Struggling With Social Media?
Do you have a hard time with social media? Maybe you aren’t finding the time to post regularly. Or you do post and are discouraged by a lack of results. You aren’t getting a lot of new followers on your page on Facebook, for example, and when you post something only a small fraction of those people see the post. You may feel like you have to pay to play by buying ads if you want your content to be seen. Thankfully that’s not true. Consistency can help you grow your reach, not only on your blog, but on any social media platform.
Before you dive in and invest a lot of time and effort on every single platform, take a look around. Where are your people hanging out? For example, if you’re running a recipe blog, you have to be on Pinterest. Depending on your particular niche, you may also want a Facebook presence (and group), and possibly a YouTube channel. If you’re into sourdough, you’ve got to be on Instagram… Do your research and determine which social media platforms you want to use.
Have a consistent schedule
Once you know where to post, it’s time to come up with a posting schedule. Remember, consistency is key. You’re better off doing fewer posts and shares more regularly, than overdoing it and burning out. Start with a conservative number that you’re comfortable with across all platforms and write it down. For example, you may choose to do 5 tweets per week, 10 pins, 3 Facebook posts, one Facebook Live video and a new YouTube video every other week.
Once you have your schedule, use a calendar to schedule the actual content. Whether you prefer digital or paper calendars, have your posting plan in writing to ensure it gets done and posted regularly. How far out should you schedule? That’s up to you. If you like to plan in big batches every few months, go for it. If you prefer to be more spontaneous, do it once a week. Play around with different time frames and see what works best for you. When you know what you’ll be posting about, and have the text and images ready ahead of time, it’s quick and easy to keep up with social media.
Use a scheduling tool
To save even more time and make social media content more hands off, take a look at some of the scheduling tools available. You can use Hootsuite, MeetEdgar, PostPlanner, and Tailwind (for Pinterest) to schedule and loop posts. They’ll go out without you having to log into your social media profiles every single day. Instead, you can set aside regular time to set up your posts. Then check in from your phone throughout the week to respond to comments etc.
Getting organized and figuring out a system that works for you can be such a game changer when it comes to being consistent on social media and growing an engaged following. When you have those main posts going out on schedule, you can then pop in and interact & post in real time as and when time allows.
What about emails?
Now your social media scheduling is sorted, think about emails. How often are you mailing your list? Do you sit down regularly to create a newsletter for your existing subscribers? Or are you waiting to reach a certain number of subscribers before you even start to mail?
Mailing lists only work when you use them to get in touch with your subscribers regularly. If you wait too long, they’ll forget about you. When you’re no longer relevant or important to them, they’ll unsubscribe, or worse, mark your emails as spam. Yes, even if it is something they opted in to receive. People forget. It’s your job to stay on top of mind. And you do that by emailing them regularly.
Mailing once a week is a good start for most people. If you’re not crafting email messages for your readers regularly right now, start there. Send out a message and let your readers know what to expect. Good mailing lists are all about setting and meeting expectations. Tell them that you’re excited to kick things off and that you’ll have something fun and valuable stuff to share with them each week. If possible, set a date and time and tell them to keep an eye out for your emails. This will do wonders for your open rates. For example, you could tell them to look for a new message from you every Wednesday morning. Then deliver on that promise.
Meeting expectations builds trust. Not only are your subscribers more likely to stick around, open, and read your emails, they’ll also trust you when you make an offer or a recommendation. That means you’ll start to see more clicks and sales on your affiliate links, and of course higher conversions on your own product offers. Build that relationship with your target audience and move people from prospect to customer, and eventually to raving fan, by staying in touch regularly via email.
And here’s a little bonus tip. Ask your readers to share you with others. Every so often, invite them to share your opt-in page or even ask them to forward one of your emails to people they know who may be interested in the topic. Keep it light and casual and don’t overdo it. You’ll be surprised how quickly your subscriber list will grow when you enlist the help of current readers.
To get started, commit to an email schedule. Start weekly and stick to it for a couple of months. Use the email schedule features of your autoresponder service to make sure it happens even if life gets hectic. Don’t miss an issue, build a reputation of being reliable and consistent, and see what happens.