How to Create an Effective Content Strategy for Your Social Media That Saves You Time
Twenty years ago, social media wasn’t a factor in branding or marketing. In the past two decades, it’s become a way to set your business apart and gain access to a whole new target audience. If you’re looking to create a content strategy for your social media, read these tips to learn how to best allocate your time and resources.
For 2024, the top 3 social media channels are Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. X , formerly known as Twitter is not in the top 3 list.
Select the right social media channels
Not all social media channels are created equally for each business. In fact, some channels may not be worth wasting your time on. If you want an effective social media strategy, you want to make sure you’re targeting the right platforms. Here are the ones you should start with:
1. Facebook
Types of content: Text, image, video, link
Facebook is at the top of the list for most businesses. It’s ideal for businesses who hope to gain website traffic because it sends out more website referral traffic than any other social media network.
2. Instagram
Types of content: Image and video
Instagram is a highly visual network, so you can devise social media content here using both pictures and videos. If your brand is strongly visual, then this is a solid direction to go. If your brand is looking to drive traffic to your website, you may prefer to focus on Facebook.
3. LinkedIn
Types of content: Text and link
LinkedIn is a professional network, and it’s generally used as a space to share industry articles and highly tailored content. If you’re looking to advertise to potential customers, you may be better off using Facebook or Instagram than LinkedIn.
4. Twitter
Types of content: Text, image, and video
Twitter is now seen as a news platform more than a social media network. This is a great way for your brand to connect with consumers if you want to share blog posts or promote website content.
5. Pinterest
Types of content: Image, video, and link
Pinterest is a highly imaginative and visual website. On Pinterest, each idea is represented by a pin (an image that can be searched and saved by users). Pins can link back to websites and drive traffic and sales. By creating pins, you’re able to connect with various users looking for project inspiration.
Investigate time-saving techniques
Once you’ve selected your first two or three social media sites that you want to focus on, you should implement a handful of time-saving techniques.
Create a content calendar
Companies with the most coherent and effective content strategies take time to plan. Often, they do this with a content calendar. They first start by establishing who their target audience is, what their ultimate goal is, and how they can best achieve that goal with that audience.
Then, they set out all of their planned content out on a calendar. They decide when they’re going to post and where they’re going to post. They consider what’s worked in the past and how their strategy will help their brand in the future.
Ultimately, the content calendar creates consistency and allows them to fill in any content gaps. If they see posts that do well over time, they may replicate them. If any posts do poorly, they’ll move away from them in the future. It’s the opportunity to strategize and optimize while removing the daily chaos and ultimately saving time.
Post less frequently
If you find you’re sinking a lot of time into social media, you may consider posting less frequently. Remember, quality engagement with your target audience is worth a lot more than the number of posts. If cutting back your posts by 25 to 50 percent allows you to maintain the proper balance, this is something to consider.
Refocus your networks
If you’re not seeing the success on a particular network, consider dropping it and only focusing on the one or two where your company is performing best. As noted above, most companies only excel on certain networks. So, don’t sign up for every single social media network out there and expect to have the same engagement. Evaluate your business and select the networks that are the best fit. As time goes on, look at the data and see where you’re reaching your target audience. If you’re producing drastically better results on Facebook than Twitter, then save time by focusing on Facebook for the time being.
Use automation software
When you’re running a business, you can’t always be on your phone or computer. Utilizing automation software is one of the key ways that businesses save time. Software that helps you organize posts and schedule posts in the future, so you can “set it and forget it” are incredibly helpful.
Final thoughts:-
Today, marketers view social media as a must-have strategy. If a consumer searches for your business on the web and doesn’t find a website or social media site, it’s automatically a red flag. However, as important as it is, social media can still be time-consuming. In fact, the majority of marketers are spending upwards of 6 hours per week on social media, and that’s valuable time you could be using elsewhere.
Related post: 11 types of content that you can create for your online business