YOUR Social Media Time Management Strategy?

Time-saving social media strategies..

A strong social media following coupled with great content is a recipe for success.

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But if you don’t plan on hiring a social media management company to keep up with regular updates, engage with followers and monitor analytics, it can be a very daunting task that takes up a lot of your time.

And in today’s instant-gratification-induced environment where it’s already tough to disconnect and be present in real-life moments, constantly publishing social media posts can create an even further disconnect. Which is ironic since social media has allowed the world to connect like never before.

So how can you grow your business profiles without having your head buried in your smartphone 24/7, completely disconnected from your present environment?

With the right mix of automation and real-time posts.

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Automate Evergreen Content

Evergreen content has longevity, that’s why it’s important to spend time creating blog posts, or simply even social media posts, that can be shared time and time again without losing their relevance. You can easily repost the same thing on a different day or time to get more views, or you can repurpose the content by turning it into an infographic, podcast, or short video. Reposting and repurposing content gives it more visibility than only posting it once, which is a win-win. You can create great content one time but promote it multiple times, reaping the benefits of it many times over.

Fill gaps in your publishing calendar with evergreen content. This way you can ensure you appear in your follower’s feeds without having to constantly publish in real-time. Getting the right mix of automation and real-time posts is key. If users can tell that your content is automated, you’re not doing it right. For example, if you schedule a post for a specific holiday, be sure to double and triple check the scheduled date. Nothing reveals your social media insincerity faster than a "Happy Halloween" post that goes live on the wrong weekend.

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Publish In Real-Time For Current Events

Company events, national holidays, and other newsworthy occasions are the perfect time to publish in real-time. Instagram and Snapchat stories have become an obsession, for both the people attending an event, and for the people watching events unfold from the comfort of their homes.

These live videos give companies an opportunity to not only get attendees engaged, but also engross a plethora of potential customers who may be enticed to attend future events, visit the company website or simply share your message on their own social media account.

Snapchat has more than 10 billion mobile videos viewed per day, and Instagram’s worldwide user growth surpasses that of Snapchat; the opportunities are abundant.

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Don’t Link Multiple Accounts And Cross-Publish

You may think that linking your accounts and posting the same thing to all platforms will save you time. And while that may be true, it’s actually more beneficial to cater your posts to each of our social media platforms specifically.

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Use automation apps, like Planoly or Hootsuite, that allow you to schedule unique posts to each account.

This not only makes your content more interesting, but it gives users a reason to follow you on multiple platforms. If followers see that you only post original content on Instagram, for example, and you cross-publish those same Instagram photos to Twitter, why would they follow your Twitter account? You haven’t given them a reason to.

Instead, invest some time in researching who your current followers are on each of your social media accounts, including their demographics, likes, dislikes, etc. and use that information to determine the types of posts that would work best on each of your accounts.

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Let’s say that after researching your Twitter followers you learn that a large percentage of them are price-conscious. With this information on hand, you could make the decision to share deals, promotions and announce special sales on Twitter, in order to increase engagement.

Guest Authored By Jia Wertz. Jia is the CEO of Studio 15, a socially responsible fashion brand. After leaving behind a 15-year career in the corporate fashion world, she started a company that focuses on doing good and supporting women. It’s Studio 15’s mission to promote and collaborate with other female-owned businesses and donate funds to support female entrepreneurs in Uganda. Previously Jia led the Sales Development, Operations and Communications Departments for bebe stores, Corporate Operations at Sephora and managed the western district for Aldo Shoes. She's a regular contributor at Forbes, Huffington Post, and Thrive Global, among other publications. Follow Jia on Twitter.

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"Always think of the end user when creating content, if it’s not interesting to them, there is no point in publishing it.

Users don’t want to see an Instagram link with no image preview on your Twitter account, that’s why linking accounts and posting the same thing across multiple social platforms isn’t ideal. It simply doesn't make for a great user experience, and the winning strategy is to create compelling content for your followers, not merely to fill your feed. -JiaWertz

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  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Salt Lake City, UT. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Marketing Trends To Dominate?

The world of marketing has changed substantially over the past several years.

