With the Christmas holidays over it seems that social media is full of posts helping you to set your goals and plan for the year ahead. I don’t know about you but it takes me a few days to get back into the swing of things. I did some planning and goal setting over Christmas but my girls only went back to school on Tuesday and it has been a busy few days and I am now just starting to think about my own routines, boundaries and planning moving forwards.
One thing I do plan a ‘lot’ is my Social Media. It’s all too easy when working with promoting our businesses and spending time connecting on social media for us to loose ‘pockets of time’ with what I call the social media time vacuum!
Well in order to avoid the social media time vacuum, I recommend that you plan the time that you are going to spend on social media and a good content schedule is a great way to start!…
First of all I suggest that you don’t fall into the trap of writing a blog on a Monday morning and posting it across, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Plus and then have nothing else to share for the rest of the week! Think about different ways in which you can share this and other information over weeks and maybe even months ahead!
Going back to the idea of a school timetable, this ensures children know what subjects they will be involved in where they need to be every day. So just like a timetable a Social Media Plan will allow your efforts to be effective and ensure you know what information you want to share!.. and when you want to share it!
Secondly There is also a balance to be had with automating some (but most definitely NOT all) of your content. For example it is fine to schedule some links to your blogs with tools such as hootsuite and buffer and post some content via Facebook scheduling.
A well planned social media content timetable will help you on your way. It is also important to plan time in to engage with your audience too, a great idea is to plan time in the morning, lunchtime and before you finish for the day and switch it off in-between so it doesn’t distract you from getting other jobs done and running your business!
Thirdly, I am delighted to share with you my social media planner for you to download and use at your desk to organise your week ahead!
So get yours pencils sharpened, thinking caps on and download your timetable template today.
Happy Planning!
P.S If you are new to social media then take a look at our Getting Started with Social Media Blogs:
How To Get Started In Social Media For Business Part One: Planning Your Approach
How to Get Started In Social Media for Business Part Two: Choosing Platforms and Completing Profiles
How to get Started in Social Media for Business Part Three: Start Talking!
