Yes, you DO have time to market through social media

by | May 3, 2012 | At Checkerboard, Integrated Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

Some companies are clearly missing out.  They worry that social media marketing will require a large time investment, so they have yet to give it a try. While it is true that the more you time you put into social media, the greater your results, you may be happy to learn that even 10 minutes a day can grow your brand.  To make the most of your allotted time for social media, here are some tips and tools:

#1 Get started with a social media expert

There are numerous types of social media channels available that may or may not be right for you and different quirks to each one. A social media expert can help you avoid any time-consuming trial-and-error and direct you to platforms that are right for your business. A professional can also set up all of your accounts for you, and show you some easy time-saving tricks for using them. We assist many clients with launching their social media marketing and help novices to quickly become comfortable with the tools we’ve set up for them.  Call us to create and design your social media channels or to revamp a social campaign that may have hit a slump!

#2 Create a social media plan

Investing a few hours in an action plan will save you a lot of time after your social media marketing begins.  A social media plan will keep you organized, keep all messaging on point, allow you to respond faster to customers and prepare you to handle any necessary damage control.

To start your plan, attend our free MarketSmart Academy class: Creating a Social Media Plan where you’ll learn how to set goals, determine which social media channels are right for you, set rules of engagement, distribute content, measure social media ROI and position yourself as an industry expert. Each month, we also discuss the latest tools and tricks that have become available.  The next class is May 24th. These classes fill up fast, so sign up today. (Here’s another time saver: Our classes include a free Continental breakfast!)

#3 Delegate tasks

If you personally don’t have a lot of time for social media, enlist others on your team to manage various social tasks. Many employees probably already know how to use Facebook and may just need a short training session to become proficient in other social channels. We often train account managers, customer service staff and sales people to use social media for their companies. Their different tastes, expertise and communication styles contribute a nice mix of posts, statuses, ‘likes’, content sharing and tweets. If you want your business to have a social presence, then its employees should definitely be socially involved.

#4 Use tools to automate the process

Small businesses often think they can’t afford their staff taking time away from current responsibilities to spend time on social channels. However we have many small business clients, such as Pahl’s Market and Country Creek Builders, that are very successful at promoting their businesses by using automated social tools. We set up and train them on the automation, and feel like proud parents as they hit the ground running and excitedly report back with their successes. A few of the biggest time-savers include: scheduling tweets with HootSuite; being social on-the-go with your smart phone; setting up  email notification of mentions,  ‘likes’ and comments; and receiving easy analytics and recommended followers by using  Sprout Social.

#5 Schedule!

Keeping a set posting schedule or blocking out time to spend on social media is one of the biggest keys to succeeding socially. The more time you can spend, the better, but some of our clients see success by participating in social channels only 10 minutes per day.

Writing can be agonizingly slow for many people. Either you’re not comfortable with your skills, or you can never seem to find a big enough chunk of time to get it done. If content creation is a sticking point for you, your schedule should include an editorial calendar. Research different events, topics or industry news then plan out your posts for a full month. When the time comes to write them or assign them to someone else, you’ll have a head start just by having the topic ready. Another content time-saver is to re-purpose other company materials such as press releases, media placements, newsletters, marketing materials and personnel announcements. Many clients opt to delegate their content creation to our writing team. We can generate clear, keyword-rich content and syndicate it to all of your social media channels.

These various tips, tricks and tools will help you optimize your time spent on social media marketing for your brand. Call us to get started. Be sure to ask us about new and emerging platforms such as Google+, StumbleUpon and Pinterest. We are ready to show you how to grow your business grow using social media marketing!

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