How to Do Social Media Marketing in 10 Minutes a Day

As a business owner, you have many demands on your time. Sales, marketing, finances etc. are all vying for your attention and you have limited time to devote to online marketing.

But studies show that social media is critical to influencing consumers. 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media referral and 78% are influenced by posts from brands. 41% of customers who purchased a product because they happened to see it on social media say they were not considering such a purchase beforehand. If you’re ignoring social media, you are missing out on an important customer acquisition channel, so it is worth finding some time in your busy schedule to devote to social media.

If you only have 10 minutes a day for social, you can still accomplish a lot. (And if as you’re reading you feel overwhelmed, don’t bail ship! We’ll give you a practical checklist for your 10 minutes at the end of the post.)

Social Media Examiner recommends focusing on one platform per day, so you could spend 10 minutes on Facebook on Mondays and 10 minutes on Twitter on Tuesdays. This is more effective than jumping from platform to platform and only having 3-4 minutes for each one. If you want to spread your messages out over the week, schedule posts in advance during those 10 minutes.

Set up listening tools like Hootsuite or Social Mention to help you sort through the vast amounts of information on social media to find comments on your brand and products. Twitter searches can be set up to track specific keywords. Don’t forget to check your mentions and direct messages to see who is reaching out to you. Devote most of your 10 minutes to responding to customers. This is more important than broadcasting promotional messages.

Buffer suggests spending 5 minutes a day collecting stories and sharing them with your audience. Tools like Feedly track your favorite websites and blogs so you can easily pick out new and interesting stories. Do a Google search for a specific keyword and filter by “Last 24 hours” to get more fresh stories or create a Twitter list of users who post relevant and high quality content you can choose from. Share stories that entertain and educate to keep your followers constantly engaged with your brand.

According to Mashable, Twitter lists of your super fans and important connections are a big time-saver. Include your favorite industry bloggers, industry leaders, influencers with many followers and clients. You can also set up lists for specific themes, so if you are a clothing retailer you might have a list for fashion trends and another for personal styling. Once you have set up these lists, interact with as many of these users as you can fit into your 10 minutes.

Still feel like it’s a lot? Here’s a practical recap of what to do from the time you turn on your egg timer:

• Respond to any customers/fans/people who addressed you directly
• Spend a few minutes looking for interesting and relevant content. Schedule it to go out over the week.
• Check your custom lists of fans/connections/industry leaders and influencers. Read the tweets and interact with as many of them as possible. (Twitter)
• Check your lists of relevant hashtags and respond with helpful information and comments. (Twitter)

Setting up listening tools, lists and scheduling platforms will take a bit of time at the beginning. But once set up, they will save you tons of time in your day-to-day interactions on social media. When you blend your promotional posts with direct engagement with fans, customers and industry leaders, you stay on the radar of your audience. Even with an investment of 10 minutes a day, you should see increased web traffic and more sales.

Submitted by Hadassah