Implement a Social Media Strategy in 2 Hours a Week
Most of us are beyond the days of trying to determine whether we need social media and are instead working on how to best implement a social media strategy that's effective in time that we don't have. We all know we need it, we know we can't just "wing it," but we all still struggle with finding the time to do it.
Today I'm going to share with you how to implement a social media strategy in 2 hours a week. Just. 2. Hours.
Follow these steps and you'll be well on your way to a more comprehensive social plan in less time:
Determine your objectives. This seems like an obvious one right? But it's not. Why do you want to use social media for your business? How can you use social media for your business? Are those reasons justifiable for taking up two hours of your time a week? If they're not, can you go back to the drawing board and find justifiable reasons? These questions are SO important to ask yourself. Because if you're not motivated for the end result, you're not going to make the time to do it.
Create a strategy. It's hard to create a social strategy for yourself, but it's important. After you establish your objectives, determine how you're going to reach your target audience and what social media platforms you're going to reach them on. I'm a firm believer in that writing your strategy down helps you really understand what you'll be doing on social media. Furthermore, it gives you a document to check back to every once and a while.
Discuss your strategy with like-minded individuals. I have found some of my best ideas come from having casual conversations about different marketing tactics and strategies. Do this with your employees, people who are familiar with creating effective social strategy, people in social marketing groups on LinkedIn, etc. You never know where you'll get your best ideas from. Adapt your strategy document as necessary.
Get your content organized. Now that you have a solid strategy in place, you have to implement your social media strategy in 2 hours a week. I'll break down the time in a minute, but first you need to get creative with your content. What types of content have you outlined in your strategy? Where are you going to get that content? I get content from:
Google Alerts
Signing up for interesting newsletters or emails from companies I love
Feedly
Free photo sites (THIS post will help change your life.)
Blog posts I write
Go through your content. Schedule an hour one day a week and go through all of the content you have gathered and schedule it all out evenly throughout the next week or two.
Engage daily. Take a few minutes every day to find a conversation or a contact to engage with in real time. Make sure you are following up with people who engage with you as well.
Analyze. You're never done improving your strategy. There is no push play and let it run model with successful social media. Look back over the past week or two. What posts got a lot of engagement? Why? Was it the time, the type of content, a call-to-action you used? Take note of these things and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Here's my suggested weekly breakdown:
Monday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement.
Tuesday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement
Wednesday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement
Thursday: 1 hour to go through and schedule out content
Friday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement, 10 minutes to look at your analytics
Saturday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement
Sunday: Take a day off. Go out and connect with people in the real world. ;)
Still think this is too much? Think about when you can do your engagement, for example, on your commute, waiting at the dentist, in line for lunch.
Then you only have to take ONE HOUR out of your work week to implement a social media strategy.
