Q: "John, I struggle to find time to take advantage of all the social media opportunities to promote. How does anyone really get this done without spending a fortune?"
A: Having a social media presence comes at little to no cost; you determine what you want to spend. There are a few great ways to manage how much you put into your social presence. First, before you invest in a person or platform to manage your social presence, try doing a little social space cleaning. You could be spending time and money by posting and advertising on a platform that your clients are not using. Identify the top 3 platforms that your audience spends their time on and focus on those. As you become comfortable with the platforms you are active on, then try something new.
Once you have chosen your platforms, check to see if you can schedule posts directly from the site, and what paid advertising they offer. (Hint: Facebook and Twitter allow you to schedule posts directly through their platforms in addition to offering paid targeted advertising.) Take an hour out of each week or dedicate a few hours each month to create a social content calendar. Include paid advertisements, promotions, announcements, specials, etc. and schedule them to go out as needed.
A lot of businesses are under the impression that paid advertising on platforms like Facebook and Twitter comes at a high price. But remember: you determine what you want to spend. Social media platforms that offer paid advertising allow you to set spending limits by day, campaign, click, etc. Spend $5 or $5,000 - it’s up to you!
If you aren’t looking to spend a fortune on social media and want to take advantage of all it has to offer, make sure you are on the platforms that make the most sense for your business, schedule content so you don’t miss any opportunity at maximizing engagement and reach, and set a spend limit that reflects your business budget.