If you’re out there reading this (and were anything like me when I started) you’re afraid of Social Media. You know that you need it, but the concept is big and scary. You see videos and courses, professionals and gurus, but no clear-cut answers. You’re not starting because you fear it will be too hard. I’m here to tell you you’re wrong – you just need to be consistent.
Sure, there are millions of strategies, approaches, activities and the likes. You may not be ready for that, it’s okay. I’m going to share the three fundamentals I use to keep my social media efforts effortless and effective.
- Keep your brand voice and message consistent
- Maintain a posting schedule that’s consistent
- Use a consistent process
Follow these 3 things and you’ll see an increase in engagement and followers.
Keep your brand voice and message consistent
To keep your readers engaged and watching, you need variations in your content types. It’s good to have a balanced mix of blog posts, memes, shared content and videos, to name a few. While you do it, you need to ensure that you leave a lasting overall impression of your company or project.
Your brand’s voice and message is the means to unify all this different content into a cohesive image. It’s how your customers and potential customers always know it’s you.
Sit down and figure out, if your brand was its own person, what would s/he sound like? How would s/he speak? Casual and fun? Business professional and to the point? Assertive and in your face? No matter the choice, your goal will be to reflect this image in anything you present.
My recommendation is develop a company brand voice that feels right to you and your own values. Build from there. The truer you are to yourself, the easier content creation/cultivation becomes.
Maintain a posting schedule that’s consistent
Sounds simple, right? Don’t think it will make a difference? Wrong. Remember, you’re working with, and appealing to, people. People, as a whole, like consistency. They like things to look forward to.
For example, I wait eagerly for my favorite blogs to drop new content, and they always do it like clockwork. The more I read, the more my anticipation builds between them, and the more engaged and loyal I become.
Based on this principle, I set up a basic schedule that ensures my audience comes to expect my presence. I want them to look forward to it.
We have a schedule: 2 Facebook posts each weekday, 3 Twitter posts each weekday, and 1 LinkedIn post each weekday.
Then, I schedule 2 blog posts a week, Tuesday and Friday. These are my core content pieces and include a variety of topics and attributes.
This makes it easy to know how many posts I need to create in any given week, and how much content I need to curate. I never run the risk of skipping a posting opportunity because it’s scheduled. I follow it to the letter.
Use a consistent process
Once you have a schedule, it’s easy to design a process which makes it quick and efficient to fill. I’ll continue to draw from my own example.
We know there will be 2 posts created as new content each week. (This is one of them in fact!) This means two of those days have themed posts predetermined by the blog topics.
That only leaves 3 other days of content to fill. I can also use pieces of the blog post itself to generate other media like memes and videos. I try to create weekly or monthly themes to make it even easier to batch create/curate content.
Don’t be afraid of scheduling tools
We’ve all heard that using scheduling tools like Coschedule or Buffer can affect your visibility on social media networks. While there may have been a period where that’s true, it no longer seems to make a difference if you post inherently or with a scheduler.
The content matters, where you’re directly their users matter, but otherwise the algorithms don’t care if you sign in to post or do it through another service.
I use Buffer and I love it. I have client who uses CoSchedule and swear by it. Use the tools available to you to make your social media journey easier.
Just using Instagram? Look at Grum to pre-schedule. A loyal Facebook user only? They have inherent posting tools available now to schedule. Twitter queen? Commun.it will rock your world.
Set up a process, make it easy and get it done. That’s the only way to make sure you do grow your loyal tribe.
Speaking of tribes…
If you want to read an awesome series, check out our posts on building your tribe.
Read Nurture Your Tribe -> Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
Thanks for reading!
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