Taming the social media beast doesn't always require hours of daily upkeep and constant content creation. In fact, there are ingenious ways to satisfy the ever-consuming content machine with ease and efficiency. These low maintenance social media strategies will keep your online presence thriving while leaving you with more time for other important aspects of your business. So, buckle up and prepare to discover the art of working smarter, not harder, in the realm of social media.
1. Focusing on Evergreen Content:
Evergreen content is content that remains relevant over time. It’s not tied to any particular trend, doesn't require frequent updates or iterations, and can continue to attract and engage your audience. Examples include informative articles on ‘The Art of Batiking’, a how-to short form video guide on picking a wall color for your small bathroom, or industry insight podcast on the best way to start a business. You would schedule these posts to be shared regularly to maintain a consistent presence without the need for constant content creation.
2. Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC):
Encourage your customers to create and share content related to your brand. This can be in the form of testimonial videos, reviews in the comments or direct messages, and tagged photos. UGC not only helps showcase your products or services from an authentic perspective but also reduces the content creation burden on your end. Set up a dedicated hashtag and run contests or campaigns to inspire users to create content.
If you're not getting the response from your audience that you need, consider working with content creators (like me!). There is a booming sect of the content creation industry right now that focuses solely on UGC. UGC creators are similar to influencers in the sense that they understand how to capture video footage, but UGC creators don’t necessarily need a large following. Instead they turn the content over to you and it’s your responsibility to get it in front of ideal customers. Check out my content creation portfolio here, to get a feel for what UGC is like.
3. Create Influencer Partnerships:
If you're looking for an even more hands off approach, collaborate with influencers or micro-influencers in your industry to reach their established audiences. Identify influencers whose values align with your brand and whose followers are within your target demographic. This partnership can involve sponsored posts, content you repost on your account, or whitelisted ads. By leveraging the influencer's reach and credibility, you can expand your brand's visibility without requiring constant content creation. A great example of this is @GuruNanda on TikTok.
4. Curated Content:
Instead of solely creating original content, curate relevant and high-quality content from other reputable sources in your industry. Share previews of articles, repost images, or videos that align with your audience's interests and provide value. Add your insights or comments when sharing to spark discussions and engage your audience. While you’ll need to include custom marketing posts here and there, curated content allows you to provide valuable content without the need for extensive content creation.
5. Stick to Quarterly Updates:
For some businesses your social media doesn’t always need to be on and pumping, it's merely a touch point or trust signal for customers to refer to. In that case you’ll style your profile almost like another website. Before the beginning of a new quarter you’ll have 6-9 really polished, high quality posts ready to deliver relevant information about product or service. These posts can be anything from high fidelity video to stunning, professional images and you’ll schedule these to post over the course of the quarter. This approach totally lessens the load of content creation and gives you a ton of time to make or acquire the content while still being able to provide your audience with what they need/are looking for.
There is a major drawback I need to point out. If your goal is to grow your audience on social media, quarterly updates are not going to do it. Even if your content, caption, hashtags, keywords, and alt- text are forged from gold you probably won’t get any kind of effective traction with the algorithm at first. Your profile won’t be indexed with the platform and it won’t know who to show your content to. This then causes a lack of engagement in the comment and like department, so consider another option if growth is what your going for.
6. Repurpose Content:
If you already create other content, like blog posts or instructional videos, you must be repurposing it across your social media platforms. For example, convert a blog post into an engaging infographic, break down that instructional video into short clips for Instagram. By doing so, you can maintain an active presence without needing to generate entirely new content from scratch.
Now that you have an idea of how a low maintenance strategy will help your social media presence, we can briefly talk about scheduling.
Regardless of what strategy you plan to use, every single post should be premade and scheduled in advance. Why keep that responsibility on your plate when there are scheduling tools available? The time you would have put aside in your daily or weekly routine to post should be used to periodically monitor and engage with your audience by responding to comments, messages, and feedback in order to build genuine connections and foster engagement.
It's important to periodically review and analyze your social media performance and adjust strategies accordingly. If you need help interpreting your analytics, choosing and fulfilling your strategy, or coming up with a content calendar, I am happy to be of service.