Your small business day has started. The phone is ringing, you have customers that need assistance, and the employee toilet is clogged again.
All of a sudden a customer asks the question, “Are you on Facebook?”
You reply -
“I don’t have time for Facebook or social media marketing!”
Lack of time is the number one complaint I hear from other small business owners regarding social media marketing. The owners feel like they don’t have any extra time to invest in activities that do not produce guaranteed results.
While I certainly agree that most small business owners are already overburdened with just trying to run a successful venture on a day-to-day basis, the reality is, if you’re not implementing a social media strategy, your competition is!
Leo Babauta, of Zen Habits, is well known for providing basic, streamlined, and achievable advice on everything from email to exercise. I am not sure what Leo’s daily social media routine is, but for this post I tried to channel the Zen Habits philosophy and create a small business social media strategy that will only take half an hour per day.
30 Minutes a Day Small Business Social Media Strategy
Before we begin, I am going to assume that you have already created your social media accounts. However, if you have not then take the first week (1/2 hour per day) to set them up. (Or, if you have your social media accounts established already, but you haven’t used them in months, get ready to blow the dust off of them.)
Please note: The social media suggestions below are meant to be a guide that you can tweak and improve upon based on your particular small business situation, and as determined by where you receive the greatest social media ROI.
Sunday - Blog Post Day
Action item: draft two blog posts (2 posts x 15 minutes each) with your half hour today.
Small business blogging does not have to be a time consuming activity. Clear all distractions, put your head down for half an hour, and focus on creating posts that help tell your story and provide value to your potential customers. The posts don’t have to be long or fancy. If you are struggling, try getting started with some unique photos of your business and pictures of your amazing customers. Or, you can have a look at 31 Blog Post Ideas for Small Business Owners that I previously published.
Always remember, blog posts don’t have to be perfect but in order for them to be effective they DO have to get published. Once the posts are done, set the publish dates for whichever two days during the week you like and forget about the blog until next Sunday. *Bonus - you can also have your blog feed update your Facebook and Twitter status automatically.
Monday - Twitter, Facebook, and Review Sites
Action items: 10 minutes each on Facebook and Twitter (for 20 minutes); 10 minutes checking review sites where your business might appear.
- During the morning (or whenever you have the time) spend 10 minutes on Facebook checking your wall and responding to your friends, customers and potential customers.
- Same with Twitter, but include 3 minutes to run some keyword searches with Twitter Search and seven minutes saying ‘hi’, RTing relevant links, and providing help to those seeking answers/assistance that you found on Twitter Search.
- Google Alerts does not necessarily pick up all of the relevant online mentions that your business might receive. Spend your last ten minutes going through and checking any review sites where your business might appear (Yelp, CitiSearch, TripAdvisor, etc)
Tuesday - Niche Forum Day (You have you found the niche forums for your industry, right?)
Action items: Spend twenty minutes going through forums related to your business — answer questions, be helpful, and if allowed leave a link to your business or blog in your signature.
- Twitter & Facebook take 5 minutes at each site (RT, comment back, etc).
- Niche forums are your focus today, give them a solid 20 minutes.
Wednesday – Customer Focus Day (Realistically, this is every day! But here’s your chance to highlight your customers online.)
Action items: Today you will take photos or video of your customers and upload them to FLICKR, YouTube, or Facebook.
- Spend about 15 minutes shooting photos/video and use the remainder of the time to upload. Make sure (CRITICAL!) that these items have a proper title, thorough description, and are well tagged. If you are putting the pictures on Facebook make sure to let your customers know that your business has a fan page.
*Bonus — the video/photos can also be integrated into blog posts later on as “Customer of the Week”.
Thursday – Reading Day
Action items: technology and the social media space both change quickly, today you are going to spend twenty minutes reading through relevant blogs within your industry and have a check of some social media blogs like Chris Brogan, ProBlogger, CopyBlogger, Seth Godin, etc.
- Check in with Twitter & Facebook (5 minutes on each for a total of 10 minutes).
- 20 minutes reading blogs or other media related to your business.
Friday – Business Specific YouTube & Flickr Day
Action items: Your customers want you to inform them and they want to know more about your business. Today is your day to make a simple video or take photos the provide helpful information such as; how you make a certain recipe or how to change a flat tire on a bike.
- If you are using photos, take at least 5 business related pictures and then upload, label, describe, and tag the pictures well. (Note – the photos can also be posted on Facebook or Twitter.)
- Should you prefer video, film 3 to 5 short videos (no more than a minute) and then the same as the photos above. Be sure to label, describe, tag them well.
Saturday – take a well deserved day off! Or, optional, spend some additional time with Facebook, Twitter, and Twitter Search.
Please remember, this strategy is NOT meant to be perfect. It is meant to be a minimalist guideline to help out small business owners who are struggling and say that they don’t have time to “do” social media.
All categories and subsequent items can (and should) be shifted depending on where you gain the most ROI for your efforts.
What does your minimalist small business social media strategy look like?
photo credit: JapanDave
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Sourav Ghosh 03.03.10 at 1:04 am
Really helpful advices. Just have to work on keeping Twitter and Facebook time to 20 minutes. I think Mark this advice is helpful not just for people who think they don’t have time for Social Media, but also for people who are wasting unnecessary time in Social Media without doing some real work. Your tips will help us to do Social Media Marketing in much effective way. Thanks a lot.
Kimmoy 03.03.10 at 1:08 am
Hmmm I don’t really have a strict strategy for using Social Media, but I have limited my time on sites like Twitter and Facebook to focus more on client work. I really like the way this strategy is laid out and could tweak it to see how it works for me. I’m always open to trying new things to improve productivity and efficiency :) Thanks for sharing!
Minimalist Ninja 03.03.10 at 4:21 am
Great template from which to build one’s social network! Thank you for sharing!
Minimalist Ninja
Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot 03.03.10 at 4:44 am
Excellent strategies. Now if we can onlu contain ourselves to the allocated 30 mins instead of letting it spill over into an hour or 3 then things will be good.
I should devise a strategy. Mine is all a bit hit and miss at the moment:)
Michael Pohl 03.03.10 at 9:15 am
This came in the right moment, I’m planning to leave my job and work as a freelancer. Not very familiar with how Social Media, thanks for this comprehensive advice..
Farnoosh 03.07.10 at 10:06 pm
I think one response to those who say they don’t have time is to show them that sometimes, doing something gives you time BACK rather than just take your time. It’s very similar to yoga and meditation. They take time to do, naturally, but they give you time back by helping you with mental clarity, prioritization and energy!
With social media, the return can be networking, clientele, larger word of mouth, happier customers, and many more of course….
JadeDragon@innovativepassiveincome 03.08.10 at 6:53 am
These are really good actionable directions. Well done.
franchises available in africa 03.08.10 at 11:38 am
So I am pretty new to blogging. I already had an account but haven’t done much to it. Maybe now I will start.I just want to add my view that social media is a very powerful tool not only to communicate but also to bring your services and products in front of the people.