When you’re a solopreneur, it can be difficult to find time to both run your business and market it on social media. However, if you want word to spread and your customer base to grow, building a presence on social media is a key way to achieve that goal.
As entrepreneurs themselves, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council understand that business is a juggling act—especially as a one-person show. Below, they share their best tips for actively growing your social media presence while also running the other parts of your business and why these tips will help you succeed at both.
Young Entrepreneur Council members offer tips for juggling tasks as a solopreneur.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Strive For Quality Over Quantity
Until you can develop and execute a full-blown social media marketing strategy, strive for quality over quantity. It’s better to deliver strong, interesting content that resonates with your target audience than to inundate them with mediocre or irrelevant content, which will likely get you ignored, unfollowed or buried by the social media algorithms. To that point, use any data you have at your disposal to determine who is digesting and engaging with your content and which content is resonating the most and the least. Then, adjust accordingly and test again. Other than that, automate as much as possible and consider bringing on a social media agency—if your budget permits—so you can grow your online presence while also driving your business forward. – Samuel Saxton, ConsumerRating.org
2. Use A Scheduling Tool
Use a tool to simultaneously post content to multiple social media sites. This will save you time and ensure that your content is reaching a wide audience. There are a number of different tools available that can help you with this. I use Buffer, which allows me to schedule and publish content across different platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I’ve found it to be an invaluable tool in my social media marketing efforts. So if you’re looking to save time and reach a wider audience with your social media marketing, consider using a tool to simultaneously post content to multiple platforms. – Abhijeet Kaldate, Astra WordPress Theme
3. Define Your Goals
As your company’s sole marketing team member, it is essential to make the most of your time on social media. To create an effective social media strategy as a one-person marketing team, you need to know your social media goals. Before creating content or hopping on a call, take a step back and think about what you want to achieve with your social media presence. Knowing your goal will help you create targeted content that resonates with your audience, whether that goal is growing brand awareness or generating leads. Furthermore, you should research your audience. Once you know your goal, it’s time to learn more about the people you’re trying to reach. Where do they generally hang out, and how can you reach them through your content? – Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day
4. Use Your Daily Work As Content
On the one hand, it’s relatively easy to turn most forms of daily work into a stream of social media updates and posts that attract new customers by demonstrating your expertise and the value you deliver to your existing customers. For example, share every question you receive from prospects and customers, and discuss your answers and insights on all the major social platforms. It doesn’t take much extra time to do this. At the same time, if you’re trying to grow beyond being just a solopreneur, you need to ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?” A mentor once told me, “The key to building a business is to focus on doing what only you can do; outsource the rest.” Trying to do everything yourself is foolish. – Ben Landers, Blue Corona
5. Designate One Day A Week For Social Media
If you’re running things yourself, you probably don’t have five to six hours per day to dedicate to social media. In light of this, you can still succeed by choosing one day to work on social media marketing each week. I suggest selecting the day based on your needs and engagement levels. For instance, if the vast majority of engagement occurs on Monday, choose this day to spend time on social media. – John Turner, SeedProd LLC
6. Leverage A Virtual Assistant Or Social Media Agency
Solopreneurs need to reserve their energy for the most important functions of their business, but this can be difficult when you’re also trying to handle social media marketing on your own. One way to get around this is to work with a virtual assistant or social media agency. By outsourcing your social media marketing, you can free up your time to focus on other aspects of your business. Additionally, working with a professional can help ensure that your social media presence is high-quality and engaging. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
7. Plan Your Content Ahead Of Time
Aside from using a scheduling program to auto-post for you, sitting down and batching social media content for two weeks to a month at a time will ensure you’re never left scrambling for something to post at the last minute. It will also save you time in the long run, which is essential if you’re a one-person show. You also don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time. Repurposing popular, high-value content from your website is a great way to generate quality content for your social media channels quickly. – Diana Goodwin, MarketBox
8. Keep It Short, Simple And Unedited
Spend time collecting content of yourself in action. Clip and post. This will dramatically cut down on the editing, fluffing and planning phases and show your followers the real, unedited side of yourself they are more likely to establish a connection with. Short, simple and real is a perfect way of delivering to your viewers on your social media platforms. – Mary Harcourt, CosmoGlo
9. Make It A Daily Priority
The most important thing a solopreneur can do when it comes to social media marketing is to prioritize their daily activities. If you are not consistently getting the word out there about your product or service, you have no business. Make a list of the most important tasks you need to complete each day, and make sure social media marketing is at the top of that list. It may mean sacrificing some other activities, but it will be worth it in the long run. – Adam Preiser, WPCrafter