How to Keep Up with all the Changes in Social Media
Of all the issues business owners have with social media, the biggest one is this: when it is constantly changing, how in the world should I keep up? To be honest, the question is not only valid, it’s one that I think about all the time. When I’m managing social media advertising and profiles for 5-10 different businesses at one time, it is imperative that I stay on top of trends and anticipate changes.
In addition, the world of social media is nothing if not constantly in flux. The Facebook of today is worlds apart from the platform of one, five, and ten years ago. Everybody knows that, but only business owners think about how this impacts the bottom line. If the algorithm prefers a certain type of content one day and a different one the next, how can you possibly know what to post?
Ultimately, though, the question comes down to time. When you are running a business of any size, the work itself can be all-consuming. Even simple marketing tasks added on top may feel overwhelming, and keeping up with trends and changes probably seems impossible. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of social media, even if you are short on time.
1) Commit 15 minutes each week to reading a relevant blog or article about social media updates.
I have a whole list of resources you can find here, but if you only want one, I would recommend Social Media Examiner. While they put out a lot of content, you can pick and choose what is relevant to your business and ignore the other articles when you are short on time.
2) Subscribe to a service like Social Curator or Social Squares.
These businesses do a lot of the work for you. They provide images, captions for social media, training, and the latest updates on what’s happening in the online world. This cuts out a lot of time you would take to scan the internet yourself, and erases hours of time you may take trying to figure out what to say and how to say it.
3) Hire someone to do it for you.
This might be the best solution, but it will not work for every business. Personally, I could not afford to hire anyone when I was first starting out, and it took years to get to that point. However, if your business is growing and you can find the margin, hiring a professional to take a big component of marketing off your plate can be a game-changer. It will soon become their responsibility to stay on top of changes as they relate to your business, and you can focus on the actual work - which is probably what you wanted to do in the first place!
If you feel overwhelmed, it’s normal…but you don’t have to stay that way forever. Social media can be powerful when utilized in the right way for your business, and there are tons of online resources to help you do just that. So block off a little time and get started!
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