How I Save 5 Hours A Week on Social Media

Your Time is Too Valuable to Spend All Day on Social Media!

Social media is great. It is one of the most effective marketing tools available today. But just because something is useful, doesn’t mean it deserves all your time.

I have always been fond of saving time. As a kid, I realized that when I cut the grass in box patterns was faster than rows (much to my father’s dislike). I have been a time savings junkie. In college, I carried the 5 pound Franklin Day Planner. Through my career I have tried just about every time management software available (landing on Nozbe). I have read and implemented Getting Things Done. I have even followed the Lifehacker blog, seeking the extra time whenever possible.

So it would not come as a surprise to say that I seek ways to save time in my marketing as well. After recently writing about automation, this post is more about hacking your social media.

Here are six ways to get 5 hours back this week from your social media management.

Work From an Editorial Calendar

Start your work early with an editorial calendar. It is dangerous to sit down at your computer without direction for blogging or social media.

It take more time to generate ideas one by one and working without a plan guarantees drifting off course. Set up an editorial calendar as part of your social media strategy to save time.

Write in Blocks

Besides creating an editorial calendar, scheduling your writing can save time. By scheduling, you can often generate many blog posts and social media updates in a short block of time. Consider scheduling one half-day per month to work on up to 6 weeks of posts.

Schedule Updates

After you have pre-written your content, use tools to schedule it. Buffer and Hootsuite are options for scheduling content to social media. Connect your social media channels, create a master calendar and schedule updates. I also use CoSchedule to manage promoting my blog content in a similar way.

Use the Cloud to Move Your Data

Cutting and pasting is from the 1900’s! Move data posted from social media to spreadsheets and reports with free automation tools. Zapier and IFTTT (If This Then That) connect over 500 cloud-based tools to one another. Save every tweet you write to Evernote. Create a spreadsheet from every Facebook post. Record every social media conversation on the calendar. The options are not only endless, but automatic.

Recycle Content

As you create content, focus on subject matter that is “evergreen.” Evergreen content will always be fresh and applicable to your audience and not bound by date or time. You then recycle your content from a blog post to an infographic, or from an audio file to transcription.

Focus on Relationships

In all my automation and lifehacks for social media, I do what I can to focus more time on relationships. No computer in the world can do what a human can do. Spending more time setting up your system will pay off in the long run with more time for the relationships built.

And if you need help streamlining your education marketing, feel free to contact us.

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Featured image via Adobe Stock