Tag Archives: management

Put Social Media into Your Schedule

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Ever wish there were more than 24 hours in a day?  Well, we’re not going to tell you the impossible, but we will give you some tips on how to include social media into your workday.

Social media has become more important in our world today, so businesses cannot pass up the opportunity to reach potential customers through these channels.  However, most businesses are struggling to balance their schedules even without social media – so how can social media be added to your marketing efforts?  Social media doesn’t have to be time consuming – follow these easy tips that will create a solid social media plan.

  • Create an actual schedule – Block out a certain chunk of your day to devote yourself completely to social media.  Schedule an hour directly after lunch so you can write blog posts, generate Facebook content, Tweet about company happenings.  Or break up your social media ventures into chunks of time (such as 10 minutes at the beginning of your shift, 10 minutes at the end).  Having a set time will allow you to focus on social media, and help you not get distracted from clicking on other tabs of work.
  • Make a list of your social media priorities – Don’t just dive in without checking if the water is shark infested – have a specific plan about what you’re going to post each day (maybe Mondays will be all about posting about company events to Facebook, and Fridays will be all about researching and listening to customer conversations so you can be on top of your industry’s buzz the following week).  There’s a list of social media must-dos everyday, such as answering direct messages and customer inquiries on your brand page, so make sure you have dedicated time every day to those activities.  Knowing what you’re going to post will make everything seem more organized, and in the long run, it’ll save time.
  • Get social media to work around your schedule – Facebook and Twitter actually have specific times where users are on the most and when they are likely to interact with your content (check out this interesting Mashable article).  But what if these times coincide with your conference meeting every week?  Well, don’t let social media completely rule your life.  You don’t have to reschedule that meeting – use a social media management tool to help you schedule posts and gather insights.  Don’t spend time gathering analytics or waiting for the optimal hour to post when you don’t have to.

Social media isn’t very time-consuming when you have an action-packed, but simplistic plan.  Stick to your plan, and you’ll find that you have more time (and money) that can be devoted to other business efforts.

Why Social Media Doesn’t Work

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Courtesy of Flickr: Sybren A. Stüvel

We think social media is great. A lot of other people do too. So far we’ve been focused on helping those who are interested in putting effort into social media for their brand. So what about the people who are against (and I mean fiercely against) using social media for their business? We think there are 3 different camps with 3 different views on why social media isn’t working for their company. If you identify yourself as any one of these, keep reading! You never know when you’ll find a new piece of information!

The Haters

These people are really against social media.  They swear they’ll never use it, and grumble and mumble when other people talk about it.  Why does my business need social media – we’re doing perfectly fine with our traditional methods of advertising and managing.  Why should I post about the latest company happenings?  Why would consumers want to follow me anyways?

No offense, but they sound like my grandma.  Stuck in the past, not up-to-date with technology.  Times have changed, and people (especially business people) need to realize that social media has become the new mode of communication.

But they would be surprised to see how many potential relationships they’re letting fly by.  Did you know there are many users on social media that are all potential customers? (check out this cool infographic with all the stats)  Traditional methods of reaching out to the consumer isn’t enough – social media is in real-time, and it’s important nowadays to get information to your customers (who are using online media to research who they’ll buy products from) and to do so quickly, time-efficiently, and effectively.

The Fence-Sitters

This group of people has a love-hate relationship with social media.  These businesses use social media for their brands, but don’t really believe that it can do any magic.  They might be using Facebook and Twitter for their brands because everyone else is, but deep down inside, they don’t believe social media efforts are that important (or at least one of the most important factors to communicating with customers.)  So they put limitations on their social media management employees.  You can only do this much with social media.  Interacting with customers is for business-only purposes.

Really?  Do these businesses really want to set these rigid rules?  What will their customers think of them?

No consumer wants to see a business that “is only a business.”  We’ve said this a thousand times, but customers want to see that businesses have feelings too.  Social media is a great way for brands to show their fun side, and inform their followers.  It’s taking more than smarts for businesses to succeed nowadays – creativity and uniqueness are really important to catch the consumers’ eyes.

The Over-enthusiasts

We hear it all the time.  I devote myself to social media – I’m on all the platforms, I update my followers often.  I’ve got a great social media management tool…and I sat and waited…and nothing happened.

Well, what’d you expect?  Social media isn’t some fairy dust you sprinkle over your business and you become popular the next day!  It’s a lot more work than that!

The problem is two-fold.  Did you actually engage with customers, or did you just establish your presence on the social media networks?  If you did attempt to communicate with customers, are you posting and creating interesting content?  Most businesses get stumped at this step – they throw information at consumers and expect an increase in followers.  A lot of companies have big social media teams to make sure their brands get it right.  But you don’t need a huge team to be successful; take a look at our previous post to get some easy, helpful tips on how to garner more publicity.

For those of you that read this article and are ready to dismiss it…DON’T.  Take a stab at social media today and keep trying – the web holds a wealth of information that you cannot afford to miss out on.