Have you ever been distracted by social media? Do you find it difficult to manage all of your social media accounts without spending copious amounts of time every day? You’re not alone!
Today’s Make it Work Friday’s question is:
How do I manage multiple social media accounts efficiently?
I’m going to share 3 tips for managing your multiple social media accounts, to enable you to stay focused and work on other areas in your business.
Watch this week’s Make It Work Fridays: Open Office Hours now and leave a comment! 🙂
Link to resources mentioned in the video:
www.hootsuite.com
www.odesk.com
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Video Transcript: How to manage multiple social media accounts
Hello and welcome to make it work Fridays open office hours, my name is Sara Nguyen from SocialMediaRocketeer.com and in make it work Fridays I take your burning social media questions and answer them to help you get unstuck, so you can rocket your reach and boost your brand profitably using social media marketing.
Today’s question is: How do I manage multiple social media accounts efficiently?
Social media is designed to suck us in, it is designed to occupy all of our time so when managing multiple social media accounts I highly recommend that you use scheduling tools such as Buffer.com or hootsuite.com.
I personally use Buffer.com because it enables me to post my content to multiple social media accounts in the one place and not only does it allow me to do that, it allows me to also preschedule my content. I don’t recommend that all of you sit there manually posting content live to all of the social media networks. I recommend you plan what content you are going to post in advance and then use a tool like buffer.com that enables you to post from one place to the multiple social media networks.
That is a better use of your time and it also allows you to use social media more strategically so that you can plan what messages you deliver on what day, the other really cool thing about Buffer.com is that it has a function that automatically posts for you so instead of you sitting there and figuring out what time and date the post should go, it can automate the scheduling time for you, so you just upload the post and then it will figure out based on how many posts you have when the post should go out, and that’s a great time saver to have.
As I mentioned the other great tool is hootsuite.com which I also use as well but I prefer Buffer.com because I think it’s a little less buggy than Hootsuite that I’ve found recently but Hootsuite is definitely as a good offering as well and they both have free and paid options too.
Now the second little tip that I am going to give you to help manage your multiple social media accounts efficiently is to outsource it, and when I talk about outsourcing to many small business the first thought that commonly comes up is that I can’t afford to outsource or I am just starting out I should be doing this myself, and I used to think that as well when I first started out in business but now that I have a social media manager, now that I have virtual assistants I find that life is so much easier.
When you have someone managing it for you, you can focus more on the strategic side of it, so you can still be the voice behind all of your posts, you can still be the strategy behind all of that content; however the manual labor of entering those posts into the social media can be done by someone else, there are lots of affordable options out there such as to hire social media assistants or hire virtual assistants. Odesk|Elance is a great place to find a virtual assistant otherwise other strategies for hiring good talent is to look to hire interns or university students as well, so you can think outside the box but definitely look to outsource your social media as a way to manage the multiple accounts to enable you to work on the more high value strategy side in your business.
This allows you to work on the key components of your business as well.
The third tip that I have to help you manage your multiple social media accounts efficiently is to plan your content, now I strongly believe in strategic and deliberate social media posting content and when you have multiple accounts it’s important to plan your content in advance, so that you know what messages are going to go out and you know what content will go out.
If you don’t have a plan for your content and you’re just randomly creating content and posting content it becomes a bit of a dog’s breakfast, so it’s really important that you have a strategy behind what you’re going to post how often you’re going to post and understand why your posting it at these different frequencies.
So there you have my three tips to help you manage multiple social media accounts efficiently.
Tip number 1, is to use a scheduling tool such as Buffer.com or hootsuite.com to enable you to post your content from one place to the multiple social media accounts and to preschedule it as well.
Tip number 2, is to outsource your social media get a virtual assistant or a social media manager who can focus on posting and monitoring all of your social media accounts.
Tip number 3, is to plan your content, have a strategy around the content that you will distribute by your social media networks and around the content that you create.
The power of social media is in creating and engaging with an audience across different social media networks, your communication needs to be done intentionally deliberately and consistently, this effort is all about leveraging Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google plus as a whole as a social platform, if you need help with your social platform strategy click on the link in this description to apply to work with me
I hope you have enjoyed make it work Fridays open office hours, if you have a question for me and you’re on my list watch out for the Email with the link to submit your question, if you’re not on the mailing list and want to ask a question click on the sign up link in the description to get on board, I will see you next week for another episode of make it work Fridays!
Another great video, thanks Sara. Very helpful.
awww thank you @jennymcfadden:disqus 🙂 Glad you are finding them valuable. 😀
Great video, these video’s are very helpful 🙂 Thanks Sara
Hey @seandrayton:disqus! 🙂 Thanks for the feedback and comment 🙂
Very helpful information. I just have the one account across all channels, so I am all set, but many people I know manage multiple accounts on the same platform.
