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How to Simplify Social Media to Grow Your Small Business

by Diane Cossie | Apr 16, 2023 | Social Media

Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for small businesses to reach and engage with their target audience.

However, with the vast array of platforms, algorithms, and strategies that seem to change all the time managing your social media as a small business owner can quickly become overwhelming.

If you are already stretched thin and getting stressed out trying to create and manage your social media presence; taking a simplified approach to your social media can help you re-focus on what really matters.

Once you gain control and make things simple, you will save time, that can be better used to grow your business.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss some strategies for simplifying your social media efforts and become clear on where to focus your efforts for maximum results.

1. Define Your Goals and Target Audience

Before you even think about posting anything on social media, it’s important to define your goals and target audience (who you are talking to and what about that interests them). Hint! They are probably a LOT like you 😊

Ask yourself what you want to achieve through social media?

There is a big difference between just being on social media versus using social media to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, generate leads, and increase sales.

Once you’ve identified your goals, determine who your target audience is and create content buckets themed around topics your target audience might be interested in.

The key to a wildly successful social presence is to go much wider into your market even if you specialise in a very niche part of your target market because keeping fresh content will be so much easier!

Who are you trying to reach? What are their interests, pain points, and behaviors?

By understanding your goals and target audience, you can tailor your social media strategy to meet their needs but remember to make it engaging and entertaining too.

That does not mean making your social media presence laugh a minute about content that isn’t relevant though.

Make full use of sharing top influencers shorts and reels in your content mix to increase engagement and keep your content fresh.

2. Focus on the Platforms That Matter

One of the biggest mistakes small business owners and solopreneurs make is spreading themselves too thin by trying to be on EVERY social media platform EVERY DAY.

I did it too by the way!

There are literally dozens of social media platforms out there, but focus on where your target customers and ideal clients hang out even if you do not personally LIKE the platform yourself.

Your focus and presence should on the platforms that matter most to your audience.

For example, if your target audience is primarily professionals, LinkedIn might be the best platform for you. It has all sorts of new features being added all the time and if you are a B2B (business to business company) it’s probably one of the best to start out with.

If you’re targeting a younger demographic, Instagram or TikTok might be a better fit.

The only platform that features everything from shorts & reels to posts to links, promotions and even community building is of course Facebook.

We highly recommend starting with Facebook and exploring ALL it’s features first, hence our Ultimate Facebook Content Plan Course.

By focusing on a few key platforms, you can ensure that you’re reaching your target audience where they are most active.

3. Create a Content Calendar

You have probably heard the saying “failing to plan is planning to fail” and when it comes to creating content as a small business owner today it can feel awkward and completely alien, especially if designing or copywriting are just not within your skill set.

One of the biggest challenges of social media is consistently coming up with content to post. I’ve done many a 30-day challenge with small business owners and watched them get off to a great start only to start falling behind within the first two weeks when everything starts coming to a grinding halt.

This is where a content calendar can be incredibly helpful.

A content calendar is simply a schedule of what you’re going to post and when.

My personal favourite way of organizing everything is with Evernote, but a spreadsheet or Google calendar can work just as well when you are just starting out.

Everyone starts with zero content in the library but if you focus on creating evergreen content every week for at least 8 weeks you’ll soon build up enough content to always have something to post without it stressing you out or using up endless hours of your time.

You can also use a content calendar to plan out promotions, events, and other key dates.

4. Use Automation Tools

Just a few years ago you had to pay for scheduling tools that helped organise your content and save you time and effort.

Social media can be a time-consuming task, especially if you have never done it before, and because each post is going live into the public domain I find quite often people get very anxious about each and every post.

The fact is the algorithms for organic posts are not in your favour today so relax and just enjoy the process!

Thankfully there are great tools available that can help simplify the process.

The best tool for Facebook and Instagram in my opinion is the Facebook Business Suite. It’s a must-have for any small business owner today looking to leverage the power of these amazing platforms to grow their business.

You can also use tools like Canva to create professional-looking graphics without any design experience. By using these tools, you can save time and still maintain an active social media presence.

5. Test And Measure Your Results

Finally, it’s important to measure your social media results so you can see what’s working and what’s not.

