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Being an entrepreneur t’s an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything in this world!

I mean, being able to do what you love, helping people, getting paid for it and still have the freedom to organize your days as you wish is priceless.

But, I know very well how it can easily get overwhelming when you want to use social media to grow your business and reach the right audience, but have no idea how.

I have once coached an entrepreneur who was spending several hours per day on social media trying everything. I mean, she was spending more time on social media than she would need, simply because she was clueless on what really works for her. And exhausted. And frustrated.

So, I want to tell you here in this article 5 KEY things you need to do on social media that will save you precious time.

Time to dedicate to other areas of your business, to take care of yourself and spend time with your loved ones.

1. Be only on the right social media networks for YOU

Nowadays there are so many social media networks that we can easily think we need to be on every single one of them.

And then also easily feel overwhelmed and exhausted trying to create content for all of them, reaching out to the right audience, interacting and connecting, etc.

And the result? Your energy is scattered, and results are a minimum.

The thing is, you do not need to be on all social media networks.  Your time is precious and you only have a limited amount of energy per day until you collapse.

So, you need to be social media smart. You need to research where your audience is and be there.

This can be Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Each social network is different.

Sometimes is much better to focus only on one or two social networks and get the best out of it (and have fun too!), rather than be everywhere and get nothing.

You’ll be more motivated too if you enjoy what you do on social media and see the return of the energy you are putting in.

2. Use a social media content management system

To me social media content management systems are life-savers. And there are many of them nowadays to choose from.

I personally like Hootsuite for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and Tailwind for Pinterest.

These platforms allow you to schedule posts days, weeks and even months in advance. So every month I schedule posts to go on my social media networks that are posted automatically on my chosen days and times, even if I am at the beach soaking up the sun, or running around my 6 year old daughter. 🙂

These management systems also have other things such as stats, best times to post, keyword research, and allows you to respond to questions, mentions, comments, etc, directly from the system.

3. Create an editorial calendar

If you want to have a presence on social media and get results, you need to show up often and consistently.

Although I’m all up to being spontaneous and if you feel called to just go on social media and do a live video about a topic, just do it, or spontaneously post about something you feel called to, but it’s also good to plan in advance the content you are going to deliver.

That’s why creating an editorial calendar once a month is great so you feel organized, you feel peace of mind knowing you have content to be shared and scheduled for the whole month on your content management system, and you don’t miss key times.

For example, let’s say you sell books online. And damn, you just missed World Book Day because you were too busy in your everyday life and completely forgot about it.

This is where an editorial calendar also comes in handy. You’ll create and schedule a specific post on World Book Day, maybe even do a discount or a promotion on that day, and not worrying about having to remember (or not forgetting) about it on the day.

You can also plan certain strategies, like for example going live on a specific day to talk about the launching of a course that is going to be launched a few days after the video.

Or schedule posts with an early bird discount days before.

An editorial calendar will give you structure and peace of mind too.

4. Save time daily to go on social media

As someone who does social media as a living, I know very well the urge to respond to every message, every comment, every tweet, every time, on time.

But doing this can be overwhelming, too much and just plain annoying.  And can constanty distract you when you are trying to focus on other things.

Although you should respond promptly to messages on social media, you do not need to check it every hour affraid you might “miss a potential client”.

My advice is to take time daily to go on social media to check messages, comments, mentions, etc, and respond to them. It can be in the morning, after lunch or in the evening, the time that suits you best.

And do not think about it outside that time. Be mindful of other things you are doing the rest of the day.

You can also set up automatic messages on your profiles so when someone sends you a message or for example opens a chat window, they receive your automatic message saying that you are not there now, but will respond asap.

As your business grows, you might also find it useful to hire someone to help you manage your social media, if you start having many messages and interactions every day. At least to help you filter the messages.

5. Go on other networks besides the “well-known” ones

My main source of traffic to this website is Pinterest.

And do you know which one is my second top source of traffic to this website? No it’s not Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram. It’s Quora.

Quora it’s a question & answer platform that serves hundreds of niches. So, what I do is I go there, search for questions related to social media marketing and mompreneurs (my niche), and then I provide value answering and helping people. And I also add relevant links back to my website, or to articles on my blog.

Because my answers are focused on providing real value and helping, I get hundreds of click throughs to my website from my targeted audience! And also get enquiries, subscribers, and clients too.

As I am a Quora influencer already, Quora also suggests questions for me to answer, which have hundreds of views and followers.

And I can also interact and engage with people directly on Quora, make connections and create relationships.

So, what I am trying to say here is, open your mind and your horizons to see beyond Facebook, Instagram and all the “well-known” social media networks.

There are blogs and online discussion forums specific for many niches, where the bulk of the people hanging in there is your audience!

Sometimes a real valuable answer that takes you 10 minutes to write with a link to a related page on your website can drive you targeted traffic for days, weeks and even months!

Very different from a post on Facebook or Twitter that has got the lifespan of only a few hours, right!?

And very often relationships created in these more intimate spaces can turn into clients easily.

Over to you

Let me know in the comments below if you are already applying these tips and how is it going! 🙂

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