Every.Single.Successful client I have has said the exact same thing to me, “I do not have time to spend on social media.” When your business is booming you simply do not have the time to post on social media and honestly, most of my clients are so busy growing a business that they do not actually have a strategy when it comes to marketing and social media. In fact, most simply post because they have been told it's important and that they need it but do not actually know what drives engagement, creates leads or generates sales. Posting random content and hoping for the best is just not an effective strategy and most definitely is not worth spending your time on. 

However, a well thought out, actionable social media marketing strategy can be just thing to catapult your business to the next level and the secret is that it does not need to consume all your time and energy! Do I have your attention now?

​Below are the steps I use when working with a client to plan their content:

The holiday season is here! Can you believe it? I know I can’t! While the excitement builds, and you’re busy planning on a personal end, it’s important to start getting your business into holiday marketing mode as well. It can take time to organize for such a large promotion, so getting started early will make it much simpler! Here are 5 tips to get started preparing your business for the holidays.

Market Research
When getting in the spirit of the holidays, its important to do your research. Look at what happened last year in your business, that of your competitors, in your industry and in other similar industries. You need to take the time to do the proper research to ensure that you have a solid holiday marketing plan and offers. Doing this research is something that many business owners don’t prioritize, however, its going to be essential to your success during the holiday season.
During the research phase, set solid goals for your holiday marketing efforts and create a simple step by step plan to reach them.

Create Your Offers
Everyone, and I mean everyone, is looking to score a deal during the holiday season. Think about the products or services you offer. Then think about what you would be looking for at this time of the year if you were in your ideal client’s shoes. Create a list of offer ideas and take some time to stew on them. Giving yourself some time by creating your offers in advance, gives you the opportunity to determine which options are the best fit for you to offer.

​Are you ready for the holidays?

Now, I don't mean is your Christmas shopping done. What I am asking is if your business is ready for the Holiday Season? Do you have a plan for your holiday marketing and social media?

Have you decided what your holiday offering is? Do you know where and how you are going to market your products and services this season? When your shipping deadlines are? No?

Don't worry, I am sharing my planning strategy that will guarantee the best Christmas season your business has ever seen!! (And who knows, maybe you'll enjoy the holidays with your friends and family a little more this year!)

I don't know about you but I CRASHED into September. The summer is over, the kids are back to school, back to activities and back to routine! And on top of what's happening in our families, our businesses also tend to get busy. Before we know it BAM it's October 1st and Black Friday is LESS THAN 2 MONTHS AWAY!!! 

My goal is to get you holiday ready. Create a plan and execute it. So lets get started!!

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As a social media manager I work with multiple clients and social media accounts including my own! It can be difficult to organize, create and schedule all this content and still have to time to live my life!
One of the biggest reasons people come to me is because the simply do not have time to do all the things that they think they should be doing on social while managing a business and home. In this post I am going to share how I research, organize, create and curate content then schedule it for my social media. I’m not going to lie to you here, social media is a tonne of work, but this workflow will help you manage “ALL” the things that you need to do to grow your social with your own content.

1. Research
2. Plan & Schedule
3. Curate
4. Create (Batch)
5. Schedule

Research

1. This is HUGE. If you do not know who your target audience take the time to really figure out who you are trying to reach. I always recommend creating an avatar. Write down everything you can in regards to their habits, behaviors, finances, spending, relationships, family, work, play, etc. Once you have them described to a tee give that person a name and don't create, post or share anything that won't resonate with your Avatar.
2. Check out the competition, other industry influencers or businesses with a similar target market. Check out their websites and/or different social media profiles. Look at what is and isn't working for them and see if there is a way to incorporate their success into your profiles.
3. Network - always engage your audience. Ask them questions and talk to them I suggest spending time in Facebook groups, try and showcase your skill and expertise by offering information or help. Think about how you would behave at an in person networking event and try to put that into your online world.
4. Audience Insights on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are a great too in addition to Google Analytics. You can find out a lot about your audience by looking at these insights.

Plan 
Based on your research, put together a plan for the month. Think about a few things.

1. What is happening in your business - sales, launch, promos, giveaways, etc
2. Is there a holiday/seasonal theme that is relevant to your business and/or audience - spring, Easter, Summer Break, Back-To-School, festival season, etc
3. Posting Frequency. Think about how many times you want to post/day. Ask yourself what you can commit to posting vs what you’d “like” to post. Think about how much content you will have to create, if that’s reasonable, if your audience can handle that many posts and how much content you will need to curate. There is no magic formula. I have found that each audience, business and industry all have their own needs and wants - you just need to figure out yours​​​​
4. Choose a Platform: Determine what platform(s) you are going to be on. It does not serve you to try and be on ALL the platforms just because “someone” on Facebook said you have to be!! If you know your audience, and you better, you should know where they are. To do social media well you are best to pick one (maybe two) platforms to focus on. If you need to be everywhere, sprinkle some content in where you can but don’t spend 100% of your time and energy on a platform that isn’t serving you.
5. Batch your time: Set aside blocks of time in your schedule these can be 15 min chunks or 4 hour chunks of time - whatever works best for you. Then look at your list of things that you need to do and assign a task to each block of time. Only focus on one task at a time and shut-off all distractions. By focusing on one task until it's completed you will check off more things on your to-do list. When we switch from task-to-task we waste more time and are less productive. 