Dan Kennedy and Kim Walsh-Phllips have written a book called “No B.S Guide To Direct Social Media Marketing” which is a brilliant introduction to the concept most small business owners miss today which is social media MUST give your business a measurable R.O.I.( return on investment).

Most social media platforms have built-in analytics tools that allow you to see things like engagement, reach, and conversions.

By tracking your results, you can make adjustments to your strategy as needed and ensure that you’re making progress towards your goals.

Your key focus for a successful return on your time and efforts is to find out what works and DO MORE of THAT.

Summary

Social media can be a powerful tool for small businesses
It’s important to simplify your approach to avoid overwhelm and burnout.
By defining your goals and target audience, focusing on the platforms that matter, creating a content calendar, using automation tools, and measuring your results, you can streamline your social media efforts and ultimately grow your business.
Start with Facebook if you are just getting started, set up the Facebook business suite and remember to go wide with your content strategy.
A great introduction to our tried and tested Facebook marketing content strategies can be found in The Ultimate Facebook Content Plan for Busy People Ecourse.

How To Be More Productive And Motivated (Plan Your Day)

by Diane Cossie | Nov 21, 2021 | Marketing, Social Media, Traffic

If Productivity Or Motivation Eludes You By 10.00am And You Start Scrolling Through Your Instagram Feed In Despair, Try Some Of These Top Tips To Get You Back On Track.

1. Always Plan Your Day

As the saying goes “run your day or the day will run you!”

So carefully select your planning “weapon of choice” to one that suits you & your own personal style of doing things.

If good old paper, pen & post it notes works for you – keep doing it.
If your prefer to use a planner, there are some beautiful ones around nowadays to make sure you get inspired. I LOVE using Carrie Green’s Perfectly Planned annual planner to make sure I’ve set out my quarterly goals and then break them down into monthly, weekly & daily tasks. (There are lots of other available from Amazon and other sources and if you love a motivational sticker or 10, feel free to add those in too.)
Todoist is just about the most versatile online To Do List app going which keeps you up to date wherever you are from your smart phone.
For something more robust you can’t beat Trello or Asana which are perfect for managing tasks, projects and teams.
When budget allows and your team blossoms and grows Monday.com is simply awesome.

The simple fact is they all work.

If you use them.

The key is to plan 3-5 tasks every day (or the night before is even better) and then add them to your Google Calendar (as appointments with yourself) and then execute them.

2. Manage Your Time And Limit Distractions

One of the things that may have surprised a lot of people who have been working from home during the Covid-19 lockdown era is how much more you can actually get done with fewer interruptions or distractions.

In an ideal world, our office would be a place where the phone was answered by other people, meetings would all be virtual and you could focus on what needed to be done uninterrupted.

In reality that doesn’t happen.

And too much solitude is not healthy.

People have good ideas and brainstorming is usually very productive.

So calendar blocking is the only way you are going to block out your time to execute the tasks you’ve set yourself.

If you set yourself too many tasks to do or are unrealistic about how much time each one will take you are setting yourself up for failure.

If planning your day is in your control and you aim to take at least 3 steps towards your goals every day you will get there ahead of someone who attempts 12 daily tasks and reaches burnout by midweek.

Tony Robbins calls them your must-do’s.

Make each task non-negotiable and make them count.

3. How To Eat An Elephant?

A common block on both productivity and motivation is linked to taking on more than anyone person can possibly handle.

Now before you swing open the revolving bookcase and change into your superwoman outfit hear me out.

How do you eat an elephant?

The answer is one bite at a time.

Breaking large tasks down into manageable bite-sized pieces is a well-known and successful way of maintaining productivity and motivation as progress can be seen, measured, and monitored.

But a more common productivity block is thinking that by tackling the BIG tasks first you are in fact making more progress.

My business mentor used to tell me the story of climbing a mountain with a rucksack filled with rocks on your back as a visual of you reaching “your goal.”

The rucksack was filled with both small rocks and big rocks.

He always used to ask “which rock if you threw one out would get you up the mountain faster?”

The fact is that any rock no matter how big or small would lighten the load.

So don’t beat yourself up that you only managed 3 more steps towards your goals because they all count.

And that helps keep you motivated.