on a rainy day when I am feeling less creative. Take photos of things you do, places you go to, when you’re furthering your knowledge, of product, happy, clients, really anything you think you might like to share! The more you have, the better selection you can pick from.
Pay to play
News flash! Facebook, Instagram and the other popular social media platforms are businesses. They want your money! You can set your budget for ads and you don’t need to spend a lot. $3 a day for 5 days can increase your reach a lot.
