by guest blogger Becca Bašić
Let’s face it. As creatives, we’d much rather be creating than sitting behind the computer posting to social media.
However, the smart business person knows that even the most amazing art, product, or service will never sell if it’s not exposed to the public’s eye. Social media is a fantastic opportunity to do just that, but it’s a busy place. Posting alone is not enough. To stand out in the busy feeds of our followers, we must create quality content that engages with our audience. This means focusing more time on marketing. This also means there’s less time to create – the very thing that is the core of our business.
So, how do we manage both so that we can be the most effective? One word: automation. As a creative entrepreneur, you need to be spending your time doing the very things that create the best return on investment. Automating repetitive tasks, such as your social media marketing, is an excellent way to streamline your efforts and make the best use of your time. Not only can this help free up time to focus on other tasks, it produces higher quality content. By writing, editing, and scheduling your posts ahead of time, you can strategically create quality content and schedule your posts to advance that strategy.
Automation leaves more time for interaction, creation, and rest. Who doesn’t want more of that!?! We know the importance of interacting with our audience. Automation can allow you the time to respond to comments, create and share more of your work, and yes, even rest! When you schedule in advance, you have the ability and opportunity to step back when there may be an unexpected illness, a special weekend you’d like to spend with family, or when there is the need to take a personal day.
There are many choices in automation software and apps that you can utilize to preschedule and post to multiple platforms at once. Some can even post to group pages in addition to business pages. Most automators have free versions that oftentimes are just enough to help you get started. A fee comes with more advanced options. Which system may be right for you boils down to the needs of your business and budget. While there is yet to be a “one size fits all” option, there are many with beneficial features to choose from. Some creatives will even utilize one automator in conjunction with others to meet the full scale of their needs. We’ll touch on a handful of the most useful and/or popular systems available.
If you have a lot of content and not only want to automate posts to both your business and group pages, but repurpose your content as well, check out MeetEdgar and SmarterQueue. These are scheduling tools that allow you to organize and catalog your content in digital libraries. You decide what and when to share and on what platforms. Once a post is released, it is reserved to use again later. This feature is what makes these two sources a complete game changer if you have useful evergreen (will always be relevant to your audience) content.
If you’re looking to automate your posts, but also to be able to engage with your audience through comments, likes, and shares all from one source, try Hootsuite. Hootsuite allows you to create a social media dashboard where you can interact with all platforms at once.
IFTTT is a popular system for automating a broad range of activities, including your social media. It is based on responding to triggers, “If This, Then That.” For example, if a blog post is added, then that triggers a tweet and so on. You set up “recipes” to customize your own system. Once that system is in place, the automation sets in.
With Buffer, you can schedule your social media posts to automatically distribute to your platforms at the best times of day for maximum engagement. This makes it simple to add content while you can sit back and let Buffer distribute it for you at optimal times. It also has an integrated feature for viewing high-performing content that you can re-share, further automating the process of content sourcing.
As a creative business owner, your list of tasks gets longer as the social media marketing methods needed for success become more demanding. It’s easy to see why automation can be not only a benefit, but a lifesaver for creative businesses looking for ways to streamline repetitive tasks and free up more time to do what they do best – create!
Becca Bašić is an artist and creative business educator living in central Florida. She creates art that tells stories of the sweet and the strange and educates other artists about what it takes to turn their passions into careers. Most days you’ll find her elbows deep in paint and loving on her sweet pug Zander and better half, Mr. B. Visit her website and her Facebook group Marketing Your Creative Business.
Becca this is so helpful!! I have a huge spreadsheet that I use to keep on top of what and where to publish. I am going to try one of those instead 🙂
I’m so glad you found it helpful, Roberta! If you utilize a spreadsheet, I already know that you’re an organized person. You’ll love what automation will do for you!