If social media is something you do love, but you just are short on time, there are some ways you can save time and still have fun being in charge of your social media. I am not necessarily talking automation, although automation does play a role in saving time on your social media management tasks.
I am talking about setting up an easy-to-use social media workflow to save time and sanity.
1. Create a Social Media Strategy
Reinventing the social media wheel every month is not a strategy that is going to pay off. A solid social media marketing plan with goals, objectives, and tactics, on the other hand, will pay off big time.
Taking time to create a social media strategic plan will save you time in the long run because you can refer back to such a document. This document might be invaluable as you find yourself struggling to create content, or when you have missed the mark in the most recent advertising campaign or if you aren’t getting any traction or engagement on a specific platform. If laid out correctly, the strategy should help guide you – thus saving time every month – to what needs to be done: what goals should be accomplished and what tactics to be implemented.
If you’re familiar with SMART Goals, we created a SMART for Social Strategy guide for you to use month after month.
2. Batch Content Creation
Try thinking about creating video and images in batches.
Here is my workflow for each of these types of content.
Video
Creating a “series” of videos works great. You can create a whole series, or just record multiple videos in one sitting. Video content lends itself well to batching.
Here are the steps to take:
Create the script outline for each video (in the series), set up your studio, prepare yourself (clothing, make-up, hair), set up your equipment and then record all of the videos (the whole series) in one sitting. Be sure to change outfits (and jewelry) in between videos, where appropriate.
Time saved on: studio set up, hair and makeup, equipment set up.
An added benefit is that now that all your videos are done in one sitting, you can also batch the downloading, editing, and online distribution!
Images
When I have an idea for a new social media graphic I want to create, I try to batch these images by either creating:
a) a similar graphic for a second client
b) a series of branded image quotes
c) other images along the same theme
d) the same images in several sizes specific to each platform.
Here are the steps to take:
Find several quotes you might want to share with your audience. Create one branded graphic.
Then copy the graphic, switch out the background image (if there is one), and add a different quote. Repeat with a third quote, a fourth quote etc.
Another idea would be to create all your ‘holiday images’ for the year in one sitting. This would include New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, Easter, the 4th of July etc. Save these images into files and have them ready when needed.
