Valuable Time-Saving Tools for Your Social Media

You spend so much time crafting your posts for social media. Then you learn that a tweet only lasts a matter of minutes before it vanishes! Want to learn how to create better posts? Sure you do!

Photo by Kurayba

Limit Yourself

If you’re a solopreneur, don’t take on every social media platform. Take on two or three of the top ones. If you don’t know what those are, the folks at Pew Research Center can help you identify the top-tier ones, along with their demographics. Yes, this isn’t a tool, but it is a strategy that can help you.

Measure What Counts

The number of followers is a vanity metric that doesn’t necessarily get people in the door of your business. Choose instead to go with metrics such as engagement. By the way, here are some Business Analytics Tricks for Twitter that you might find interesting. These tools are valuable:

• Google Analytics – can help you “close the loop” on where your blog traffic is coming from.
• Analytics on each platform – each platform has its own metrics.
• Cyfe – gives you a dashboard of how each of your social platforms performs.

Batch Your Posts

So, when you’re coming up with headlines for Twitter or Facebook, write them in a block of time. Don’t sit and write one at a time. The time it takes you to switch gears is valuable.

 Schedule All at Once

How about doing five or ten posts at once? Or a week’s worth in one sitting? Then schedule them all at once. There are many schedulers out there–HootSuite, SproutSocial, and many more. Jeff Bullas has a complete list on his 17 Best Social Media Management Tools, so I won’t reinvent the wheel here. But for brainstorming those topics, how about these ideas:

• Mindmapping
• Brainstorming (I prefer groups to solo)
• A blogging buddy (my blogging buddy is Bridget Willard) to help you when you’re stuck!

Photo by puliarf

Write Five Topics

One of the most helpful hints I heard when I first started blogging was from Syed Balkhi, who suggested writing five topics at once so you don’t have an excuse to quit writing. And in case you didn’t know, you really can create a wonderful blog post in an hour. Yes, you can! And speaking of blogging, which goes hand-in-hand with social media, here are some favorite writing tools:

• Relax Melodies – plays white noise that you can customize, such as rain, surf, etc.
• Coschedule – helps you write great headlines
• Noko – time management tool that lets you create reports

Does Social Media Take Too Much Time?

Some days it feels that way, doesn’t it? Let me know if you have a favorite tip in the comments! Thank you.