Social media productivity continues to be a challenge for business owners. They struggle with social media, because it can consume an insane amount of time. Most business owners AVOID social media, because they don’t want to ‘lose half a day’ at the computer. They struggle with needing to be present on social media and the lack of time in their schedule to do it. If they had they budget, they would much rather pay someone. Business owners that have a marketing budget normally do. If you have not yet grown the budget to outsource your social media management, here are some tips to increase your own social media productivity.

Plan your content

Creating a plan will enhance your social media productivity 10-fold! Get a 12 month calendar that lists EVERY holiday known to man. Plan at least 30 days ahead. Plan content for every day – articles, videos, photos – and it doesn’t have to be something you created. It can be an article you found on the internet. Just make sure the content is relevant to your audience. Planning may seem like a painful experience at first, but it will get easier! Just remember that your goal is to boost your social media productivity as much as possible!

• Book your social media appointment with yourself

Increase your social media productivity by scheduling an appointment with yourself! Adding your social media in your calendar will help you manage your time. We schedule our customers and clients into our time, so why not social media? Set an appointment – no matter how long – 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever, and STICK TO IT! Discipline will also be key here. Don’t worry if you don’t always get it right. It will come. I do this for a living, and I don’t always get it right! Blocking your time increases your social media productivity, because it allows you the freedom to focus on social media without thinking about other clients, or other tasks to be done. Social media will be a designated task and not just an afterthought.

• Be consistent

What’s the point in working on social media productivity if you’re not going to be consistent? Being active only on the weekends is not consistent, and it certainly does nothing for your social media productivity. It is better to spend 15 minutes every day on social media, than an hour every other day. This also helps your reach – which is a measure of your influence or effectiveness. The more you post on a daily basis, the more people you will reach. As stated earlier, set an appointment with yourself and stick to it. Do it EVERY day. Do it NOW!

• Use a Timer

Timers aren’t just for kids! They work for adults too! If you really want to see an increase in your social media productivity, set a timer for the time you have allotted in your schedule. If you’ve scheduled 30 minutes, set the timer and STICK TO IT!! You can use this for your social media play time too!

When you use a timer, you are programming yourself to focus so you have high impact focused time. When that timer dings, complete your task and then shut it down. You don’t have to get a loud ringy dingy thing either. You can set an online timer. A word of caution: Be sure to check the volume on your computer, so the chime doesn’t scare you into a heart attack!

• Use a social media management tool

Social Media Management tools are lifesavers when it comes to social media productivity! There are oodles of social media management platforms – Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Sprout Social – are examples. These tools provide dashboards that allow you to manage multiple accounts in one place. You can review your activity, respond to people, add content, and schedule your updates to occur when you aren’t physically sitting there!  Invest in these platforms to increase your social media productivity.

Social media productivity is a real thing.  You can have it, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time.  With some planning and discipline you can boost your social media productivity to manage social media in a few minutes per day. Get through the pain of the planning process, it will make your life easier! Get a calendar and start planning!

What are some things you do to help you increase your social media productivity? Leave a comment and share if you want more content like this.

Keep marching forward,

LuSundra