Social media marketing strategies can get complicated. There always seems to be so much to do and so little time. Many solopreneurs employ a social media manager as soon as they can afford to. But that’s not always necessary if you know how to simplify your social media strategies. Social media can be an efficient traffic source, or a huge time suck, depending on how you use it. Here’s how I keep it simple.

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Brainstorm hot content

Brainstorm ideas regularly. Have a system that lets you do it on the go, whether that’s a physical notebook (I use my journal) or the notes function on your phone. Keep brainstorming sessions separate from content creation. Then you always have ideas to work on when you sit down to create content.

Hot content is the kind of content that will really grab the attention of those in your niche. As you do your niche research, you’ll see the same questions coming up repeatedly. Make a list of them and create content that answers these questions. Be sure to create paid products that do that as well. Free content you create for social media should lead followers towards your paid products.

Batch content creation

Those perfect model types you see on Instagram aren’t actually taking a random selfie every day. They’re setting up professional photo shoots to get a ton of gorgeous pics all at once. A lot of vloggers aren’t recording every day. They’re making a ton of videos all at once while they have their studio set up, their hair styled and their makeup on (yep, even the guys). Most bloggers who post a lot on Facebook and other social sites aren’t doing it on the fly. Set aside big chunks of time to batch your content creation, and it will make life simpler.

Re-purpose your content

Make every piece of content you create work hard for you. One of the best ways to do this is to put it into more than one format. For example, your content could be an article, top-10 list, or a PowerPoint deck. Your deck could become a video on YouTube which you would then embed on your site. You could also share the deck at popular sharing sites like SlideShare, owned by LinkedIn, which has very convenient sharing buttons for all of the major social networks. Check out my article on 15 ways to easily re-purpose your content.

Create a publishing schedule

I’ve written extensively about how important it is to use a content calendar for your blog and business. Schedule all your social content in there as well as your blog content. Make sure it ties in to what you’ll be publishing on your blog and around the web, and any paid products you’re releasing too.

If you work alone, create your own calendar and follow it. The plugin Editorial Calendar for WordPress can be useful. If you’re working in a team, set up a shared calendar or use an online project management system. I love Asana and it’s FREE.

Use clever tools

WordPress has a range of plugins that will create share buttons so people can easily click to share on their preferred social networks. I use the Sumo plugin to create those floating social buttons to the side of my posts. Another great plugin that make it easier for others to share your content, is Click To Tweet. You can make it do things like this.

Using a few simple tactics to simplify your social media marketing can save you hours of time each week. Click To Tweet

Then there are specific tools that will allow you to schedule posts in advance, such as Buffer, Hootsuite and my personal favorite, RecurPost. I wrote a post about free social scheduling tools here. Many tools have free and paid versions so you can try before you buy. If they make your social scheduling easier, they can sometimes pay for themselves in terms of the amount of time you will save.

If you’re into Pinterest, you might want to use Tailwind, which allows you to schedule Pinterest pins in advance, and if you’re not into Pinterest, you might need to rectify that. It’s one of my top traffic sources, and since I signed up for the Pindepth online course, it’s growing by the day. Find out about my Pinterest strategies in this post.

Make an appointment with social for 1 hour each day

Social media can devour your time if you’re not careful, so block out 2 appointments of 30 minutes each, morning and evening, so you minimize the danger of getting distracted and wasting hours falling down virtual rabbit holes. If you use social media for pure socializing as well, do it at a completely different time from work related tasks.

Outsource

Once you get things organized, you can consider outsourcing some of your social marketing to a reliable social media manager or a virtual assistant with social media experience.

If you know nothing about outsourcing, check out my ebook The Savvy Solopreneur’s Guide to Outsourcing. If you’re ready to get heavily into outsourcing, consider investing in the Outsource Weekly course.

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