The three main components to social media success are quality, consistency, and authenticity. With that said, creating and curating the content to uphold this standard can be a tedious process that leaves you feeling drained at the end of the day. Social media management can be one of the most time-consuming parts of your routine.

If keeping up with social media management seems like another full-time job to you, that’s because it is another full-time job! The reality is, you have enough to do. Social media management tends to fall to the wayside, even though you know it should be a top priority.

We have some time-saving tips that will help you embrace social media’s potential to grow your business without sacrificing all your time to the almighty screen.

Schedule & automate

Taking one designated time to create content is much easier than trying to find the time to do so every single day. Trust us.

Set aside 20 – 30 minutes a week to create and schedule social content for the following week, so you’re always a week ahead and the content is still timely and relevant.

Content schedulers are a social media manager’s best friend. With content schedulers, you write or paste in content you want to be published (along with appropriate photos, videos, or links), pick the date and time you want it to be published, and voila! You can schedule ahead as far as you’d like.

We suggest Buffer or Later. Both platforms are simple to use, provide valuable analytics, and auto-publish to Instagram!

Embrace social listening

Part of social success for your brand is being involved in the conversation that’s happening about you online. Actively responding to your audience’s inquiries builds stronger relationships and customer loyalty.

If you are active on many platforms, it can be hard to keep up with the conversation. With apps like Nuvi & SproutSocial, you can see conversations happening about your brand in real time.

Repurpose content

Work smarter, not harder. This timeless saying can’t be emphasized enough.

If you have a bank of evergreen content, use it! Turn your old content into new content by repurposing it into blogs, a series of social posts, stand-alone campaigns, videos, and infographics. While we appreciate your ambition, recreating the wheel isn’t necessary for each post. Repurposed content gives your material a longer shelf life and creates less work for you.

Curate content

It’s important to relate to and solve problems for your audience, but social selling is a science that can’t be done with one sole message. Part of enforcing the credibility in your message is to find reputable sources that speak on similar topics.

Curating content from other reputable sources not only breaks up the monotony on your page, but also reinforces the message you are delivering.

Bonus: curating content saves you valuable time because the brunt of the work is already done for you.

Sources like Feedly and Alltop allow you to curate based on hashtags, topics, or specific URLs.

Another way to curate content is to search hashtags for articles about the topics you’re speaking on. For example, if you are writing content about summer reading, you can search #summerreading on the platform of your choice, then pick/post the article that you think your audience will get the most out of.

Learn how analytics work

What’s more frustrating than trying to find the time to strategize, post, and engage? Finding the time to do all of the above and falling flat.

Social platforms have built-in analytics that give you details on post performance, audience, and more. Some platforms have more detailed analytics than others, but regardless, you can still gauge content performance from what these analytics tell you. Use those analytics to plan your future content. They will tell you what’s working and what’s not.

Embrace mobile apps for social media management

Waiting in the parent pick-up line at school? Waiting for your lunch? Sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office? Struck by inspiration in a random place, away from your laptop? Good news – you can create and schedule content via mobile apps before you are interrupted.

You can create posts right in the platforms themselves, such as Facebook Pages manager, or schedule them from your phone with your scheduling app (like Later or Buffer, as mentioned above).

How are you making your social media management easier? We’d love to know your tips!