As a small business owner, I know it is overwhelming to do everything. Advertising and marketing, accounting, product development, selling, taxes, payroll,employee training and HR issues, customer service, shop clean-up and maintenance, computer repairs and IT troubleshooting, returns, education, and career development classes. The list goes on. One area we can’t ignore is marketing. Without the customer, our businesses will fail. But most small businesses have small budgets. Where do we begin? Where can we get the most bang for our buck? Social media. Here are some tips to make it easier to keep a schedule and keep the talk going.
The Social Media Plan: Write out a social media plan in advance. This ensures that your time on social media is spent with your goals in mind instead of just randomly posting things that may or may not help your long-term goals. Choose a “top of mind” message or 2-3 different messages, that you want to target for the next year.
Pre-Fill a Calendar with Social Media Topics for Each Date You Want to Post: In general, small businesses should be posting no less than 3 times a week. For each date you want to post, write in a post title and subtitle. Make sure the title and subtitle align in some way with your business. For instance, if you sell ice cream, don’t do a post on banana muffins unless you are incorporating banana muffins into some type of new ice cream dish. If one of your goals as a small business owner is community outreach, don’t post information for things outside your community. We recommend that businesses write a social media calendar for at least 6-8 months out.
Sit Down and Write Up Your Posts in Advance: If you have time to write just one, that’s great. But if you have time to write two or three, then you are ahead of the game. No time to write? See if your local community college has some eager marketing students that need a little extra cash. Give them your calendar with your post topics and have them write up your posts. You can review them all together and then send back for corrections. In this way you still make sure the content and writing style is what you want but lessen your load for a small fee.