These changes are mostly driven by trends in consumer behavior and preferences, particularly among young people.

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Getting exposure to members of Gen Z means that companies and marketing agencies alike have had to switch communication channels and refocus on what’s important to young consumers.

Customer engagement through social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram has become a crucial component of any successful marketing strategy.

As the world of social media marketing changes quickly, it’s important to stay up to date on trends in the industry so that you can create the most successful engagement strategy possible.

Here are 7 trends in social media marketing that will dominate in 2018.

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1. A focus On Hiring Talent For Content Creation

In the past, many companies hired freelance writers to create content for their social media accounts.

They would then cross-promote new content across platforms. The increased prominence of social media platforms as a method of engaging young consumers will push marketing firms and companies to hire their own employees to focus on content creation.

As young consumers spend a great deal of time engaging with brands on social media, it’s imperative that brands post content that is not only relevant to their target audience, but created specifically for the platform it’s being posted on.

The type of content that is best for Facebook is very different from the type best for Instagram, which means that companies have to hire experts in the content-creation space to manage their accounts. Marketing strategies often take time to create and implement, so hiring in-house talent for social media marketing is a great way to ensure success in the space.

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2. Increased Emphasis On Video Content

More and more content strategists are focusing on video content rather than pictures for brand marketing. Expert marketers have found that effectively engaging their target audience is much easier through video. However, it’s important to make sure that the video content you produce is closely aligned with your brand image and connects with your users.

To do this, create videos that your customers can relate to, and focus on showing your product in use rather than showing just the product itself.

3. A Focus On User-Generated Content

Many brands are leveraging user-generated content on their social media accounts to better engage their followers. For example, lifestyle brands will ask their followers to submit pictures of themselves wearing a particular style of clothing or doing a specific activity. These brands will choose the best submissions and feature them on their page, giving credit to the follower who submitted them.

This is not only a great way to get new, quality content; it’s also a perfect strategy for better engaging your followers. Chosen followers will be excited about being featured, and they’ll be more likely to purchase your products and encourage their friends to check out your page. Instagram perhaps delivers the biggest ROI for UGC. You can use an Instagram analytics tool to measure which posts receive the most engagement.

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4. Increased Use Of Stories

Facebook and Instagram Stories have become very popular</a> among individual users and brands alike. It’s important for content strategists and marketers to produce content not only for posting directly to their accounts, but to their story as well.

Many users who follow a lot of accounts don’t take the time to view every new post in their feed, but they will take a few seconds to view new stories. You can use this to your advantage by encouraging users to check out newly posted content in your story or by cross-promoting it in your other social media accounts.

5. Brand Partnership To Engage Customers

Many brands are making use of influencers on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat to promote their products to a large audience.

Brand partnerships are a great way to reach new users, and are often much more cost effective than generating new content yourself. To successfully implement a brand partnership at your company, focus on partnering with users who have a clear message and a large follower base, and who actively engage the community they post in. Brand partners often find innovative ways to get customers excited about products, and you can use their talent to your advantage.

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6. Live content will appeal to the masses

Many brands and companies are using live content to get their followers excited and engaged. Product marketers use Facebook Live to do product demonstrations and show videos of real people using their product. Broadcasting to followers in real time is a fantastic way to get people interested in your content and engaged with your brand.

7. Starting Conversations With Individual Users

Many brands have hired strategists and marketers to communicate with individual users and potential customers. Social media content managers have begun to talk to users in the comments of Instagram posts and reply to users’ tweets on Twitter.

Engaging with individual users directly is a great way to make followers feel important and get excited about your brand. And building brand loyalty and getting followers to actively engage with your content is the best way to convert users to paying customers.

Guest Authored By George Beall. George is a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has a deep admiration for true innovation and has been involved in multiple in technology startups. He is currently on the founding team of Everipedia and an angel investor in an entertainment VR company. Follow George on Twitter.

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“Social media is a fast-paced industry built on continual and unrelenting change.

This online social space is having major real-world impacts influencing everything from our purchasing, behavior and even the outcome of elections.."

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  Authored by:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)