Content creation may look easy from the outside, especially if you don’t know much about what goes on behind the scenes. But following the recommendations of different platforms can take a toll on creators. For context, some of the recommended posting schedules for the most popular social media platforms include:
- One to four times a day on TikTok
- Two times a day on Instagram
- Three times a day on Twitter
- Two times a day on Facebook
- Once a day on LinkedIn
Added up, that’s 10-13 posts per day, and if you do that every day of the week, that’s 70 to 91 posts per week and over 250 posts a month.
These factors might change depending on different factors like your audience, type of content, and whether you count Stories, Reels, and Posts when talking about Instagram. But the recommendations are made for a reason – they encourage growth. In this article, we’ll dive into some of our (and other creators’) top recommendations for boosting productivity so you can effectively grow your social media accounts.
Automate or outsource wherever possible
When it comes to reducing the amount of work you have to do, you may try strategies like crossposting and content batching. But as Social Proof interviewee Shaan Puri said, “Content is a bit of a treadmill – you have to keep doing it.”
Although you can’t force productivity onto creativity, you can improve other parts of the process of publishing your content. This is where automation or outsourcing comes into play.
Automation comes in different forms. Whether you use the Notes app to document ideas as they come for later sorting or set aside time to create and input all of your content into a publisher (Buffer comes to mind). In addition to automatic posting, some other tasks you can automate or outsource include:
- Content calendar creation
- Competitor analysis
- Meeting scheduling
- Email management
- Content promotion
You might be worried about rumors that auto-posting content hurts your reach, but we’ve already debunked that for you (short reason: automation = improved consistency = improved engagement).
Or, your worries might be more concerned with the investment that is often required when adopting external tools to support your content, think about it this way: automating your content process frees up time for you to go the extra mile. Would you rather handle everything manually, leaving little time for the creative work that is your bread and butter? Or do you want as much as possible taken off your hands so you can come up with the best ideas?
Would you rather handle everything manually, leaving little time for the creative work that is your bread and butter? Or do you want as much as possible taken off your hands so you can come up with the best ideas?
Writer Anna B. Yang publishes across multiple platforms and mediums, from newsletters to LinkedIn, and she has this to say about automation: “I automate as much as possible, such as scheduling my social media with Buffer and using Zapier for redundant tasks. I also repurpose my own content, turning a long-form article into a LinkedIn post and a few tweets. Between scheduling, automation, and repurposing, I can focus more time and energy on new creative work."
Outsourcing is another, slightly more expensive option that can free up a ton of time – if you choose the right people to work with. Founder of HerFirst100k, Tori Dunlap, is a proponent of outsourcing, saying, “I hired somebody before I even taking my business full time, and I wish we [female entrepreneurs] talked more about this. We think we have to do it all ourselves – you do not. And it's actually a dumb business decision to try. Get people who have the time, expertise, and ability to do all of the things that you can't do. We've really tried to, like, outsource everything that doesn't absolutely need me.”
Someone else can write an email, someone else can manage a calendar, and somebody else can grow an email funnel.
You may not be able to outsource everything, and Tori acknowledges this. “I can't outsource somebody to come on, and act like me, host the podcast or speak in place of me. But someone else can write an email, someone else can manage a calendar, and somebody else can grow an email funnel.”
Outsourcing, in addition to automation (Tori shouts out Buffer as a reliable resource for the HerFirst100k team), has helped the brand grow into a multimillion-dollar company with a massive social platform reaching millions of people.
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