5 productivity hacks for social media management

24 May 2018

Tips and tricks to streamlining your social media management efforts. Source: Shutterstock

The impact of social media on both business marketing and business networking is colossal, but the time and effort involved in this can be tiresome- especially if you have other jobs to juggle.

Fortunately, there are a number of “efficiency hacks” which serve to make your life a whole lot easier on the social media management front.

1.Utilize scheduling tools

Unbeknown to many, there is an array of social media scheduling tools available online that could turn out to be your very best friend.

But before turning to these tools, a good idea would be to first create a social media calendar on a Google Spreadsheet of Excel consisting of what you plan to post for the next 30 days.

You can then transfer these postings directly to scheduling platforms such as Hootsuite and Buffer. These tools allow you to plan ahead to schedule posts on certain times and days. By putting aside a portion of your time to do this daily – or even weekly – you won’t have to constantly think about posting throughout the day.

2. Recycle your content

The majority of the content you post should be fresh and new in order to keep your audience engaged. But this doesn’t mean to say you cannot reuse or re-model some of your old content.

Old content can be re-purposed through different formats. Source: Shutterstock

There’s no harm in re-posting a blog post or video that is still relevant today. Additionally, re-formatting a piece of content is a great way of re-using content in a more engaging way. For instance, the findings in your whitepaper may gain more attraction in the form of an infographic or video blog.

3. Smart automation tools

Today we are seeing an influx of automation tools which are making the lives of marketers a whole lot easier. IFTTT (If This Then That) is a free web-based service which essentially acts as an automation service for all your internet-connected things.

There is a variety of ways you can connect all your services, and these resulting combinations are called “Applets”. These Applets essentially automate your daily workflow. An example would be to use IFTTT to automatically email your readers when they comment on your blog or when they ask you a question on Twitter.

4. Tracking content inspiration

One of the biggest challenges that businesses face when it comes to social media is the ability to produce steady streams of engaging content.

While there is an incredible amount of information available online, it can take a considerable measure of time to filter through this to organize and prioritize the information.

Tools such as Curata can help bring a bit of order to this chaos. Curata’s discovery engine searches feeds, websites, social networks, and more in order to find relevant content to inspire your own content marketing strategy.

5. Start measuring your efforts

Spending your valuable time on social media is all well and good if these efforts pay off. But what’s the point in repeating the same routine if it is not benefitting you in terms of engagement?

Fortunately, there are a number of analytical tools available to measure your social media efforts, showing you where you are succeeding and where you are missing the mark.

Does your strategy need re-thinking? Source: Shutterstock

Which content formats and topic areas are performing the best? What time of day are your posts gaining the most attractive? Who are your best supporters and influencers? Tools such as Sprout Social and Google Analytics will give you information on this.

Conducting a social media report on a weekly basis will provide valuable information on your most efficient and effective postings, which will inform you on what is working in your strategy along with what processes you should rethink.