26 Social Media Marketing Tips for Busy Entrepreneurs
Are you a small business owner who doesn’t have enough time for social media?
Social media can seem like a necessary evil. It’s an important part of your marketing strategy, but it also pulls you away from the primary purpose of your business. And if you don’t manage your time wisely, it can be a huge time suck.
But how do you make the most of your time on social media?
I asked 26 successful entrepreneurs in a variety of niches to share their best social media tips for busy entrepreneurs. Follow their advice and you’ll save time, get more done, and have more time for your business.
26 experts share their best social media marketing tips for busy entrepreneurs
Automate your social media tasks
When it comes to saving time, one of the best social media tips for busy business owners is to start looking for ways to automate your tasks. That’s the low-hanging fruit and will have a big impact on your time spent.
My best tip is to find ways to automate social media. Almost all social media platforms can be automated, and this can help a person to save time so that they aren’t on something like Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter all day long. Instead, you can schedule stuff and continue on with your life!
At Making Sense of Cents, Michelle shows you how to make money blogging online.
Take advantage of social media tools that allow you to recycle content – this will save you a ton of time.
Laura shares a tutorial on how to use SmarterQueue – a tool for recycling content.
I have several sites that I run and offer freelance writing services. To help me promote my business, I like to use automation tools like Tailwind, Buffer, Grum or even IFTTT. These allow me to post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest daily.
Follow Elna on Pinterest, where she helps moms and freelancers create a business from their blog.
Work towards automating at least some aspects of social media. A lot of people confuse scheduling and automation but they are completely different. With tools like IFTTT (If this then that), business owners can actually sync two or more social platforms, set up the processes and systems and have it taken completely out of their hands to run saving a whole lot of time.
Check out Meera’s advice on how to craft a fail-proof, killer blog post promotions strategy.
Outsource your social media
Don’t be afraid to get outside help. Working with a virtual assistant or outside agency can free up your time to spend on other aspects of your business.
Find a VA you love and work closely with her. Seriously! Having a team, even if it’s just the 2 of you, will multiply your productivity. My VA is able to take my ideas and vision and implement them on my social media channels consistently. I think being consistent and being creative are sometimes at odds with each other and so it’s wonderful to delegate the production to someone who understands your vision.
Beyond that, always remember that it’s not about you! Your readers don’t care if you’ve published a new blog post or filmed a new video. They want to know what’s in it for them. Make your channels about THEM – what will they gain by reading your post or watching your video. When you focus on serving, people will love you for it and reward you in return.
In her Facebook group Decluttering Club, Sarah helps you take your home from overwhelmed, cluttered, and disorganized to neat, tidy, and peaceful.
Make a decision as to what you actually enjoy doing on social media and then outsource the rest!
When you realize that a platform isn’t fun for you any more, first evaluate to ensure you’re getting the results you want from it. If you decide it is worth your time and effort to continue, then it’s time to find a VA to hand the management off to.
Social media is supposed to be fun, and sometimes you need a little help to keep it that way!
Summer shares 5 reasons your current social media strategy isn’t profitable and what to do about it.
Depending on your stage of business, paying someone to run your social media may feel like a big, scary investment. It was for me. But is worrying about scheduling tweets or making a pretty Instagram feed your zone of genius? Is it paying your bills? If the answer is no, then it’s probably wise to fork over some cash to a pro to do it for you.
Your time is best spent on money-making activities, like client work or nurturing leads. If you can hire someone else to manage social media at a fraction of your own billable rate, it’s a no-brainer. The only thing holding you back is your beliefs.
Becky helps women entrepreneurs gain confidence & clarity. Follow her on Instagram.
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Focus on the right platforms for you and your audience
There are so many social media platforms today. But, as a busy small business owner, you can’t be successful on all of them.
Pick just 1 – 2 social media platforms to focus on and become the MASTER of those. Choosing just one or two platforms to focus on will not only help save your sanity, but it’ll also help you to create better content because you won’t be spreading yourself too thin! And as a side note, ALWAYS be your authentic self on social media. 🙂
Allison shares actionable business growing tips and strategies on her YouTube channel.
