Let’s face it, social media is hard to stay on top of. Many companies get excited initially and the ideas, content and execution flow like a river. But somewhere along the way something unexpected happens… the ideas and execution stop. If this on and off social media strategy sounds familiar, you’re not alone. For many, anxiety begins to play a role in the inaction and continued delay in posting. So, how can we jumpstart a social media program? The direct answer is, you just start.
Learn From Your Previous Burn Out
As you jump back in, take a moment to analyze why/how your last program stalled out and became ineffective. Sometimes this is caused by “lack of time” or an employee leaving the company, but most often, I’ve found the stall is with the content, ideas and images.
To avoid any and all of these common issues, start with a strategy and form a 3-month plan to meet it. This will provide a buffer so you can still deal with the unexpected, but not have it impact the overall strategy.
Keep It Simple
Set a realistic strategy/goal. Once you have a goal – i.e. Grow Followers from X to Y, or increase awareness of new product lines over the next 90 days, then you can start to work on the plan and schedule.
Create a basic schedule – For most business to consumer brands, 3-5 posts a week is good. For a business to business brand posting 2-3 times a week is often a good starting point. Pick something that you can manage.
When re-starting your social media interactions, plan out your first 2 months of posts. Note, you don’t have to have all 60 days written and ready to publish, but rather a general road map, so you don’t get stuck with questions of what to post.
Be Committed
Make social media a habit and give your program your time. If you can dedicate time daily, that’s awesome. If you’re unable to slice time everyday, make time once a week and utilize automation software like Hootsuite.
One of the worse things a business can do is start and stop social media programs. There should be a sense of flow to your content.
Have a Content Fallback Plan
Even the best plans can experience unexpected derailment. So, have a worst-case scenario should your business experience growth, or other things get in the way what can you post to maintain some content, and what is your minimum level of engagement.
Fall back to once a week posts if needed. If you cannot create new posts, find other industry-related content and share that on social media. While sharing third party content won’t help drive traffic back to your website, it does help fill a gap in your social media posts.
Tip: If you are the type of person that reads an article and you find yourself providing commentary throughout, it’s OK to pull that article into a post, and share your thoughts as part of the social post, or if more elaborate commentary, leverage that into a full blog post.
In Summary
Getting back on the social media posting horse is hard, but every business needs to have a social presence. Picking the right level of engagement and interaction that’s right for your business is important.
