Starting a social media strategy is undoubtedly an excellent step in the right direction. Simply having a strategy does not always mean instant results, however. In fact, there are many ways that businesses end up wasting time with social media marketing. The result can often up being a lot like spinning around in circles without actually ever moving forward.
In this guide, we share some tips on how you can improve your social media strategy results by saying goodbye to the biggest time-killers.
Avoid These Social Media Strategy Time-Killers
Is your social media strategy killing time that you cannot afford to waste? Some of the biggest ways that you may be wasting time include the following:
1. Not having a clear focus
While your strategy should be in place for this very reason, it is all too easy to get into the habit of posting things that you see online. When you post things without stopping to think about whether the content is relevant to your audience and business, the result is a diluted channel that does not target your ideal audience. This can end up undoing your hard-earned progress. Whichever channel you prefer – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn or a combination of all of these channels, make sure that you keep your focus on your primary topic.
2. Not setting a schedule
Another major mistake is posting without a schedule. Regular and consistent content is essential to grow followers and keep your audience engaged. You don’t even need to be rigid about this to see the results. One of the simplest ways to benefit from a schedule is to determine how often you plan to post to your primary social channels. For example, you may decide to share Facebook posts every day, Twitter posts twice a week, YouTube videos once a week and LinkedIn posts once every other day. You can then either prepare posts in advance and share using a social media scheduling tool, or you can post content manually on your prescribed days.
3. Not engaging with your audience
If you are posting regularly and sharing social media content that is on focus, well done. If you are doing this and not responding to comments, you are wasting not only time but also a chance to build relationships with your followers. Try to respond as quickly as possible. You should always make time to like follower comments, answer questions, draw commenters into discussion, welcome new followers by tagging them in a post, read and respond to visitor posts, respond to reviews and respond quickly to private messages. This shows followers that you are genuinely happy to see them on your pages.
Once you begin to stop wasting time, you will start to see the difference in your social media strategy results.
