Most social media managers struggle with time management. Working from home has its benefits, but if you’re not careful, you’ll end up drowning in work. In this post, I want to share 3 productivity tips to help you get organized as a social media manager.
Tips for social media managers to improve productivity
First, I suggest you map out your tasks in a monthly calendar like this:
![A calendar for a social media manager](https://images.prismic.io/smi-blog/63daac56-cb90-488a-8b78-636a3bb6d251_Minimal+2021+Monthly+Planner.png?auto=compress,format&rect=0,4,2000,1538&w=680&h=523)
Use a monthly calendar
Make sure you allocate time for:
- Research (1 - 2 days)
- Content creation (10 - 14 days)
- Scheduling content (1 - 2 days)
- Generating reports (1 - 2 days)
- Sending invoices & other CEO tasks (1 - 2 days)
- Business development (3 - 5 days)
- Client calls (1 - 2 days)
Additional: Client reviews, amendments & ad-hoc tasks
Automate as many tasks as you can
Here are some tasks that you can automate to help you save time:
- Client management - use Trello, monday.com or Asana
- Invoices - send automated invoices using Paypal
- Email marketing - use Mailchimp to schedule your email campaigns
- Time tracking - Use tools like Timing app to help you accurately bill time
- Image editing - bulk edit your photos with Lightroom
- Content creation - turn any template into a branded post in Canva
- Content scheduling - schedule your monthly content in batches using Pallyy or Buffer
- Captions - create caption templates
- Engagement - spend 30 min a day leaving Instagram comments
- Hashtags - save your hashtags into groups
- Analytics reports - send monthly Instagram analytics reports to your clients via email
Develop a system for creating content
A strong content creation system will help you save time.
Step 1: Generate a list of topics
Develop a list of ideas based on target audience keywords. Here’s a list of keyword tools:
Besides that, look for frequently asked questions on Twitter, Reddit as well as take a peek at your competitors.
Step 2: Create a content calendar
![An example of a content calendar a social media manager uses.](https://images.prismic.io/smi-blog/2fd6496e-27b8-4b72-b1ef-27c2ff809064_Screenshot+2021-05-28+at+5.11.02+PM.png?auto=compress,format&rect=0,0,2619,1298&w=680&h=337)
Create a list of all the types of content you would like to create, and how many pieces of each:
- Topic
- Format (image, video, infographic, guide)
- Frequency
- Posting time
Step 3: Write the posts
In a worksheet (or Google Docs) write the posts, add captions (Learn to write captions) and keywords. In a content editor like Canva create visual graphics and quotes.
Step 4: Preview and schedule
Preview your posts to see how they’d look on your feed and format your captions.
![Pallyy.com Instagram feed preview](https://images.prismic.io/smi-blog/645249d7-5299-4177-bbcb-1c0b89540889_Screenshot+2021-05-29+at+12.30.41+PM.png?auto=compress,format&rect=5,0,2332,1622&w=680&h=473)
PS: Make sure you double-check the time (AM/PM)
Step 5: Monitor and improve
Don’t forget to track your insights and learn which posts are performing well.
![Pallyy Instagram insights on your scheduled posts](https://images.prismic.io/smi-blog/f561bc55-eb73-4619-a4cf-74a87cbc4930_Screenshot+2021-05-29+at+12.32.09+PM.png?auto=compress,format&rect=0,1,2370,1321&w=680&h=379)
Good content comes from listening. Hope you find these 3 productivity tips for social media managers useful!
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