Think of social media as your marketing strategy

Let’s first start with setting some expectations around social media. The first is that it is going to require work. That doesn't mean it has to be overwhelming, but you're building a business, so you are going to have to have an intentional strategy that you're consistent with.

Usually when social media gets overwhelming, it's when you don't have a strategy and/or your runway of planning social media is really short, meaning you don't give yourself a lot of time in advance to plan out your content. You're posting day by day or solely posting in-the-moment. That's when it can get really overwhelming. 

Social media is your marketing strategy. If you think about any business, whether it's a big corporation, like Nike or Target, they have an intentional marketing strategy and social media is one of those things. Those who oversee marketing for Nike and Target don’t wake up and think, “What will we post on our social media today?” They have their content planned out in advance. 

You have to get yourself in the mind frame that social media is your marketing strategy and it can't be done at the last minute. It's going to require work, it's going to require a strategy, and it's going to require consistency. However, it does not have to be overwhelming.

Pick one platform to focus on and be consistent. 

If you feel this pressure that you have to post on every single social media platform, that absolutely can be overwhelming. Pick a platform that you like and you can commit to being consistent with it. Each social media platform offers different types of content. If you like to share short soundbites of your thoughts, Twitter might be for you. If you like to express your thoughts with images, then Instagram might be the platform for you. Pick a platform that you enjoy that gives you energy. 

Create social media systems 

One social media system you absolutely need is a scheduling app. If you just Google social media scheduling apps, a bunch of different options will pop up for you. There's Buffer, Hootsuite, MeetEdgar, and Later.com. Do your research on the various scheduling apps that are aligned to the platform that you picked for your business, then use the app to help schedule your content in advance. This will allow you to schedule content in advance and not have to stop what you are doing to post content in the moment.  

The second type of social media system to have is content planning time. I encourage you to identify a set planning time every week. Whether it's an hour or two hours, you want dedicated time to plan your social media content. Ideally, you want to be scheduled out a month in advance, but the way to get there is by planning out your content a week in advance.

The final social media system to consider is content categories. Brainstorm different topics that you want to share with your audience. Examples of topics could be quotes, offers, live videos, articles, etc.  One suggestion in terms of systems for social media is to structure your social media content by themes. Begin your social media content planning by brainstorming a bank of ideas under each of your categories. Once you have a solid amount of ideas under each category, then draft out the content and schedule in your app. 

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