As you know, I’m always talking to small business owners and this is the single comment I hear…”I don’t know how to do social media right. It just takes too much time.”

The challenge with social media, is that many of us post regularly, but we don’t know what we’re going to post until we sit in front of our computer or our phone to start posting. That causes stress. It also leads to low quality posts that don’t offer much value. 

But there’s a better way.  Here’s the secret. 

PLAN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA.

Here’s how:

1. Plan Your Content – Take two hours and plan all your social media posts for the next month. What topics are you going to write about? Are you going to do video and/or take photos? When will you physically do it?  Are you going to push your lead magnet? Great, build that into the plan as well.
2. Build a Content Calendar – Look at the upcoming month and decide what days you’ll post and what topic and content will go in each day. To make this easier you can create an excel spreadsheet, or you can use one of the many free content calendar tools that are available on the internet. Just find a system that works for you. 
3. Schedule Posts in Advance – This will make your life super easy! Facebook and Instagram will allow you to schedule your posts directly in their platform, however most of the other platforms don’t offer that feature. If you’re using several platforms then you might consider a scheduling tool. At Brand Accelerator we use socialpilot https://www.socialpilot.co/ They are inexpensive and it allows us to post in advance on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google My Business. This is a great resource for small companies. 

Now while many of us are not working or working less, it’s a great time to create your posts and schedule them in advance.

About the author: Meg Huwar is a small business marketing expert and Principal of Brand Accelerator. She and her team work with companies who want to market their business but don’t have the time, experience or staff to do it themselves. Meg can be reached at mhuwar@thebrandaccelerator.com.