Brainstorming and executing a digital marketing strategy is unfamiliar territory for many small business owners. Even those who are knowledgeable about social media content strategy and creation might not have the time to dedicate to it. They need time-saving social media tips that they can use every day to increase engagement and see success on their social media profiles.

Don’t worry — we’re here to help you tackle your content strategy head on with the time-saving social media tips you need that you can squeeze into your busy schedule!

Time-saving social media tips

Create a content calendar

The first time-saving tip for your social media strategy is to plan your content at the beginning of each month. Take a look at a calendar for the month and think about what you’ll post each week. The calendar doesn’t have to be precise, but it should serve as a tool that holds you accountable. Paper calendars and digital calendars are both very effective — it’s just important to take a look at it every day and make sure you’re on track. If you plan it, you can post it!

When creating your content calendar, think about what your audience would engage with and what will keep them coming back to your pages and in your door.

Related: How to create a content calendar, then post great content

Think about the holidays, seasons and important dates coming up for your business. Then, make sure you have a strategy in place to post content on those days.

In the weeks and months where there aren’t special holidays or events to celebrate, it’s still important to keep posting engaging content.

Remind your followers why they love your business by posting about your products, services and team. Even if you run a seasonal business, posting consistent content throughout the year is still key. For example, if you’re a hotel by the beach, post a beautiful photo of the ocean that says, “Wish you were here!”

Keeping up with your audience is important to stay top-of-mind the next time they want to book with you or buy.

Plan it out

Instagram

• Try to post at least one Instagram post per week. On Instagram, don’t post just to post. Only upload a photo to your feed that’s high-quality content. You can utilize Instagram Stories for anything else you want to share with your audience. But, treat your Instagram feed as a sacred space for your best stuff.

Facebook

• Share 1-2 Facebook posts per week. Facebook is a great platform to get the word out about everything that’s happening in your business. Add photos and links back to your website and/or blog to keep your audience engaged. You can even put money behind your best-performing posts (known as boosting). Boosting posts can get content in front of people who might be interested in you, but don’t follow you yet.

Twitter

• Tweet 1-2 times per day. Yes, that’s per day. It’s important to tweet more than once a day because Twitter moves so fast that your followers might have missed your content. Stay top-of-mind by tweeting out varied content at different times of the day. And, don’t be afraid to tweet something important out twice in one week (Just try to avoid posting the same content twice in one day.)

Use scheduling apps

Another time-saving social media tip is using scheduling apps like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. These kinds of apps make it easy for you to schedule content when you have time.

On Twitter, plan to share content from:

• people and influencers in your community
• local news outlets
• relevant national outlets
• other accounts relevant to your neighborhood or industry

Here are some examples:

• A realtor might want to share gardening and home decor tips from Better Homes and Gardens or Southern Living magazines along with their new listings, open houses and sold announcements.
• A restaurant might want to share grilling tips from Bon Appetit, recipes from influencers or networks like Food Network, press coverage in their community as well as upcoming specials and events happening in-house.

On Facebook, you can utilize the scheduling function within the posts themselves. Instead of hitting “Share Now” you can hit the drop down and choose “Schedule Post.” Scheduling posts for the week will give you peace of mind. You can be sure that you’re all set for the week giving your followers content they’ll love.

Write out the copy for your upcoming posts

Often, the most time-consuming element about creating content is writing captions. You want to be creative, witty and meaningful all at once, but when you’re ready to post, the words just don’t come easily. Use this time-saving social media tip.

Break out a Google Doc, spreadsheet, Word Document or whatever format you feel most comfortable with. When you have a free moment, use that document and write down some captions so you don’t feel rushed to come up with copy when it’s time to post.

This is also a great way to prevent your content from getting stale. All of your previous captions will be in one document so you won’t repeat yourself and push yourself to come up with fresh ideas.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you run an auto repair shop and you want to post about your excellent customer service on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You have this photo, and you just need the right captions for each platform. Open a new document and start typing them out.

Facebook: What does customer service mean to us? Our knowledgeable team puts your car’s needs first. (Here you can add a link to your website or special you’re running.)

Twitter: Our team wants to hear from you! Your feedback keeps us driving forward. (Here you can add a link to your Yelp or Facebook page) #customerservice #cars #automotive

Instagram: Genuine care. Genuine repair. #customerservice #automotive #local

Create a photo bank 

You’ll want compelling photos to go along with all of these great captions you’re writing. And, you want to be able to find them quickly. One time-saving social media strategy is to create an easily-accessible, up-to-date photo bank so you can always post a great photo on any given day.

Professional photography is ideal for social media, but any camera or smartphone is fine as long as you’re taking good photos. Once you take them, add the best ones to a folder (and have your colleagues add to the folder, too!) Then, you can pull from that folder when you’re in a pinch and need an engaging photo to go with your post. After all, visual posts are more engaging than text-only posts. And, social media posts are more likely to get likes, comments and shares if they have a photo accompanying the text.

Learn more about GoDaddy Social and the professional photo shoot we offer our customers.

Set alerts

Schedule a reminder on a regular basis that will alert you that it’s time to check your notifications, reviews and comments. You can do this through your digital calendar or email platform. Make sure it pops up on your desktop or phone so you don’t miss a beat!

While you’re monitoring your customer service requests, reviews and questions, it’s a good time to respond to your customers as well. When customers reach out to businesses on social media, they’re expecting a quick response. Get to them fast so they don’t feel ignored and choose your competition instead.

Here’s a great review response on Facebook from Morey’s Music Store Inc. in Lakewood, CA:

You can see John (the reviewer) checked back in to see the response, and thanked the business for answering his feedback.

Related: 5 ways to wow with customer service on social media

Being responsive and approachable is a part of managing and protecting your online reputation. People are leaving you comments, writing reviews and asking questions, all anxiously awaiting your response. Think of these interactions as great opportunities to extend your customer service online. You can take these opportunities and really show your audience how much you care about your customers.

Here’s Coffee Times Coffee House in Lexington, KY answering their customer’s question about the ingredients in one of their drinks that they posted on Instagram:

Their caption says, “It is HOT. Cool down with a peach pear apricot smoothie! A perfect refreshing treat.”

User @bmartha asks, “Ingredients?” Coffee Times responds with “@bmartha we use a peach, pear and apricot smoothie base, cut with water and blended with ice!” 

Then, you can see how grateful @bmartha was for the response.  

Set up a time (i.e. 2 P.M. on Wednesdays) when you do a quick audit of all your platforms and get back to all those who reached out to you.

Bonus: This is also a great time to gather any user-generated content. See what customers are posting about you and grab that content to share on your own channels!

Use that window of time wisely

Don’t have any notifications or reviews? Then, use this window of time to follow new people on Twitter and Instagram. Following people is an effective way to get new eyes on your brand and business. When you follow other users, it’s a friendly gesture that says, “I enjoy what you’re sharing, and I hope you follow me back so you can see what I’m sharing too.”

You should also take the time to comment on tweets and Instagram posts from other users. Interact with people in your local area, comment on posts from other businesses you love and engage with any other content that might be relevant to your business. 

Anyone who follows the account you interacted with will see your comment. And, they might just give you a follow, too! If you do this on schedule, you will save yourself time in the long run.

We hope you use these time-saving social media tips to stay on schedule and engage new customers.

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