Five Tips to Simplify your Social Media Marketing

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, post to your feed, go live, create stories, how about Reels? It’s no wonder business owners often feel serious overwhelm when it comes to social media marketing.

There is no disputing the fact that social media can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. But if connecting with your target audience through social media is making you feel stressed or anxious it may simply be that you are overthinking or overcomplicating it. 

Here are five tips to simplify your social media marketing:

1. Make a Plan.

Let’s start with the obvious – create a plan for your social media.

You don’t need a complex strategy when it comes to planning your social media marketing, you simply need to know: 

• Which social media platform/s will you focus on?
• How often will you post?
• What are the key themes your social media content will relate to? Aim for just four.
• What actions do you want your audience to take? Be specific, e.g. join your database, purchase your products, book your services, attend your events, sign up to your membership etc. This last step is very important – it helps to both remind you where your content needs to lead your audience to and gives you an objective to evaluative the success of your marketing.

The key to a good plan is making it realistic. If posting daily to three different social media platforms is simply not realistic, instead pick one platform and post just twice a week. Having a realistic plan makes it far more likely you’ll stick with it. 

2. Focus your effort where you find the most joy.

 Despite the professionals telling you video will get you the greatest reach if you simply don’t enjoy the process of recording or editing video if it feels like a chore, forget it. Focus instead on both the platforms and the type of content that you enjoy creating.

Firstly, ask yourself, which is the platform that you most enjoy when consuming content? When you pick up your phone to mindlessly scroll, which app is it you’re most likely to click on?

Social media marketing is more than just pushing out content. To build an engaged audience you too must engage. By picking a platform you enjoy spending time on it will make your outbound engagement much easier and more enjoyable.

3. Schedule your content.

Setting aside time in your diary once a week, fortnight or month to create and schedule your content can change the way you feel about your social media marketing more than you may realise.

When you don’t schedule your content, social media is just another task hanging over your head, that you never seem to get to. But the simple act of blocking out specific times when you will work through your social media plan means that you can stop worrying about when you’ll get around to it!

If your budget allows, schedule regular photoshoots so that you have a bank of images to use. A quarterly session with a professional photographer can easily give you enough photos to share over the next 3 months.

And if your budget doesn’t yet stretch to working with a professional, plan a DIY photoshoot. Grab a friend or spend some time becoming familiar with the self-timer function on your mobile phone, grab a tripod, a few different outfits and props and have some fun!

It is important to recognise that social media marketing is a creative task. If you have blocked out space in your calendar but you find when the time rolls around, you’re simply not in the right space to create, don’t force it. Take a walk, focus on a less creative task and reschedule when those creative juices are flowing!

4. Invest in training.

You wouldn’t attempt to fly a plane without training or knit a jumper without spending some time first learning the right techniques.

There is a plethora of training available on all things social media – both paid and free options. By investing either financially or with your time, you can demystify the technical aspects of your chosen platform/s or learn strategies to increase the effectiveness of your efforts. 

5. Take a break when you need it.

Although consistency is important when it comes to social media marketing, it is far more important to let yourself take a break when you need it.

In a world of information overwhelm, picture-perfect influencers and impostor syndrome-inducing highlight reels, social media can have a negative impact on our mental health.

If you find yourself feeling a sense of overwhelm or inadequacy when scrolling through social media, or you simply feel it’s time to take a digital detox, give yourself permission to step away. Uninstall apps from your phone or turn off notifications and remember – your social media accounts and audiences will be still there when you return.