3 ways to save time on social media

When I started planning my new course, one of the main things that kept coming up was how can I help people to save time on their social media?

So many of my clients and friends have said they feel the pressure to be constantly creating, promoting their business and sharing online.

It’s exhausting and overwhelming.

And the sad thing is that it’s really normal and I want to be able to tell you that it shouldn’t be that way.

The apps that we use are designed to keep us addicted to being on there and it’s part of the reason I can’t bring myself to go on TikTok just yet.

We are surrounded by this hustle culture but it doesn’t give us a chance to sit back, take a breath and enjoy creating for our businesses, instead of feeling like it’s another chore to add to the list.

But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

We can spend less time online and more time with our families or working on the other areas of our business, we just need to know where we should be focussing our time instead.

Doing less, but doing the right things to get us better results.

Those results could look like many things for you.

It could just be feeling like you are consistently posting each day.

It could be reducing your screen time each week.

It could be sales, enquiries, website clicks, bookings, a confidence boost, new connections, customer research, PR opportunities, event promotion and even friends.

It’s up to you what success means for you in your business.

In my new course Be Your Own Social Media Manager over 4 weeks you’ll come away with the knowledge to create consistent content, the confidence to promote your business online and a plan that means you’ll do that throughout the year, not just for a few weeks until you stop again.

For the next 5 businesses that sign up I’m offering a free 45 minute one to one session that can be used before Christmas. If you’re thinking ‘but I need this all now, not in January!’ A one to one session can help you have a brilliant Christmas, before you learn how to manage your accounts like a pro in the new year.

Sign up here, or send me a message to see if it will be a good fit for you.

Here are 3 tips to help you save time on your social media.

I’ve been a social media manager now for over 6 years and one of the things you learn pretty quickly is how to multi-task and manage your time.

You’re not just managing your own account, you’ve got 12 different businesses in front of you so there’s no room for procrastination.

It’s all about doing the thing that is going to have the most impact for you in the time that you have.

My first tip is to prioritise.

I remember listening to a really interesting podcast from The Minimalists that said priorities wasn’t even a word until the 1400s because you should only have one priority at a time, not multiple priorities.

Is it any wonder we get overwhelmed when we are making multiple things the most important to us and our business?

You need to decide what is your priority, for your social media and for the rest of your business.

I see some business owners who make reels their priority. They focus on creating a new reel each day to encourage growth.

Or they make a carousel a priority, I love Vix Meldrew’s informative carousel posts.

Your priority could be live videos or stories or it could be like mine which is to create content every day, even if it’s not 100% perfect.

One thing I’m quite confident in is that your priority isn’t just mindlessly scrolling which is the thing that is taking up so much of our time.

Instead of sitting down to focus we sit and scroll and then wonder what to post every time because we’ve run out of ideas or we’ve been struck by comparison from everyone else we’re looking at.

Here’s a little challenge for you. If you feel like you are scrolling too much try and catch yourself and do something positive with that time online instead.

Message a customer and ask how they are getting on, comment on a post from someone who is part of your target audience, reply to a story, write down some ideas based on posts you’ve seen or comments you’ve read.

Give yourself the time and space to be creative and make that part of your business a priority for you. Find a way of marketing that you can keep consistent.

But remember, it’s okay if you’re busy packing up hundreds of orders and you don’t have time to share a post today, your priority for that day is the products.

What might help you then is advice number 2….

Creating systems and reviewing them regularly.

I know systems sounds like a fancy word, but your ‘system’ could be a Google sheet or a notepad to keep yourself organised.

Having a system can be the difference between your ideas all over the place and feeling organised and consistent.

If you don’t know where to start, these are what my systems look like…

For my posts I use Trello to plan and organise. I have different boards for days and ideas to keep everything in one place. In my new course Be Your Own Social Media Manager I’ll be showing you what my Trello board looks like and how you can create your own to stay organised.

The great thing is that you can recreate this in lots of other platforms, so if you don’t get on with Trello the system is still the same.

I also have systems for reusing my content.

When I share a post on social media, it will often become a theme for my newsletter too.

That newsletter will then be added as a blog to my website, where I’ll then link to it on Pinterest.

One piece of content, then because something that can be shared across different platforms and I can take less than 20 minutes to do.

But having a system means I know that will happen each time, without even having to think about it.

The key to create effective systems is to be regularly checking in, reviewing and seeing what’s working.

For a long time I used Smarter queue and I found it really useful for myself and my clients.

But there came a point when that system didn’t meet my needs anymore, especially for my own business.

I actually prefer not to schedule my own content and to post it manually.

It means I can double check the spelling, make sure it’s appropriate for that day and it means I’m on that platform for a purpose, so I can engage with other businesses and start conversations too.

It’s okay if a system you were using before just doesn’t work for you anymore.

What system is going to be the most helpful for you?

Finally tip number 3 is to set boundaries.

Boundaries are important for you, for your clients and for how you use social media too.

I did a poll on social media recently that asked how much time do you spend online each day?

Most people in that poll said over 4 hours.

I then did another poll that said how much time do you WANT to be spending online each day.

And most people said either less than one hour, or anything less than they are now.

Most of us are desperate to be spending less time online, and yet we find it so hard to make a real change in the way we use our phones.

There’s absolutely no judgement here, I am the same and if I’m in a launch my screen time will shoot up drastically.

But, that is a boundary for me that I am okay with.

What are you okay with and what are you going to put in place to help you reach those goals?

To get from over 4 hours to less than one hour is a big jump, so you need to have a plan in place.

I use the Forest app alot to help me block my phone when I’m trying to work.

For me it is the habit of picking up my phone when I’m not sure what to say or when I might have a pause in my work, but the app stops you from doing that and you find a new habit instead.

You can also set limits on different apps on your phone like Instagram and Facebook which will block that app when you reach it.

Play around with these to see how they can help you set boundaries and create new habits with your social media.

Remember why you are on these platforms in the first place.

If it’s to sell and you’re doing that - brilliant!

If you want to build relationships, how you start to do that again? I find I feel disconnected from Instagram when I’m not talking to people. I love chatting on stories and helping where I can.

Give useful information and take in the useful information people are generously sharing! There is so much here to enjoy. We get sucked in by algorithms and number instead of the people behind the accounts.

Yes it's just an app, but there are some AMAZING people behind the accounts on this app, so let's enjoy them and celebrate the time that we spend on here instead of using it in a way that makes us feel negative.

How do you feel about your social media at the moment? I would love to hear more from you about it!

Send me an email at hannah@hicommunications.co.uk