Managing Your Social Media: Taking Time For You

In this fast paced digital world it’s easy to get caught up in the likes, shares and constant updates of social media. There is a consistent pressure to stay up-to-date on news, trends and update your pages with insights and information. For hospitality businesses it’s about updating your customers on opening times and menu changes; things that need to be sent out in a timely manner.

But, it’s important for business owners to balance work and life, and this why we've written this post! Below you will find four ways for you to have a successful social media presence, whilst leaving time for your personal life to thrive.

1. Plan Ahead

If you’ve got an idea for a campaign of posts: planning these out, and designing them, will really assist you in saving time. It can be really valuable blocking out an hour or two to strategise an effective social media campaign for roughly the month ahead.

And if you’re able to predict the trends of your customers you can design your release schedule around this.

For example:

Let’s say it’s coming into winter time. You can set up a campaign that really pushes your hot drinks, and how cosy your cafe is in these colder months. Or get your customers hyped for a new winter menu.

Start the campaign early to expose your audience to the appeals of your cafe. This way, when they’re looking for a warm place for a drink, they might remember your cafe has a really cosy atmosphere. Long exposure to your business’ assets will increase your chances of being remembered later on, especially if they’re pretty and thoughtful posts!

2. Schedule Posts

Planning ahead is all good and well, but if you’ve got a whole month’s worth of content to release it doesn’t save you any time for yourself!

This is where post scheduling apps come in. They’re a life saver, and many marketing managers use them to save time, headspace and effort.

If you’re wondering what on earth a scheduling app is, it is a tool that allows you to upload your content for your social media app for a set period of time, and the scheduling tool will post your content at the times you set. Cool right! It’s highly useful when you have a campaign, and you know exactly what you’re posting about. They’re usually super easy to use, as well, and when you’re doing all the work in a single chunk of time you’re not wasting headspace remembering when you have to post next.

Some free scheduling tools include:

• Later: Best for Instagram. Businesses of all sizes.
• Buffer: Publishers, mid-stage startup teams, non-profits, higher education, sports teams, e-commerce, solopreneurs, businesses. Pay-as-you-go, works with every social media platform.
• ContentCal: Businesses, agencies, and freelancers. Simple interface. Owned by Adobe.

These tools have a free/basic plan, or a free-trial. Either way, you can try them out without cost, and if they’re really working for you, a paid plan might be something to build into your budget.

3. Aim For Easy And Effortless Updates

HOW?! You ask, as you receive a billion notifications and try to wrangle stories, posts, reels, emails, messages and the lot! It might sound simplistic, or silly, but aiming to make effortless content will save you headaches in the future: post the same thing on more than one social media platform.

Begin by focusing on the format you want to update to come in. The easiest is an eye-catching Instagram story, and reposting the same photo on your Facebook, newsletter or whatever social media platform your business uses.

By doubling (or tripling) up an update you’re saving the time of making two separate posts for the same day. Stories also work well when they’re simple, colourful and eye-catching: a plate of delicious food with some digital art and a caption. And, like I mentioned before, exposure to the same photo will spark recognition in your audience.

Consider re-using the same colours, shapes and font for every post thereafter. This way you’re creating a strong brand image, and saving time. No more staring at the screen wondering if that colour really goes with that photo…

4. Hire A Social Media Manager

Here’s the crux of it. If you really want to save yourself the effort of it all, hire someone else. Social media managers exist for a reason. You have the ability to retain creative control by providing content direction and signing off on campaigns -- but no longer have to worry about creating and scheduling the content yourself. Getting someone really passionate about your business will be a bonus, and it’ll mean your content has heart.

If you're considering what a social media manager could do for your business, we'd love to chat.

So there you have it. Four ways to save yourself time in the social media department. Basically, plan ahead, schedule those posts, don’t be afraid to re-use, and if you really can’t be bothered: hire someone else. That way you can attend to other tasks…or take a well deserved break!