Figure out the platforms your audience is spending the most time on + the platforms you enjoy creating content for most and just focus on those. You don’t need to be on every platform to be effective.
Need ideas for what to post on Instagram? Sarah shares 30 ideas for photos and captions that will grow your followers and keep the inspiration going all month long.
If you’re just starting out, I would recommend beginner bloggers to focus on just a few social media platforms and not try to be everywhere.
As business owners with many different priorities, growing a sustainable audience will require a lot of time, and focusing your efforts on a few key platforms at the start will allow you to grow efficiently before expanding to other platforms.
Just starting out? Raelyn’s 4-part Blogging for Beginners Series on how to start a successful blog will help all beginner bloggers.
Evaluate what platforms are getting you the best results and focus on those. Don’t be afraid to drop any that are wasting your time. You don’t have to be everywhere. You’ll save time by choosing 1-2 platforms and doing them well instead of spreading yourself thin.
Allyssa is a web developer. Keep up with her website advice on Instagram.
Identify the one social media platform your target market uses most and focus on that one first. It’s hard when you’re a solopreneur to be active and engaging on multiple platforms, so find the one that gives you the most return on your time investment.
Brittney shows you how to build a social media strategy for your solopreneur business.
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Create a routine and follow it
Whether you call it a routine, process, or workflow, the end result is the same. Follow the same set of actions on a regular basis and you will be more efficient and see better results.
Saving time on social media is the trick, right? I automate my posts and sending out my blogger friends’ posts on Buffer. Then I interact on Facebook and with saving Pinterest pins once a day. So automate some things and interact “live” each day also. I have found, over the past 8 years, that this plan works the best for me.
Sue shares 6 easy ways to leverage social media and make money online.
My best tip is to plan pillar content each week and repurpose it across all your social media outlets. For example each week I have a new blog post on a specific subject. I will take that blog post and share it on Instagram, on Facebook, on Pinterest, in my weekly Newsletter and then on a Facebook Live. Each platform is a little different and resonates with your ideal audience uniquely. I like this approach because you’re working smarter and not harder.
Want to produce a successful Facebook Live? Lesley has you covered.
Social media is designed to be addicting, so it’s only natural to get sucked in from time to time. But, if you only have a few hours a day to work on your business, you can’t afford to waste time scrolling through your Instagram feed or browsing Pinterest.
My biggest time saving tip for social media: create a routine. I paid attention to what tasks were actually getting me results on social media, and then wrote them down as a checklist. Now I just follow the checklist every time I sign on to Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
My routine helps me engage with followers and promote my brand without getting distracted and wasting time. It’s a huge time saver because it means I always know exactly what I need to do when I’m on social media. I use my time intentionally because I have a plan.
Grab Emily’s swipe file with the exact social media routines she follows each week.
For tasks you perform in your business that follow the same process every time (including blog post creation and client workflows) I recommend Pipefy. com. It helps keep me on track and cuts time wasted figuring out where I’m up to with each post!
Victoria is a professional stress consultant and coach. Follow her on Facebook.
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Here are 10 tips and ideas to help small businesses and entrepreneurs simplify your social media marketing strategy.
Schedule as much as you can
Not only does scheduling save time, but it also helps you to be consistent on social media. So when life gets in the way, you still have an active presence.
Utilize services such as HootSuite to schedule posts ahead of time and create a clear and succinct schedule + list of goals to stay on track!
Priyanka writes about lifestyle, makeup, and skincare at Glamour and Giggles.
Schedule as much as possible! To keep your cue as full as you can, sign up for google alerts on key topics in your industry and share away.
Nicole shares an authentic look at parenting through the eyes of a busy mom at The Professional Mom Project.
Schedule your weeks’ worth of Facebook posts ahead of time with Facebook’s scheduling feature. It’s free and you can schedule morning and afternoon posts and then add additional posts during the week as you see fit.
