How to Spend Less Time on Social Media as an Entrepreneur in 2020 and Beyond

Jan 23

As a female entrepreneur, it can get super overwhelming to market your business. If you find yourself spending way too much time on social media to grow your business, and still find yourself at a standstill - this blog is for you.#femaleentrepreneu…

You’ve probably heard marketing is changing and while that is somewhat true, I personally don’t agree with this scare tactic.

The truth is it’s not really changing, but it is going back to its core…

RELATIONSHIPS

And this scares a lot of people because they started their businesses using sleazy marketing tactics and automation rather than focusing on the people who will buy from them.

But, that’s not working anymore. Consumers have become smart. They (we) are constantly bombarded with messages every single day. Think advertisements, articles, videos and more telling us what and what not to do and to buy their product.

Personally, I’ve always focused my business on relationships with my community. Building strong relationships is the core of my business, so I’m not scared.

In fact, focusing on relationships is the new age of marketing. It’s about getting referrals, word of mouth from friends and family, warm searches online that lead to sales on your website because of strong storytelling and so much more.

Of course, automation still works and I truly believe in automating a large portion of your website, but you can’t automate human connection and that’s what content creation and social media are truly about.

2 WAYS TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS IN MARKETING

Save time on social media with these tips so you can focus on building deeper relationships with your growing online audience and customer.

Create valuable content. If you’re just starting out this should focus mostly on teaching/ educating your audience and storytelling. This will allow you to position yourself as the expert and go-to brand for their needs.
Be Available. It sounds so simple, yet too many entrepreneurs are obsessed with automation that they are missing little opportunities to connect with their audience. Carving out just 10 minutes a day to engage and connect with your audience can increase your profits.

The future of marketing truly is focused on building your community.

SPENDING LESS TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

Now, that we’re once again focused on relationship marketing, we need to spend less time doing everything else so we can focus on actual conversations.

This is where automation in your social media strategy comes into play. There are multiple places to automate in your business and this is one of my favorite hacks for 2020.

3 Step Plan to Spend Less Than One Hour on Social Media

PLAN YOUR CONTENT.
If you’re not doing this you’re going to keep struggling. There are so many methods and strategies available online. My personal favorite is my 30-day Content Calendar which is free to download right here.

Before the end of the month, you should map out your content for the next 30 days. This doesn’t include making every post, it just means choosing the topic and putting it on a freaking calendar. Decide when you’ll show up and what you’ll be talking about so you can go into the month prepared.
SUNDAYS ARE FOR PLANNING.
Use Sundays to plan your content for the week. Again we’re not writing the posts, we’re just taking 15-30 minutes every Sunday to look at your calendar and plant the seed in your mind.

Did anything change? Can you finalize topics and photos if possible? The idea here is to get your brain prepared and thinking of the content you need to write. This should take no more than 30 minutes every Sunday.
CHOOSE TO BULK SCHEDULE OR POST DAILY.
Personally, I prefer bulk scheduling, I find it is the most efficient way to write your content. Many of my clients do this, but if you’re just starting this can be intimidating so I have two scenarios for you.

Option One: Bulk Scheduling.
The goal here is to spend 2-3 hours once a week to write, design and schedule your content. This is important - the goal here is to not just write but to also design and schedule. We want to make it so that if something comes up or you’re needed elsewhere your content is still ready to go, without you having to show up. I use a tool like Later to schedule my content and then take just 10 minutes daily to engage.

I like this best because it shortens my daily time that I’m needed on social media. I also find that when I bulk create it takes me less time to write my actual content.

Option Two: Post Daily.
In order for this strategy to work you need to be very disciplined with your daily schedule. Be sure to schedule 30-45 minutes daily to write your content. If it’s taking too long at first, that’s ok, the more you’re consistent with it the better you will get.

Schedule 30-45 minutes to write your content, post or schedule (depending on the time of day) and 10 minutes to engage. I recommend engaging around the time you are posting since you’re already on the platform.

“You can have the best marketing strategies, but if your content sucks it won’t matter.” - Michelle Knight

When it comes to marketing strategies I’ve got a little secret for you.

You can know all the hashtags to use, engagement secrets, live video enhancements and so much more, but if your content sucks it won’t matter.

When it comes to creating high-quality and engaging content here are...

4 Content Creation Hacks to Remember for 2020

Be Consistent.
Consistently showing up will change your business. Recently I read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear and speaks of a study that was done with photography students. Half of the class was assigned to produce as many photos as possible in a semester (quantity). The other half of the class was assigned to produce one piece of work (quality). What happened was the “quantity” group created the best quality. Why? Because they practiced, learned, fine-tuned and improved every time. The same is true for your content.
Survey Your Audience.
I know some people don’t encourage surveying your audience because we don’t want to risk you losing your authenticity, that’s not what this is about. This is about high-value content and there is no better way to produce content your audience wants to consume than to ask what they want.

Every 30 days ask your audience via market research survey, Instagram Stories, Instagram Feed, Facebook Groups, email and more what type of content they need most in their life right now Then create it.

By doing this, you’ll not only remove the pressure to constantly come up with content ideas, but you’ll also build trust with your audience. Don’t underestimate the power of this.
Create Brand Containers.
This is another strategy I teach for free in my free Content Planner, which can be found here. Essentially, you’re deciding on 5-7 containers for your content that are in alignment with your brand and the desires and needs of your ideal client.

Hint: These should not just be focused on your product or service and should be more about the brand experience you want to create for your growing audience.
Repurpose Your Content.
Repurpose. Repurpose. Repurpose. I truly can’t say it enough. Stop wasting your content by posting online once. If you’re using social media you’ve got a 24-hour life span for each post, unless you repurpose. For instance, this blog post started as a live video and was turned into this blog, multiple graphics for social media (Facebook and Instagram), posted on Pinterest, IGTV and an email to my community. That’s a lot of content from one hour of live streaming.

By the way, this is why I’m obsessed with platforms outside of social media - think blogging, Pinterest, Search Engine Optimization, Youtube and more.

Implement these hacks and watch your content strategy grow your community without having to rely on showing up every single day on social media.

Don’t forget to grab the free Content Planner here.

Happy creating.

Branding and Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.