How to Be More Efficient on Social Media – Part 2
In Part 1 of this 2 part series, we talked about 3 preparatory elements of social media efficiency. Here in Part 2, we’ll discuss 3 operational elements of how to be more efficient on social media.
4. Create posts in bunches.
If you’re like many people, when an idea for a social media post pops into your head, you drop whatever you’re doing, write the post, and post it. The problem with this practice is it interferes with whatever you were doing when the idea hit. A better way to handle these spontaneous ideas is to jot them down in a notebook or on your mobile device. Then, at a pre-scheduled time, review your notes, create those awesome posts, and cue them up in an automated posting tool like Hootsuite or Buffer. Pre-planning your posts helps ensure that you don’t miss or forget something important.
5. Create posts pro forma.
In Part 1, we mentioned how important consistency is on social media. The need for consistency applies not only to posting frequency, but to the look and feel of your posts. The best way to maintain a consistent look and feel for your posts is to follow a formula for creating posts.
- Write catchy headlines. You probably know that a catchy headline is important in writing blog posts and ad copy, right? Well, it’s equally important that your social media posts start with a catchy headline or first sentence.
- Write for the reader. As you continue writing your post beyond the headline, write with the reader’s goals in mind, not yours. To fully identify what those are, you must identify your ideal customer.
- Include standard sized images. Every social media outlet has its own image size standard, and it’s important to know them. Your posts should also use standardized image sizes. If an image you want to use doesn’t match your image size standard, re-size it.
6. Measure results.
In any marketing effort, it’s important to know how well something is working. Social media is no different. Monitoring is the only way to know whether to continue what you’re doing, make adjustments and press forward, or scrap it altogether and try something else. To paraphrase former General Electric CEO, Jack Welch; an organization’s ability to measure the results of what they’re doing, and translate that knowledge into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage. We all know how important a competitive advantage is to successful social media marketing, don’t we.
The best way to monitor your social media results is to use one of the many social media monitoring tools available today.
Meanwhile, for help creating a digital marketing strategy that achieves measurable results, contact us online or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
Categories: Inbound marketing, social media