Are you a solopreneur who recognizes the importance of social media for marketing your business, but find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of time it takes to manage your social media presence? You’re not alone.
Many solopreneurs struggle with finding the time and direction to focus on their social media posts. The good news is that creating and implementing a social media plan doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. In fact, keeping it simple will provide the momentum you need to maintain a consistent and effective organic social media presence that will complement your other marketing efforts.
With a well-planned strategy, you’ll be able to engage your audience effectively without spending excessive time each day. In fact, we encourage you to plan a social media focus time just once a month to implement your plan. It’s all about maximizing your efforts and making the most of the time you have available.
To begin, let’s start drafting your plan. Download the accompanying worksheet to complete the following steps.
Step 1: Choose Your Social Media Platforms
To start, determine which social media platforms are most suitable for your business. It’s not necessary to be present on every platform, especially when you’re starting out.
Our suggestion is to select one or two platforms that align with your target audience. And it can be as easy as picking the top social platform where you already have a presence or are the most comfortable using.
This is worth emphasizing: it is not necessary to post on every social platform available. While you may see others who have profiles on every platform, the truth is that focusing on one (maybe two) platforms will be more effective than trying to be everywhere all the time and spreading yourself too thin. When you’re spread too thin, then the whole process becomes more overwhelming. Let’s avoid overwhelm and keep it simple for long-term success.
On your downloaded worksheet, place a checkmark next to the social platform(s) that you will commit to posting consistently on. Remember no more than two.
Step 2: Choose Your Posting Frequency
When it comes to deciding the frequency of your posts on each platform, it’s important to find the right balance. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself with an excessive posting schedule, but you also don’t want to be too inconsistent.
A good starting point is to aim for two to three posts per week. This allows you to maintain a manageable workload while still staying active and engaging with your audience.
However, if you feel your schedule is simply too busy and that two or three posts per week is still too much, it’s perfectly fine to start with one post a week.
As you become more experienced and comfortable with managing your online presence, you can gradually increase the frequency of your posts to further expand your reach and maintain a strong online presence.
On your downloaded worksheet, write your social platform in column one and the number of posts per week you are committing to in column two.
Step 3: Choose Content Categories
Content categories help you organize your posts and ensure variety in your content. You’ll develop a good mix of topics that are relevant to your business and resonate with your audience.
For instance, you can consider including categories such as tips, motivational quotes, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and many others. These categories will not only provide variety but also engage your audience in different ways. By offering a diverse range of content, you can keep your audience interested and coming back for more.
It is recommended to aim for three to five categories to maintain a healthy balance of content. This will enable you to cover a wide range of topics without overwhelming your audience. In addition, it will allow you to showcase different aspects of your business and provide valuable insights to your audience.
Again, keep your plan simple. Simplicity will help you develop the good habit of consistency with your social media posts. If you have decided to post three times a week, choose three categories. As a business coach, you could choose a motivational quote, a business tip, and a call to action as your three categories.
Now, on your downloaded worksheet, write down your choice of three categories.
Step 4: Create Your Social Content Plan
Now it’s time to map out the categories you’ve chosen on a weekly schedule.
Using a grid-based weekly schedule on your downloaded worksheet, assign specific content categories to different days of the week. For example, you can dedicate Wednesdays to tips and Fridays to call-to-action posts.
If you’re posting on two platforms, it’s perfectly fine to keep things super simple by posting the same content category on both platforms on the same day, at least initially.
By assigning specific content categories to different days of the week, you are creating a consistent and organized approach for posting your content.
Congratulations! You’ve created your social media plan for your business.
Don’t underestimate the simplicity of going through these steps. With the plan you have written down, you are on the path to successful implementation.
Step 5: Implement Your Plan
Now that you’ve created your plan, it’s time to implement.
If you’re not ready to delegate social media management for your business and you’ve chosen to do it yourself, here’s our recommended course of action for implementation of your social media plan.
We understand that you’re a busy solopreneur. You wear many hats and you don’t have to wear your social media manager hat every single day.
Allocate dedicated time on your calendar to create and schedule your social media content. In short, make an appointment with yourself and keep it. Call it something fun like “Social Media Power Hour” or “Social Media Magic Time”. After all, this time to focus on your social media management should be lighthearted and geared toward creating connections.
Setting aside a recurring monthly appointment ensures that you prioritize your content creation. Aim to create a month’s worth of content in one sitting, focusing on your predetermined content categories. By planning ahead, you can also consider upcoming promotions or campaigns.
Use a social media scheduling tool, like Scrivener Social, to schedule your posts. This way, in your monthly dedicated time slot, you can create and schedule the posts to publish at a later date.
We recommend making the flow of writing easier by working up one category for the month (i.e. four posts) at a time, and then moving onto the next category.
For example, if you’re doing a motivational quote each Monday, complete all four Monday quotes before moving on to your Wednesday content category posts.
If you follow your plan outlined in your downloaded worksheet, then in your monthly appointment with yourself to focus on your social media, all you need to do is create no more than 12 social posts for the upcoming four weeks. Then, you being the busy solopreneur you are, won’t have to worry about posting to your social platform(s) until your next “Social Media Magic Time”.
Don’t be too anxious to change your plan. Keep the same plan in place for at least a quarter, even longer. The longer you do it, the easier the habit will become.
Keep it Simple
Remember, if you keep your plan simple, you are more likely to implement it, generating a consistent stream of social posts, building your online community complimenting your other marketing efforts.
Your social posting plan will adjust and evolve over time. Simply redo your worksheet as the need arises.
As your business grows, you may discover that delegating social media management is an ideal way to maintain consistency in scheduling your routine posts. Since you have already established your system through prior experience, you will have a clearer understanding of what you want your social media manager to achieve. By having your routine posts taken care of, you will have more time to engage with your followers and the accounts you follow.
A well-executed plan drives engagement, enhances your brand image, and leads to business growth. Follow the steps above and your social media presence will soar.
Happy scheduling!