Put the Social Back in Your Social Media Plans

Alexis Chapman

Director of Client Relations

www.toobusygals.com 

Do you want to save time during your work day? Do you wish you had an extra 18 hours to accomplish everything on your to do list? Most people would answer, “Heck yeah!” to those questions. Automating certain tasks, like social media, is one way to gain some time back in your day but that task still requires you to interact with your followers.

Social media schedulers, such as Hootsuite and Buffer, are convenient and budget-friendly. Simply log in, schedule which posts should publish on which platform, and hit the save button. Voila. Done. Some platforms, like Meet Edgar, are more powerful because they continue to share your evergreen social media posts into the future, thus saving you even more time from creating and scheduling. This all sounds wonderful and who doesn’t want to have more free time but do these platforms eliminate the ‘social’ from social media?

The answer to that is: only if you allow it. Using schedulers is a wonderful thing but you still need to be aware of what’s happening in your social media world. If followers are asking for your opinion, you need to be there in a timely fashion giving your opinion. If customers are asking specific questions about a product or course, you need to be on the ball answering those questions; otherwise you’ll be getting refund requests because your customers feel neglected.

Also, be active in your social media world in terms of connecting with others online. Yes, it’s wonderful when people in your tribe find you but you should put in equal effort to connect with your ideal customer. Passive marketing (or hope marketing, as I’ve heard it called) puts too much power into the hands of your ideal audience. Don’t wait and hope that they find you; make them want to CHOOSE you. Show them how you can help solve their problems. To do this successfully, you need to have a personal presence online instead of allowing a social media manager or third-party scheduler to be in charge.