We live in an increasingly digital world. With digital coupons in stores, online bill paying and banking, social media for staying in touch, and even the ability to grocery shop online and have it delivered, it is undeniable that much of life now takes place online.
Marketing is critical to your business success, but the time it takes to develop good content, present it in a meaningful and SEO way, and often enough to keep yourself relevant and in front of a client’s eyes can feel like too much. It can feel overwhelming trying to do it all yourself.
You might be tempted to hire someone to be your social media manager, especially if it feels like a full-time job to you anyway. But there can be some serious drawbacks to hiring out your social media management. For example:
- They’re not you, so that it won’t have your voice – Many social media managers will look over your previous posts and try to mimic your voice, and some may even do it very well, but the fact remains that it’s not in your voice. This can make a difference if a client ever picks up on that.
- They don’t know your business the way you do – social media managers often manage social media for multiple clients, across many industries. This means they know little to nothing about each industry, so most of what they’ll be posting will be stuff they’ve found online in a search for things relevant to your industry. The problem is, it may not be as relevant as they think. The only thing worse than no content is content that isn’t relevant.
- They don’t have the same passion, or the same motivation, to see your business thrive – you’re a paycheck to them, and they have other clients to pick up the slack if your business fails. On the other hand, you are passionate and have the extreme motivation to make sure your business grows and succeeds.
- It’s an additional expense – social media managers aren’t cheap. Even if you don’t have to pay them a full-time salary, it’s still another expense. If you’re just starting, or if your marketing budget is tight, it may be an expense you truly can’t afford right now.
So, what do you do if you can’t or don’t want to hire a social media manager, but you feel like you’re drowning trying to do it yourself?
You just need to arm yourself with the right tools for social media management.
The best social media management tools are ones that allow you to “set it and forget it.” Tools that give you the ability to schedule your posts and recycle content periodically within that schedule, without a lot of extra effort on your part, are going to be very useful.
You’ll also want to find one that allows you to manage multiple social media profiles from a single dashboard so that you can schedule all your posts across all platforms at once. Scheduling that staggers your posts is also a plus, and if it allows you to stagger them without having to choose the times individually, that’s even better.
With the right social media management tools, you’ll be able to focus more on creating content and the rest of your business, and less on when, where, or how to post. Social media will become part of your day, instead of the whole day.