Top 5 Time Management Secrets For Social Media Users

Although social media marketing is a powerful way to bring in new leads for your business, promoting yourself via social media is also an easy way to lose valuable time and decrease your overall productivity. Fortunately, it’s possible to maintain an effective social media strategy without sacrificing your daily schedule. With the right time management strategies in place, you’ll be able to consistently post high quality content to your social media pages while focusing the majority of your time on your top priorities.

Here are some ways you can start improving your social media time management strategy:

Schedule your posts in advance.

Did you know it’s possible to schedule your social media posts in advance? This means you can regularly post content throughout the day without actually spending all day online. Some social media platforms such as Facebook will allow you to schedule your posts in advance directly through the site. For other platforms, online services such as HootSuite, SocialOomph, and Seesmic offer post scheduling capabilities. An added benefit of scheduling your posts in advance is you’ll be less likely to let long periods of time go by without posting.

Find ways to connect your social media accounts.

Connecting your social media accounts using services such as If This Then That is a great way to get the most out of your posts. Posting on one platform will prompt posts to other platforms, helping you reach a wide audience with minimal effort. This can be an excellent time saver.

Don’t hesitate to benefit from what’s already been done.

When you’re busy, the last thing you need to do is waste time browsing the internet in search of content for your social media pages. Fortunately, you can profit from those who have already done this work for you. There are several content curation sites available, including Scoop.it, Storify, and Feedly. Visiting any of these sites can save you hours of searching for content online. It can also be helpful to find a few relevant niche websites that consistently publish quality news, articles, or other content. Finally, signing up for newsletters can be an excellent way to have content delivered directly to you.

Set limits to the amount of time you spend on social media.

It’s often effective to set limits on social media usage by specifying certain times of the day during which you don’t use social media. This will help ensure you stay focused on your tasks when you do log on to social media. If you find it difficult to set limits on your social media usage, there are many apps available to help you limit the time you spend on social media. Being firm about your boundaries will prevent you from accidentally spending all day improving your social media pages.

Don’t waste time making your posts perfect.

Many people lose valuable time by over-thinking their social media posts. This is a dangerous habit; it’s possible to spend hours crafting a pithy update or caption. It’s important to keep in mind the old axiom: “perfect is the enemy of good” meaning sometimes you just have to post something. You’ll get more traffic from posting five posts of any passable quality than you will from wasting time crafting a single perfect post.

Although many of the strategies above require carving out a block of time upfront, taking the time to plan out your social media strategy at set intervals is a much more efficient strategy than taking time out of your day to post updates.