By: Lauren Boyce, Intern

You likely understand and recognize the importance of building a credible online presence for your business through social media. What you might not have realized was how much time, effort, and money creating meaningful social media content can require.

When your small business begins using social media as a primary part of your marketing plan, it’s critical to find a streamlined process to create the most impactful content in the most efficient way. This is especially true now as you focus on reopening, adjusting operations post-COVID-19, etc.

Here are five tips that will save you time when developing and managing social media content.

1. Select Appropriate Channels

Before diving into content drafting and creation, take a moment to consider which social media channels are the most appropriate for your business. Remove others that aren’t as beneficial.

Here is an example of one of the social media tips, if your business, product or service lends itself to imagery and video (think great views, delectable food, cool products), Instagram could be a great channel for you. On the other hand, if your company is more business focused, LinkedIn will likely be the best platform for you to utilize.

You can also consider polling your customers about which channels they use and which of those they connect with brands on. Just because they use Instagram doesn’t mean they always follow businesses there, they could use that just for personal purposes. Additionally, by asking them you’re removing the “trial and error” process altogether and are more likely to have quicker success. Facebook polls and/or SurveyMonkey are easy, free tools for such polls.

2. Build a Social Bank

Another example of one of the social media tips is to keep an ongoing list of copy guidelines, appropriate hashtags, and general post concepts that are relevant to your business. Further, always be sure to reference and adhere to your brand book and voice so content is consistent. This is critical if you have more than one person generating/publishing content on your social media channels.

You want people to engage with your content online and then have the same experience, brand connection offline so make sure your written/digital presence matches real life interactions, language, etc.

Take a look at upcoming holidays and note which ones make sense for you capitalize on. Stockpile helpful articles you can link to or create a list of tips and/or resources you can share for added value for your audience. By having these on hand, it takes some of the stress off of you and your team when it comes time to planning out your next posts.

3. Plan and Schedule  

Find a scheduling system that works for you and your business and stick to it. Whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, take the time to prepare and schedule all of your posts for all of your social feeds in one go. If something changes, you can always go back and quickly adjust them as needed.

We recommend using Excel to plan your content by day and by channel a month at a time. Then you can see at a glance the types of content, frequency and channel coverage you have. From there, you can import that content into a scheduling tool if you choose.

There are a variety of tools available that will allow you to schedule posts to multiple platforms in just a few clicks, such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social.

4. Repurpose Content

Repurposing content and converting it from one platform to another is one of the quickest ways to cross-promote existing content, as well as drive users from one platform to the other.

For example, share a link to one of your blog posts on Facebook to help drive traffic to your website (like we did with this one!). Doing so also provides value-based content for your audience too.

5. Reshare Content

Take repurposing content a step further by monitoring posts shared by your customers, guests, followers, etc. that mention or tag your business. Sharing consumer-generated content shows your current customers that you value their feedback and appreciate them sharing their experience. It’s also a good way to interact and engage with consumers, while also providing valuable testimonials that can ultimately entice potential customers browsing your feeds.

You might also share content from other business pages or websites. Just make sure it aligns with your overall social media strategy and brand. 

We understand developing original, meaningful content can be hard work, but you don’t have to make it harder than it needs to be. By building a social bank, scheduling posts in advance, repurposing content, and prioritizing social networks that work for you, curating content that works can be made simpler.

Not sure where to start when building an effective social media strategy? We’re here to help.