How to Keep Up With Social Media (and Still Run Your Business!)

Our coffee maker has this fantastic feature. It has a timer option that you can use to brew your coffee automatically without you having to actually do anything. My husband sets it at night and then we go to bed. In the morning, while we are still asleep and just before our alarm goes off, the coffee maker cranks up and starts brewing fresh coffee for us. That way, when we go stumbling downstairs in our glasses and slippers, we don’t have to fumble around to find filters and then wait for it to be ready. It’s the simple things in life that make our life so much easier!

And whether you realize it or not, you can do the same thing in your business! There are simple things that can also make your business easier. For example, one of the most common questions I get asked around social media is “How am I supposed to keep up with social media and still run my business?” And my solution is the exact same as my coffee system: schedule it.

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In almost every social media platform, there is a scheduling feature. There are also apps and tools like Hootsuite, TweetDeck, and Buffer that allow you to create, manage and schedule your posts in advance, so you don’t have to be sitting in front of your computer at the moment you want to share something with your audience. It’s that simple, and it will change your life.

Here’s what I do that might also work for you. I schedule an hour each week to work on all of this ahead of time. I plan out my posts for the week in each of the different platforms that I use. I try to create a variety of quotes, articles, images, and so on. Then I schedule them throughout the week for each day. That way, during the week when I am in video shoots, hosting webinars, doing coaching, sitting in meetings, or at home hanging out with my two rambunctious baby boys, I don’t have the distraction and pressure to be posting everything in real time.

Just like you, I’m very busy. I can’t trust myself to keep up with the presence I need to have on social media unless I plan it ahead of time. I also want to practice what I preach and be present in the moment that I’m in. I love the quote, “Wherever you are, be all there.” Scheduling your social media in advance is one way to make that possible.

Now of course, sometimes I’ll post a spontaneous photo of something happening right then, like Conley smiling (he smiles all the time!) or Carter getting into mischief (which also happens all the time!) But other than that, everything you see on my social media has been planned in advance.

I want to challenge you to give this a try. A little work on the front end of learning and practicing a new scheduling system may save you a lot more time in the long run. Then you will still have your business out there and active online while you’re actually busy keeping the thing running every day! Schedule your posts for the week and while you’re at it, go ahead and schedule your coffee, too!

Y’all, if you want to take your social media game to the next level, come to my Business Boutique event in Nashville on November 2-4! Molly Pittman will be there teaching you how to connect with your audience, and how to convert them into customers using paid Facebook ads. Or if you’re just getting your business started on social media, Erin Drury’s breakout session, “A Beginner’s Guide to Social Media,” is for you. We want to equip you to make money doing what you love, so I hope to see you there!

Related: A Little Time Goes a Long Way