Curate and Create Content
Brain dump any and everything that is relevant to your target audience based on the above research that you have done then create and curate content around those ideas and topics. Search the Internet, YouTube, Pinterest or Facebook for content to share on your social platforms that resonate with your audience. This can include viral videos, quotes and articles that you can mix in with your own content to be more diverse. This will also help you create your own content for your audience. 

Types of Content that you can create for your business includes:

1. Live Video
2. Videos
3. Blog or Vlog Posts
4. Quote Images that are branded to your business
5. Announcements, Contests, Giveaways and Sales Graphics
6. Questions for your audience

Schedule
Create a schedule of your posts based on the content that you have created and collected. Determine what your goals are for the week/month or quarter and schedule that content in a way that makes sense with your business' timeline and over arching themes. Plan your daily posts based on what you can commit to. 

Once you have your schedule created go ahead an schedule your content! Depending on your posting frequency and the platforms you are using you should consider a scheduler tool. There are multiple tools out there that you can use that can post to multiple platforms and do a variety of tasks that will make your life so much easier!! One of my favorite tools for Pinterest and Instagram is Tailwind if you'd like to try it. 

To make your life a little simpler I have created a list of my Favorite FREE (or Cheap) Social Media Management Tools. This list of tools, programs and apps will help you to save time and money while creating a killer social media following for your business!!

​This page contains affiliate links and we have advertising relationships with the stores and companies in this post.​

If you are cruising along in your business and have started to play around with Facebook Ads you may have heard of the Facebook Business Manager & Ads Manager. Now if you are wondering, "why  would I need the Business and Ads Manager when I've gotten this far without it?"- then this post is for YOU!. At first it can feel a little intimidating but don't be afraid because it is definitely worth figuring out if you and your business are ready for it! 

First let's start with the basics. Facebook is broke into 4 parts:
1. Facebook (most common part) - Where you browse your Facebook feed.
2. Business Manager - Gives you control of your Facebook and allows for an external team to work with your Facebook Business Pages, Groups or Apps.
3. Ads Manager - Allows you to better control ad payment options, manage objectives, analyze outcomes & insights for your ads.
4. Power Editor - Is for larger, more advanced advertisers who want to create, edit and publish multiple ads at once and have precise control of their campaigns (Facebook).  

But why do I need the Business & Ads Manager? 
1. You can run and track your ads
2. Manage assets such as your Pages and Ad Accounts
3. Add an agencies or marketing partners to help manage your business. For example, you may be interested in hiring a social media manager or VA to help with your Business Page and ads.
4. It's separate for your personal profile so you don't have to worry about mixing personal and business content on your Facebook.
5. Manage multiple Ad accounts and Facebook Assets
6. More in depth report and insights into your audience and advertising outcomes.
7. It's FREE and available to everyone
8. Helps curb Facebook scrolling and lesson distraction!

As a social media manager, both the Business and Ads Manager make it possible for me to work with your Facebook Pages or Groups while you still keep the ultimate control of your account. However, I do want to warn you, that it may change the way you manage your Facebook Business Page. 

When you try access your page you via Facebook.com you will see your business page listed under the "Business Manager" vs "Your Pages" (see the image below). What this means is that to access your Business page you will have to do so through the Business Manager vs Facebook.com.  

In the Business Manager your Page will look exactly the same but the color is grey vs blue. (See the image below.) Everything is still the same but it has a little different look,  you don't get distracted by your Facebook Feed, you can hire help and still maintain your accounts control AND you have WAY more options for ads and insights. 

​Where this gets inconvenient is if you post to your Business Page off of your mobile device. You no longer will have access to your Business Page via Facebook Mobile App. Now I do a lot of posting via the desktop so this isn't really a problem for me but if you use mobile it can be frustrating when you are sharing content via Facebook Mobile. I get around this by using the Facebook Pages App and my desktop. You can also share the post in a message to yourself then grab the URL and schedule it or share it from your desktop or the FB Pages Mobile App. 

It's also important to note that if you use the ads manager you can use the FB Ads App to manage your ads. One reason I really like using these two apps and the Business Manager is the fact that I don't get distracted with scrolling when I go into them. I get right to my business and don't mess around with the millions of distractions that is Facebook!! 

If you are not ready to give up your mobile access you may want to think twice about setting it up. The Facebook Mobile App access is a problem for some as they like its convenience.  Admittedly, it took some getting used to but now that I've made the switch I love it. Also, I am a social media manager so I am part of many different business' Facebook Pages, Groups and Ad accounts. I definitely recommend using it if you are running a lot of ads or looking for someone to manage your accounts. For more info about the Ads Manager and how to be more efficient with your ad spending make sure you read this post.  

If you are still interested in the Business and Ads Manager, ask yourself these three questions before you set-up the account:
1. Do you have more than 1 person working on your business marketing or managing your current Facebook or Instagram business presence?
2. You manage multiple Facebook or Instagram accounts - Facebook Pages. Instagram Accounts or Ad accounts?
3. You are wanting to grow your business and are considering hiring external help.

So, now that you know some of the pros and cons to using FB Business and Ads Manager you can go and set-up your own accounts!! It's not that difficult to set-up, just head on over to the two links mentioned below and Facebook will walk you through it!! 

Facebook Business Manager

Facebook Ads Manager

And if you're still not convinced, don't take my word for it, check out this blog post by Buffer for a more in depth overview of the Ads Manager.
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Once you have set-up these two accounts and want to Boost a post the "right" way head on over and check out my newest post that explains how to effectively boost a post on the Ads Manager! ​