Think Social Media is Too Time Consuming? This One, Simple Tip Should Help

One of the biggest objections people have when it comes to social media is that it takes way too much time. Although this can be a valid objection, there are usually underlying reasons as to why social media becomes time consuming for users.

Here are some of the reasons why social media may be eating up all of your time:

• You don’t really know how to use the different sites and because you don’t know how to use them, it takes you longer to figure out what to do.

• You don’t really have a plan and because you don’t have a plan you are always on the spot looking for the right thing to say and when that isn’t easy to do you get sucked in.

• You consume everyone else’s content and posts, you click on links, look at pictures and watch videos… because you are not clear on what you are there to do.

In order to take back your time and stop wasting it on social media, you need to have a plan. You need to get clear about what you are on social media for and you need to line up both your content creation and curation in a way that supports that fully.

One, Simple Tip to Help Streamline Your Efforts: Create a Plan to Support Your Time on Social Media

My biggest strength, when it comes to social media, is engaging with people. I could have conversations with people all day long but I also need to remember to incorporate a healthy dose of content marketing into the mix. This is the entire reason why I came up with a content plan before I sat down to use social as part of my marketing efforts.

The first thing you need to do before you can create a social media content plan, is figure out what your content sources are going to be. Here are the questions you need to ask yourself:

• Where will I go to find content to share?

• What types of content should I be sharing?

• What content is my audience interested in most?

If you don’t know what type of content your customer is interested in, chances are that you need to spend some time doing some research on your target audience. You need to figure out where they already hang out and what types of content pieces are already resonating with them. This is a clue as to the types of content you can potentially share with them.

One of my clients has a retail-based business. I know that when I find content, specifically that which is retail specific or customer service focused, my client would be interested in that so I curate it and share it with them in a way that they will receive and read it. Do you know what your client wants to read? Do you know where to find information that your client might like to read?

If you don’t know where to go to get content, start by making a list of topics that your client is interested in and then set up Google Alerts. Google will then alert you when they find new content related to the terms you set up. If you aren’t sure how to set up Google alerts, go to http://www.google.com/alerts.

If you tap into your audience and share content that you know they are going to enjoy, you will spend less time throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks and more time delivering interesting content with high value.

I’d Love to Hear From You

Where do you go to find useful and relevant content for your audience? Leave your feedback in the comments below! You may also want to consider the Online Marketing Quick Start program as a way to take things to the next level – it includes a bonus eBook – Creating Your Own Social Media Marketing Plan which dives much deeper into this topic.