“I feel completely overwhelmed” must be one of the most commonly used phrases I hear people say when they come to me for help with their social media marketing.
Having millions of messages being fired at us daily across our social media platforms, whatsapp, text, email inboxes and more can leave the majority of us in the position where we really just want to dump it and run. Add social media for business into the mix and it can definitely send you running for the hills.
But actually, social media for business is an essential part of your marketing mix, and it can be possible to have a great and professional presence as long as you know how to manage it, rather than letting it manage you.
So, here’s my advice on what to do if the feeling of overwhelm has become too much…
1. Prioritise your platforms
Be really clear about which social media platforms are your priority. Yes, people might be raving about TikTok at the moment, but if you aren’t targeting a young demographic, do you really need to be there?
It’s very tempting to spread ourselves thinly and try to have a presence everywhere, but actually this can be one of the main causes of overwhelm, because creating content for multiple platforms can be extremely time consuming, and often can leave us with the feeling that we are achieving nothing at all.
Being clear about your strategy and priority platforms will help you cut out the noise from others and focus your mind on these ones only.
2. Use time-blocking to help you
I’m talking about this because it’s a technique I am currently using with regards to my own time management and it is definitely effective. I was recently told that jumping from one task to another is mentally exhausting and doesn’t keep us focussed, and what a revelation that was because that was exactly how I’d been feeling.
The thought process of “I’ll just quickly create a couple of posts” usually takes twice the amount of time you thought it would, and only adds to your frustration I find. Ultimately this then puts you off creating content, and so then you’re stuck again.
My suggestion would be to block content creation time into your diary and aim to generate 10-15 pieces of content in one go. You’ll be faster and may even generate more ideas as you are in the process, which I recommend you scribble down or electronically capture.
(If you need any inspiration for content ideas for your social media platforms , then you can also download my 20 Social Media Content ideas here.)
3. Be purposeful and intentional on social media
Ever gone to look something or someone up on social media “quickly” and then looked up an hour later after endlessly scrolling on your phone? Trust me it happens to us all.
The best way to get around this and to be more time efficient is to ensure that you use social media intentionally in order to achieve what you need to do.
What I mean by that is working out what you want to do before you go onto the platform or app and stick to it. This could be for example…
- Proactively engaging with a number of people
- Clearing notifications
- Conducting research for content purposes
- Tidying and replying to messages
- Sharing content
Once you know exactly what you want to achieve on the platform, be intentional about achieving it, and then leave the app or site without that aimless scrolling.
4. Get really, really organised
Ok, this feels like a basic suggestion, as it’s pretty likely you are already a reasonably organised person, however I find that social media requires you to be organised to a level that if you get it right, you can make your life quite a lot easier.
Here are some of my organisation tips..
Looking for ideas and inspiration as to what to share and post? When you scroll and see them, screen shot them to your phone (and then file them to a folder so you can find them again), or if you are using instagram, save them using the upturned flag at the bottom of the image on the right. (Displayed underneath the blue boost button on this image here).
You can create folders of content on instagram to refer back to with this method, rather than searching and getting lost in endless scrolling..
Seen or read an article you like?
Use Pocket, a brilliant app that can be used on both desktop and mobile which you can save articles, blogs and other website pages to to return to later. This app was a gamechanger for me, especially when running Twitter campaigns for clients.
I promise you’ll never have to try to remember where you saw something or what you read again.
Can never find or think of relevant and useful hashtags that you can use with your content to help it go further?
Use a simple google sheet, doc or excel sheet to capture and organise them, and spend 15 – 30 minutes updating them in there on a monthly basis. Research and capture, and then you can easily copy and paste when you are scheduling your content.
Organise your diary!
Social media growth requires you to be present on the platforms in order to carry out engagement that will get your brand seen and visible. Work out the amount of time you have for this on a weekly basis, and put it in your diary so it doesn’t drop off your agenda. You’ll get reminders to hop onto the platforms and engage, and you can set yourself time limits to do this.
I hope these tips were helpful? If you’d like to dive in to any of this in more detail then you can book a free discovery call with me by making contact here.
