One of the most frequently asked questions I receive as a Social Media Manager is: "How can I be more consistent with my social media marketing as a busy solopreneur?"
I answer this question in episode 3 of Let's Talk Socials - the Social Media Podcast & in this blog post. If you prefer to listen to the podcast episode instead of reading, then click on the player below.
Why is being consistent on social media important?
1. Instagram loves it
Instagram (and all other social media platforms, for that matter) loves it if you are consistent because it relies on you to fill its platform with great content. Instagram even introduced badges in certain countries that provide monetary rewards if you go live consistently or use other features like Instagram Reels.
2. Your followers love it
Your followers also love consistency because they want to be able to rely on you. If you are consistent and post regularly, this acts as a sign to your audience that you are reliable. They will see that you are not only reliable in your posting schedule but also as a professional in general. After all, nobody wants to hire someone who isn't reliable and isn't committed to serving their audience consistently.
3 tips on how to become more consistent & integrate social media into your busy life:
1) Consistency before frequency:
You first need to learn how to be consistent before you can increase the frequency of posting. My tip: Start small! Start with 1-2 posts per week and once you have managed to maintain that schedule for a few weeks, add another weekly post to your schedule.
This also works with adding more social media work to your schedule in general. If you start doing everything (posting, engaging, hashtag research, stories,....), then you will get burnt out pretty quickly. First, learn how to be consistent with posting alone. Then, add engagement to your schedule, etc. You'll see that this is an easy but effective method to include more social media work into your daily life.
2) Set up routines:
Routines can help you to feel less overwhelmed & make it easier for you to get started. Many of my clients have the feeling that they don't know where they should start, so they don't start at all. With setting up a routine, you can ensure that you know what you need to do & take action!
An example:
An engagement routine could look like this:
Another great example for a routine could be your workflow to create & schedule content in advance. The first step could be writing out the captions. Then you would design the images in Canva/or select photos and research hashtags. As a last step, you would schedule the content in your scheduling tool.
EXTRA TIP: Writing down workflows is also really useful if you are planning on outsourcing your social media in the future. In this way, you already have a workflow that you can pass on to an employee or SMM so they know exactly how you are doing things.
If you need help with determining an effective routine, reach out! This is something I work on with my 1:1 coaching clients. Click here to learn more!
3) Schedule time in your calendar & batch:
Many of my clients tell me that they simply don't have the time to do social media marketing. I always tell them that you don't HAVE the time, you MAKE the time. Otherwise it will always end up at the bottom of the to-do list for "whenever you have some extra time". As a business owner, you NEVER have extra time, so you need to work on making the time.
What helps me is to really schedule out a time in my calendar. For instance, I do content creation every Monday morning & I stick to this. If you can't get yourself to be motivated to do social media work (which is probably one of the reasons why you haven't been consistent in the first place), then you need to be disciplined. Stick to your scheduled times and don't postpone them until you have learnerd to be consistent.
You can schedule time for social media daily, weekly or even monthly - whatever suits you best!
Talk to you next week when it's again time to talk socials!
Hanna