That’s some great information you’re sharing. Thank you.
You’re welcome @mariemoody:disqus 🙂 Thanks for the comment.
Brilliant. Great to connect with someone else as passionate about media as I am.
Thank you @magdalenazukowski:disqus 🙂 Lovely to connect with you 😀
I used to have Buffer.com when I still have several account to manage. Now, I stick to managing only one account, which is my personal.
thanks for the advice. I am always getting distracted when doing all my social media stuff! plus I have the kids with are pulling away all the time, so being able to be organized like this is a plus
You’re welcome Genevieve! Social Media and kids combined…are probably the biggest distractors 😉 Hope the video helps a little.
There is definitely a more productive way to manage social accounts, if not done right it WILL consume you! lol
I had not heard of odesk, definitely going to check them out. I use Hootsuite, Buffer and Feedly as well as a few other tools and love them. So hard to balance all the social media and blogging activities!
Odesk has made such a difference in the way I hired staff and manage components of my business. I highly recommend it to help you get assistants and experts affordably who can help you manage your social accounts, and all other marketing task 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for the info on how to manage social accounts. I think it’s advanced for me now, but may refer back at a later time.
Thanks for the comment Paula! 🙂
I’ve never been very good at managing multiple accounts at once. It’s something I definitely want to work on though. Thanks for the tips!
@EverydayTrish:disqus…I hear you! I was hopeless at it too until I hired a VA to get me organised 🙂 Thanks for the comment, hope the video helps 🙂
These are great social media tips! Great for my busy blogging schedule!
Thanks @disqus_pSOxOz6AKW:disqus! 😀 Glad to provide some value to you 🙂
I have HootSuite to manage my Twitter accounts. I have discovered this through online searches and began to really appreciate its features since then.
These are all great tips. I think it’s time I get a VA for myself actually.
Once you’ve hired a good VA…your life will never be the same! 😀 I have never regretted getting a VA to support the business and help free my time so I can be more productive and work on other areas of the business.
Helpful tips. I’ve used Hootsuite for a while and it works pretty well for managing multiple accounts. I’ve heard good things about Buffer but haven’t used it.
Buffer is really good and I think Hootsuite is definitely a great offering also 🙂
Hootsuite is defintiely the perfect one if you have multiple accounts – plus its easy to schedule posts.
I like hootsuite too, but I’ve found that they are really buggy and go down very often. So I switched to Buffer.com who have been more reliable for me. 🙂
Been using Hootsuite for 5 years now.. 🙂 and it is really of a big help in managing my pages. 🙂
Thank you for sharing these tips! 🙂
Hootsuite is a great tool to help manage your multiple social media accounts. Glad that it has helped make your life easier for 5 years! 😀 Thanks for the comment @grasyah:disqus 😀
I agree with Hootsuite- they are simple awesome! Love their reporting capabilities also! I have used Buffer in the past and very infrequently. I tend to recommend the one I work with the most!
I really need to manage my social media – I am finding it overwhelming at the moment!
I’ve been looking into Hootsuite for sometime now and I think it’s about time I use it! I get so overwhelmed!
I use Hootsuite as well and buffer when hootsuite is acting funny. I am a fan of outsourcing what I don’t know how to do or just to free up my time. Thanks for the amazing tips. Hootsuite let me remove the noise and respond to what I need.
I need to find a better method. Definitely appreciate the tips!
I’ve got a ton of them, they’re not easy to manage; but I make it work!
This is awesome information for those who what tips for managing multiple social media accounts. It is helpful when you can manage them together in one place. Thanks for sharing.
It certainly can be difficult to manage all the different social media sites. This is great information. Thanks for sharing.
This can be very overwhelming at times. I know what I do personally is try not to do more than I can handle. If I am not very confident in it, I do not use it. Which is why I stay away from tumblr and youtube.
I have heard of Buffer and Hoote Suite, but this is my first time hearing about O Desk.
The biggest thing is putting time aside on what you won’t leave for automating. It’s also important that after you’ve engaged and automated some of your content, to share other resources to adhere to the 80/20 rule. After all this, you need to think about the ROI. If it’s not gaining you likes, shares, followers, fans, subscribers, or buyers… go back to your marketing plan and revise.
Did you see my SOS on this subject? I am going to give O Desk a look see, thanks for sharing.
Managing social media accounts takes a lot of patience and effort on my end. I have to schedule posts everyday and share it to my social media accounts. Thanks for the tips.