Written by Ursula Hurn, Digital Organizer
Best known for her skill in digital organization, Ursula Hurn is the creator of the IG OrganiSZer®, a simple yet effective social media content management system. She teaches best practices for digital organization and how to implement her systems. She has over 30 years of digital organizational experience and offers practical application.
Why bother with social media? Is it even important to be organized when posting? As a small business owner, have you asked yourself these questions? I certainly have. Having a social media presence in today’s digital world is the equivalent of putting up a brick-and-mortar shopfront when social media wasn’t a thing. For millions of small businesses, whether they sell physical products, services, or anything in between, it’s the only shopfront they have. A quick Google search reveals that almost 94% of businesses use social media, and around 77% of small businesses reach customers through social media.
Why is social media important?
As your window to the world, social media can be used effectively to build brand awareness, generate website traffic, build trust with followers (turning them into customers), showcase your unique differences from your competitors, develop more targeted marketing, build a community, and keep up with current trends in your industry.
5 important decisions around using social media
When using social media to promote your business, there are a few decisions to make as a starting point. These include but are not limited to:
1. The platform
Which platform best serves your market? There are many platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, to name a few. It’s not necessary to be on all of them, but pick at least three where you know your target market congregates.
2. The content
What sort of content are you going to share? The rule of thumb is that there are four categories of content:
Build credibility by showing your expertise, including sharing curated content from other contributors in your field.
Show your character.
Create a connection between you and your target audience through relatability and storytelling.
Eventually, convert your followers into leads and customers. There is no magic formula, but anecdotally, the ratio is approximately 30:25:25:20.
3. The timing
When are your followers most active? Do some research through your platform of choice and post during those times to capture the attention of the largest portion of your audience.
4. The frequency
How often should you post? The frequency of posting is important, but consistency is even more critical. Decide on and stick to a schedule that’s manageable, whether it’s once, three, or seven times per week. Showing up consistently will multiply the impact of your presence as the algorithm learns.
5. The engagement
Why engage? To generate more interest in your own content, it’s important to show interest in the content of others by liking, commenting, and sharing relevant posts. Engaging with your followers and responding to comments on your posts is crucial. It also signals to the algorithm that you’re active and engaging with both your followers and those you follow.
9 tips to increase social media productivity
Creating a social media strategy is one thing, but putting it into practice is a different kettle of fish!
Social media engagement and presence can take up an inordinate amount of time if not managed well. Being organized with your content and how you manage it will save you time and increase your productivity around your engagement.
1. Pick the platform
Social media platforms are all different. The audiences, the languaging, and the content length and type requirements are all different. Once you’ve decided which best suits your audience, create content accordingly. Write for the most restrictive and adapt for the others. For example, if you’ve chosen Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, write for IG as it restricts captions to 2,200 characters, then use AI assistance to adapt for FB and LI. Keep all three versions in a note-taking app, marking them clearly so you can access them easily for posting.
Related articles: How stick to Instagram Caption Character Limits and Why use a note-taking app and which one is best.
2. Use a social media planning calendar
Keeping your posting schedule in your head is great but that’s the quickest way to scuttle your plan. Once you’ve decided when and how often you’ll post, use a planning calendar to map out exactly when you’re going to post so you have a visual representation of timing that will keep you on track. Download a copy of my 12-month social media planner for free.
3. Decide on the type of content you’ll post
As stated previously, there are four content categories that will build your social media credibility: character, connection, and conversion. Have a planning session, look at each category, and list a number of topics you’ll discuss under each. Once again, keep all this information in your easy-to-access note-taking app. This will increase your productivity when creating, as your topics and prompts will be at your fingertips.
4. Set aside time
Depending on how you like to create content, set aside time on ‘posting day’, once a week or once a month to create the relevant content. Book an appointment with yourself, making it a non-negotiable time block to get the job done. Be organized about where you write your captions and store the media content to create efficiencies when you are posting. Being organized immeasurably reduces posting time.
5. Batch create content
To create variety, you will be posting different categories of content with each post, so it’s safe to create similar content in batches. Write multiple captions on different aspects of the same topic, depending on the category, and safely make all the videos at the same time; no one is going to notice what you’re wearing when you post them days or weeks apart. Use a referencing system to make sure you keep the media and captions for each post together. Using your note-taking app, a proper folder structure and naming conventions will keep things organized.
6. Repurpose your own content
Don’t be afraid to recycle great content. Track the analytics on your posts, and when posts perform well, recycle the content by tweaking it slightly, changing the graphics, or possibly editing or reshooting the video. It is much easier to recycle content when you are organized about where you save it and what you call it; this saves a lot of time!
7. Use automation
There are several automations that can save time and frustration. There are automations that can reply to comments on your posts, and there are automations that can post your content across several platforms. Most have a free version that can be upgraded in time. A document that automations you’re using where so you can analyse how they are working and re-use or clone them if they work well for you.
8. Always retain ownership of your own content
The temptation exists to create content within the app you are posting to. Resist doing this, as it is always better to retain ownership of your own content. It’s your intellectual property, so guard it fiercely! Write your captions locally and post them to your platforms of choice either one by one or using a scheduler. That way, if you want to repurpose content, you’ve always got the original, and if you should decide to switch platforms, your content is safe with you and can easily be reused.
9. Delegate
If delegating social media content creation is an option, when you have created and kept all your content in one place that is easily accessible, it’s easier to delegate the creation to a VA or Marketing Assistant. With easy access to your existing content, they can reference it for information, check your style and preferences, and make sure they create content that keeps reflecting you, your brand, and your values. This will free up your valuable time to spend on growing your business.
Not sure where to start
Embarking on the social media journey can be a bit daunting, especially if you don’t know where to start or where to save the content that you are creating or going to be creating.
One way to future-proof your content strategy is to have a content management system over which you have full control and ownership. I have created the IG OrganiSZer System, which does exactly that for Instagram. It’s a system that lives on your local computer, using OneNote to capture all your information and captions, along with a folder structure and naming conventions to keep everything organized and at your fingertips. It’s also adaptable and can accommodate posting across other social media platforms easily and efficiently.
Book a free discovery call to have a chat about the IG OrganiSZer today.
Read more from Ursula Hurn
Ursula Hurn, Digital Organizer
Ursula Hurn is an expert in digital organization and systems. Being a lover of people, she understands the frustration and time-wasting that digital disorganization causes, especially when business owners don't believe it's a skill they can learn! With a burning desire to help SMEs succeed, her student- and client base is international, and she believes everyone has the ability to get digitally organized. She is only as far as a Zoom call away.
