I hear from many clients and newsletter subscribers who say that they are amazed by how much content I am capable of putting out. They commonly ask, “How are you able to be in so many different places at once?” They think I have some magical secret, never sleep, or have an identical twin they don’t know about. But the real answer is much simpler than that: automation.
It’s easy to increase your visibility across your social networks by linking your sites to one another with automatic posting mechanisms. Not many of us truly have the time to separately manage our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, sending out relevant updates, connecting with clients, and keeping people updated on our business-related developments. In fact, some people get so overwhelmed by this aspect of their business that they resort to Social Media Managers-a job title that has sprung up in recent years.
If you can’t afford a social media manager for your business, here are some things you can do to improve your social networking presence.
Automate
Start by linking your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts to one another so that whenever you post on one, your content gets cross-posted on the other sites. This way, you can send out messages across all platforms with a single click.
Do a quick Google search to find the latest cross-posting apps and software, or you can ask your assistant for help in finding the best one. I am available for recommendations if you don’t know where to begin, just comment on this post and ask.
Update Every Day with Compelling and Relevant Updates
Of course, even with all this cross-posting, your social network marketing will not be effective if you are not willing to send out updates on a regular basis. Many people find that posting even once a day can become a time-consuming chore.
That’s why I like to recommend to my clients that they write a week’s worth of updates at a time. After you do this, you can enter them into a free or fee-based piece of software that automatically sends out the updates at scheduled times. My personal favorite programs for this purpose are HootSuite and SocialOomph. You’ll still need to schedule a little bit of time every day to manage your networking and follow up on things, but you will save time. Here are some things you should still try to do every day:
- Answer messages and social networking emails
- Respond to your comments
- Find interesting things to retweet
- Connect with others
- Participate in your groups
- Thank others for retweeting
All in all, with simple automation tools and a few minutes a day, you can use social networks to advance your marketing and bring in new clients.
