Let’s be upfront about social media marketing. It’s an essential component of a solid marketing strategy and necessary to grow a business in today’s market. It’s also extraordinarily time consuming. Good social media marketing requires daily effort. So how do you stay sane, market your business, and actually get other stuff done?

Here are 5 strategies to help you out:

1. Automate Social Media Marketing

You don’t have to, and probably can’t, manage all of your social media tasks on your own. At least you can’t if you want to be able to get through the other items on your list. The good news is that there are resources to help you out.

“Social media is pervasive and massive. You simply cannot handle it all on your own, especially if you have limited time to dedicate to it daily. The good news is there are tools available to help you maximize the amount of time that you do have.” Read full post.

2. Connect with Influencers

There are movers and shakers on social media. These are the people, brands, and media outlets that have large audiences and are relevant to your prospects. Leverage these influencers.

“Consumers today trust recommendations from family, friends, and social media influencers more than any type of paid marketing. This is a type of advertising, if you see someone that has the ability to influence people, you can get in touch with them and ask them to ‘promote’ your business.” Read full post.

3. Delegate

Find people, skilled and reliable people, to help you manage your social media marketing tasks. Once you’ve automated what you can, look for a virtual assistant or two, who are skilled with social media tasks.

“Think about all of the repetitive and mechanical tasks you do in the course of a day. Then delegate those tasks to IFTTT and free up your time to focus on bigger things.” Read full post.

4. Use an Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar helps you create a solid strategy, consistent content, and helps you stay accountable to your social media marketing goals. Optimize Book is an application that helps you organize your content.

“Optimize Book: This editorial calendar includes day to post, topic, targeted audience, keywords and tags, social topics and which social networks to use.” Read full post.

5. Choose a Primary Platform

Focus your time and energy on the social channel your audience actually spends time on. Don’t spread your efforts over multiple channels when 90 percent of your audience is on one site.

“If you love Twitter but your customers spend hours every day on Facebook, you need to recognize that Facebook is probably a better venue for your business. It may not be as fun for you — but that’s why they call it work.” Read full post.

Integrate these five strategies into your social media marketing plan. Start making the most of your time, energy, and money. When you streamline your social media, you get a better return on investment.

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