How often has this scenario happened to you?
You plan to post something to Facebook as soon as you get to your showroom office. But once you get there, a sales associate asks you a question. Then a customer walks in. That's okay, you figure, you'll post at lunch. But then a manufacturers rep walks in, and you know you needed to ask a question. By the time you finish there, it's almost time to go home, and you haven't posted anything on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.
Small business owners often feel pulled in so many different directions, and social media sometimes doesn't seem like a priority. Ten years ago, that might have been true, but now, consumers expect businesses to have a social media presence and having a presence can help you build better consumer-business relationships.
But we get it: Remembering to post on social media is tough. Here's how you can help yourself remember to stop and post to social media.
Set an alarm
You use an alarm on your phone or your nightstand to get you up in the morning. Why not use one to help you remember to post on social media?
While you're still trying to build that daily habit, having a gentle, daily reminder will help you get into the groove of posting daily. Once the alarm goes off though, it's your job to stop what you're doing and create a post. That's easier said than done, especially when you have a meeting or a client walking through the door, but if you get your staff on board with your schedule, they'll help you remember to post.
Create themed days
How many times have you gone to post on Facebook and thought, "I don't know what to post"? Probably a lot, and you're not alone in that thought. There's something about opening the app that just wipes your mind clean and makes you unable to think of something to say.
That's where theming comes in. Theming your posts will take the guesswork out of posting because you'll have a finite amount of topics. You're probably familiar with themed days such as Throwback Thursday (#tbt) where people share photos of themselves and loved ones from the past. It's a fun theme that has some structure, but is still open-ended enough to have a little fun.
You can create your own theme days depending on the types of products you have in your store or the type of store you have. For stores with smart home products, you might start doing Smart Home Saturdays and/or Sundays, posting about a smart home topic related to your store. If you sell connected bulbs, for example, you might demonstrate how they work in a short Facebook live video or post a photo of a smart home system you helped install in a home. If you do custom upholstery or sell wallpaper, you might create something like Wallpaper Wednesday or Textile Tuesday and post a new swatch that you're loving each week.
Schedule posts in advance
In the December 2017 issue, we laid out a social media schedule for you to help you think about how to structure your social media strategy. If you're having a hard time keeping up with it, you can always schedule posts in advance at the beginning of the week.
Set time aside either on Sunday or Monday morning to create and schedule all your social media for the week. If you're having a sale or an event, create posts promoting it. Announce when you're going to get new products in. Facebook has its own scheduling built in, and platforms like Hootsuite can help you schedule posts on Twitter. Instagram just recently allowed business accounts to schedule single photo posts in advance. While you'll still have to do your own real-time Pinterest work (which can be pretty fun really), you can get some posts scheduled ahead of time and out of the way.
That doesn't mean, of course, that you shouldn't be doing real-time posts on Facebook and Instagram, but scheduling posts means that even if you miss a few days of posting throughout the week, you won't go for weeks at a time without any posts.
If there's one thing that seminars at the spring 2018 High Point Market taught us, it's that video is incredibly important to Facebook, and the platform promotes it over regular posts. Plan to go live on Facebook twice a week to keep your page fresh and reach more of your followers.
Social media is no longer an optional avenue of promotion. Nowadays, it's a must, and if you're not active, then you're leaving an opportunity for your competition. And if they haven't already taken the opportunity, it's only a matter of time.
Tell us, how do you remind yourself to post on social media? Share with us in the comments!
Photo: it's me neosiam from Pexels
