While large companies have the luxury of being able to dedicate entire teams to their social media marketing campaigns, startups simply do not have that option. Oftentimes, it may feel as though you are running a one-man or one-woman show, leaving you to wonder how you will ever find time to do social media marketing without neglecting other important business duties.
First, you must establish why it’s even important to allocate time for social promotion, particularly when you have a million other responsibilities. The marketing power offered by social fans and followers is tremendous. Statistics from Nielsen show that 43 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when they hear about it on social media. Building and maintaining a social media presence is vital for businesses of all sizes, but for startups looking to draw attention, it can be a game changer.
Still, when you’re short on time and do not have a dedicated social media marketing team to handle your brand’s social promotion, you need to know how to make the most of what you have. The tips below can help you to boost your social media presence and drive engagement without feeling as though you are burning the candle at both ends.
Leverage One Piece of Content into Multiple Posts
Among the most common time drains for most startups trying to build a social media presence is sourcing enough content. The importance of quality content cannot be denied, yet it is time consuming to constantly come up with enough original, quality content to fill your social media posts on a regular basis. If you find yourself struggling with this problem, try getting the most value possible from each piece of content by leveraging it into multiple pieces. For instance, along with the original post, try also creating a podcast and linking to it, posting an infographic illustrating statistics related to your post topic, or a slideshow with relevant images. This process not only reduces the amount of time required to create content; it still gives you the power associated with having a variety of different types of content, which can keep your social media accounts fresh and appeal to a broader variety of followers.
Acknowledge the Accomplishments of Others
Rather than simply spending all of your time creating new content, take a few moments to recognize what others have achieved. This can be a great timesaving technique when you’re extremely busy, while also giving you the opportunity to leverage the power of recognized names in your industry. If someone has recently put out a good video, written a book, or conducted an interview, take the time to congratulate them and even share the information on your social media network.
Focus on Relationship Building
Writing quality content is important for building a successful social media presence in the long term, but keep in mind that relationships are also essential to effective social media marketing. Allocate some time to actually getting to know the people in your social media networks by engaging them via comments. This not only helps to boost your online presence, but could also lead to interesting partnerships in the future.
Make Use of Analytics
There are numerous social media analytics tools you can leverage to gain insight into the type of content that would appeal most to your audience. Among them is Keyhole, which can be useful for tracking hashtags, URLs, and keywords.
Invest in Fewer Social Media Accounts
Maintaining a large number of social media accounts can be time consuming and exhausting. Furthermore, if you are attempting to spread yourself too thin, you will likely see little return for your effort. There is little reason to create an account on a social media network if your audience is not there. The goal of social media marketing is to increase your brand’s visibility and accessibility. If this can be accomplished with fewer social media accounts, all the better. Identify two or three networks where your target audience is likely to be most active and focus your time and effort on those networks. Your business will see more return with a few well-developed social media accounts than with several poorly developed accounts.
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