Are You a Prisoner of Social Media?

I have to admit I have days that I feel enslaved by social media. I have days where I am uninspired about my own brand and I just draw a blank as to what I should post on my business social media pages...and I'm a social media marketer! I can only imagine how you must feel. My excuse is usually that I don't have enough time for my own marketing because I am busy marketing for my clients, which I guess is a good problem to have, but I know better. If you are attacking your social media marketing with a day-to-day method, then it is easy to fall into this trap. We all get tired, burned out, and sometimes just don't have the creative energy that each day requires to put our message out there.

So what do we do about that?

The first thing we need to do is assess why you are marketing on social media in the first place.
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Prioritize the following statements from 1 to 5, 1 being the highest priority or motivation and 5 being the lowest:
__ Because everyone else is doing it. If my competitor is doing it, I should appear next to them doing it too.
__ It is an affordable way to advertise.
__ It is a way to make a connection with my clientele and gain new customers through their networks.
__ It is a way to build brand recognition.
__ To execute kick-ass strategic advertising campaigns that make me money - if I knew how the hell to do that.

Now is the part where I tell you how you should have prioritized your choices, right? Nope!
Actually, now's the part where you get frustrated with me because I am going to say it doesn't matter how you prioritized them. Each one of the above choices is a perfectly good motivation for delving into social media marketing for your business. However, none of these priorities will work without strategy and planning.

Strategy and planning! How is that making this problem better?
Here's how. One strategy session with yourself and a consultant (like me) can get most of your year of social media posts planned, if not executed. You will save far more time with strategy than you ever will with day-to-day guess work. You can schedule your strategic messages as far as ahead as you would like on your Facebook page and with tools like Hootsuite (which I recommend, promote, and use myself).

Here are some strategic questions to ask yourself to get the ball rolling:

• What do you want to sell this year?
• How many of that do you want to sell?
• What are the best months to sell that product or service?
• When do people start thinking about buying what you have to offer?
• Are there subtle and creative ways to get people thinking about that purchase?
• Are there special days in the year that align with your offerings?

Now you are ready for purposeful posts instead of pop-up posts.
Does that mean there is no room for spontaneity or lightning bolt ideas? No, not at all. In fact, you should have both. You should also respond to current events as they apply to your area of expertise. But now you have given yourself the freedom to do it when you are at your best... when you are inspired... when your frazzled brain has had some rest from the life-sucking monster that is Social Media.

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If you would like help planning your year of social media posts and learning other tidbits like
elements you can include in your social media posts that will help them perform better,
what times to schedule your messages to your audience,
ideas for creative posts,
how to plan an advertising campaign or promotion,
and much more...
then schedule a Social Media Planning Session with me.

1. You will be given a calendar tool that integrates with your email calendar to remind you of actions that need to be taken.
2. You will be empowered to take on your social media marketing on your own time and at the right time.
3. We will schedule purposeful posts according to a plan.
4. We will get it done!

Rebecca LeClaire
CEO, Start-Up and Business Consultant, Marketing Consultant, Website Design, SEO Expert
Read Rebecca's bio here. ​