As a business owner, you most likely already know the importance of social media marketing. It’s a key part of any marketing strategy, but it’s also extremely overwhelming. You hear words like “omnipresence” and feel like your brand has to be on every platform, every single day.
This is a common sentiment for most (read: all) small business owners. In fact, many business owners allow that overwhelm to keep them from posting on social media at all, causing them to miss out on a lot of opportunities to grow their business.
The good news is that social media doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, there are steps you can take to feel confident about your approach to social media marketing.
How to Avoid Social Media Burnout
1. Choose 1-2 social media platforms to focus on.
Despite what you might hear, you do not need to be on every social media platform out there. Just the thought of managing your Instagram page can seem overwhelming, let alone adding the stress of Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter, and so on.
When it comes to promoting your business on social media, start out small. I know, it seems counterintuitive — the more social media platforms your business is on, the more people that will see your business and the more customers you’ll have. The reality is, that the more social media platforms your business is on, the more stressed you become, and the more likely you are to stop posting altogether. And when that happens, nobody is seeing your business.
Start with one or two social media platforms to focus on. Use your time and energy to create high-quality content and grow a close relationship with your audience and customers. Once you feel as though you have mastered those one or two platforms, then slowly start marketing your business on other platforms.
Not sure which platform to start with? Head to our blog to learn how to determine which social media platform is best for your small business.
2. Batch create your content.
If there is one piece of advice I could give my past self, this would be it! Batch creating your content is an absolute game changer as a small business owner.
Set aside one day a month (or week, depending on your schedule) to sit down and create all of your content at once. Personally, I like to batch different days for different types of content. For example, here’s a content creation schedule that I would use:
- 1st of the month: Plan monthly content topics
- 5th of the month: Film + edit all video content
- 10th of the month: Write monthly blogs
- 15th of the month: Create and schedule all social media posts
Not only is this method great for staying on track with your content, but it also helps you maintain a consistent tone of voice and design style throughout all of your content. Plus, it takes away the daily stress of “What am I going to post today?!”
3. Keep a running list of content topics and ideas.
“But what do I post?” is one of the questions I get asked most often. When you think about posting multiple times a week for the lifetime of your business, it’s easy to feel like you’ll run out of stuff to talk about. The solution? Keep running lists on your laptop or phone to refer back to whenever you’re feeling stuck.
Take 15 minutes to sit down and create two different lists:
- Types of posts
- Topics to talk about
The first list is going to be more general and may include things like customer reviews, portfolio work, and before + afters. These are the different types of posts that you think would be a good fit for your small business. For example, if I owned a zero-waste store, my list may look something like this:
- Customer Reviews
- New Arrivals
- Sales + Promotions
- Giveaways
- Environmental Facts
The second list is where things get a little more specific. Your list should include specific topics that your customers would be interested in learning more about. These topics can be covered in a number of ways — videos, graphics, blogs, etc. Going back to the zero-waste store example, this list would look like this:
- Everyday ways you can reduce your waste
- DIY recipes for zero-waste products
- What types of plastics you can recycle
- Benefits of living zero-waste
- Zero-waste products for each room of your house
Next time you feel like you’re fresh out of ideas to talk about on social media, you’ll have this list to refer back to! Remember to add to this list whenever you have an idea or come across inspiration.
Need some help getting started? Grab our free list of 50 social media ideas for small businesses.
4. Use templates to create social media content.
Just like writer’s block, there will be times when you experience designer’s block. You may know what kind of content you want to share on social media, but you have no idea how you want it to look.
Graphic templates can be a perfect way to stay inspired while saving some time. Canva has a great range of free templates to start with. These templates can be a great starting point, but be sure to change the colors and fonts to match your branding. As a small business, you should never use a template without adding your own branding first.
You can also create your own templates to add a unique touch to your social media page and stand out in the feed! If you’re not sure where to start, you can purchase one of our social media template packs.
5. Repurpose your content across multiple platforms.
While you might be tempted to cross a topic off your list after one Instagram post, don’t do it. Be creative and find ways to repurpose a post or topic in several different forms!
For example, let’s take a topic from above — “Everyday ways you can reduce your waste.” Now, let’s think of all the different ways we can cover this topic:
- Instagram Graphic: Shareable list of “this to that” where you show three reusable products you can use to replace one-use items.
- Blog Post: Detailed article going into the harmful effects of one-time use products and which three items you can replace with reusable products.
- IG Reel/TikTok: Showing three reusable products vs. their one-time-use products.
- Instagram Story: “This or that” with poll stickers that allow audiences to choose between the reusable product or its one-time use counterpart.
- YouTube/IGTV: Video discussing the first three switches you made to reusable products when you started your zero-waste lifestyle.
From just one topic, you now have five separate pieces of content that you can cross-promote on each platform. That’s over a week’s worth of content!
6. Schedule your social media posts ahead of time.
One of the biggest pieces of advice I give people when it comes to social media is consistency is key. You can follow all of the steps above to create great content, but if you don’t remember to post it on a consistent basis, you’re not going to see any results.
As a small business owner, you have a million things on your plate and most of the time, remembering to post on Instagram that day is not a top priority. That’s why I highly recommend using an auto-publisher to schedule your content ahead of time.
One of my favorite social media scheduling tools is Later, but some social media platforms allow you to schedule your content ahead of time for free!
Facebook Creator Studio allows you to schedule posts on Instagram and Facebook. When creating pins, Pinterest gives you the option to instantly post or schedule them for a future date.
Whether you choose a paid or free option is completely up to you, but if you choose the paid route, it’s definitely worth the investment.
7. Hire some help.
Now, if you’re reading this list and still feeling entirely overwhelmed, it might be worth hiring somebody to manage your social media. There’s no shame in turning to the experts for help, especially when it gives you the time and energy to focus on growing your business in other ways.
Learn more about our social media management services? Named as one of the best Social Media Marketing Agencies in Chicago, True Blue Creatives is ready to help.