Patti writes about recovery and reinvention at 55 Is Fine.
Know what you want to accomplish
Don’t dive into social media without a specific purpose. Know what you want to accomplish and then adjust your strategy accordingly.
Funnels. The best way I’ve found to save time on social media AND make money at the same time is by setting up sales funnels. This means that every time I direct people from a social platform to my website, I’m constantly thinking about how I can leverage that interaction into a sale and loyal customer.
Social media is extremely effective as long as you have a defined purpose behind what you are sharing. Anytime you can automate the process, do it! My favorite social media funnels are on Pinterest and I automate the process with Tailwind, an approved API partner with Pinterest.
Monica shows you how to make money on Pinterest.
Think about your intended purpose and audience. In many cases, social media is not the cure-all solution to attracting the right audience as your post can get buried if you don’t target the right audience in terms of aesthetic, hashtags, and tone.
I find that tailoring a message to a specific audience on a specific social media ensure that I reach my target audience, instead of mass targeting anyone a broad topic. Instead of spending time on Twitter, where my messages often get buried within minutes among many others posting about travel, I’ve shifted my energy to Pinterest, where even five minutes of pinning can bring hundreds of readers interested in specific travel destinations over the next few months.
You’ll find travel inspiration for independent travelers who want to forge their own path at Wanderlustingk.
Group similar tasks into batches
Group similar tasks into batches and do them all at the same time. By doing the work in batches you can reduce the time wasted switching from one task to another.
Batching and automation! It’s such a time saver. I use SmarterQueue for Twitter and my FB group, BoardBooster for Pinterest, and FB’s native scheduler for my biz page. I get my posts set up in big batches and then they run on auto-pilot.
Wendy shows you how join the best Facebook groups and effectively network in them to get new business.
Automate by utilizing a service that allows your posts to be evergreen. I recently switched to SocialBee because there was a great deal on app sumo, but Recurpost has a free plan and Smarterqueue also works well. For Pinterest, Boardbooster allows you to automate more than any other tool I’ve used.
Second tip: batch the work. Create all the images you need at the same time, then take the time to write out all of the messages. For images, I use Canva and their magic resize feature to get images that are the right size for each platform.
Elizabeth shares five budget-friendly social media tools that will save you hours of time.
Set boundaries to stay focused
Setting boundaries allows you to control the time you spend on social media. Be intentional about how you spend your time and don’t allow others to distract you.
Set boundaries! Each time you are on social media set a time limit of how long you are going to be on the site. Otherwise you can scroll endlessly for hours thinking you are “working” but really you aren’t! Even when I am coaching women in The Society, I set boundaries on the time I am in there coaching. We have to be smart about our social media time. It’s far too easy to get sucked into it!
Grab Jen’s Blogging Calendar and learn what to do every day to grow your blog into a profitable business.
Schedule intentional time for social media, block time for engagement and use of platforms. Develop a habit of only going on your social platforms for replying to comments, networking, engaging, NOT random scrolling! You would be surprised at how much time those little peeks into Facebook or Instagram drain from your day.
Mariah shares 25 ways to save time in your business.
If you get distracted by your friends posts on your Facebook home feed, you can remedy that by clicking on the three dots at the top right of the post, then click unfollow. Your still friends, but without the distraction when you’re on Facebook to work.
Learn how Stephanie successfully launched her blog in 30 days.
Social media doesn’t have to be a huge time-suck. Follow these time-saving social media tips and you’ll find that you can accomplish your social media goals and still have plenty of time for the rest of your business.
And for one final tip: take the time to create your own social media strategy. You’ll be more focused and less overwhelmed. And you’ll see better results.
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Want more social media tips?
- Create an Effective Solopreneur Social Media Strategy
- 15 Best Social Media Automation Tools for Solopreneurs
- How to Simplify Your Social Media Marketing Strategies
- How to Track Your Social Media Efforts (And Why You Should)
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