SOCIAL MEDIA IS A DEMENTOR

Does social media get you down? Well it does us. That's a bold confession isn't it?!

I usually spend Monday mornings organising our social schedule for the week, which we have put into place to avoid the dementor-like effect of social platforms like Twitter, which seem to suck the energy right out of me before the week has really begun.

'How to get more likes on Facebook', and 'How to improve your stats on Twitter' are the kinds of tweets that stress me out, which are of course all surrounded by the glossy tweets of others' social successes. It makes for pretty onerous reading, which only inspires the hashtag #mondaydemotivation.

Although we are all for learning and bettering everything we do (we really can see the value in social platforms), we are also very short on time, and I know very well where these articles lead - they are like cans of worms. So yes, we know how brilliant social media can be for business, but no, we cannot be consumed by it.

So here are my top 4 ways to control your social media, so that it doesn't control you.

1. Buy 'Show Your Work!' by Austin Kleon. The man is a genius, and is all about the importance
    of your work over the importance of wasting time socialising during your working day.
    It really takes the pressure off and helps to focus the mind.

2. Hook up to Buffer. It means that you can implement your social marketing schedule, for all
    of your social platforms, for the whole week ahead - saves so much time. And it is free.
    I do ours on a Monday morning - this includes updates about our latest blog post, old blog
    posts, and what we are working on that week etc. I get them all scheduled up for the week
    ahead and then I can just forget it all and focus on our work.

3. Allocate a very short 15 minute time-slot each morning, to sit down and interact with your
    connections. This includes sharing content that you enjoy / that your audience would enjoy,
    showing your interest in things that you like from others etc. I find Twitter lists excellent for
    organising contacts into categories that are relevant to our marketing plan, to ensure that our
    time is spent well (and quickly) on the tweets that are most relevant. It is so useful to have
    these micro newsfeeds to sift through, rather than the huge main one.

4. Blog when you can, but make it consistent. We used to blog once a week, (which is what the
    internet tells us is the least frequency you should do) but it became just too much when trying
    to get the most important things done too (ie. working on actual projects). We have just
    switched that to once a fortnight to ease the burden, and it has turned things around for us.
    Not only do we have more time, but our post content is much better for it. It works around us,
    not the other way around.

Do you have a system in place to help you with your social interactions? We would love to hear what other ideas you guys use.

Image source - Dementor (unknown)

HOW TO ACHIEVE BRAND CONSISTENCY THAT SAVES YOU TIME & MONEY

When we sit down to a briefing, it's always so fruitful to do a walk-through of the client / business journey of interaction.

We have clients who come to us with a list of the materials that they think they need, and a tonne of budget worries concerning the cost of their production. We also have clients who come to us utterly exhausted from juggling their work load and their process - time to dedicate to consultations / packaging products etc on top of their projects is hard to find. This is where the journey mapping really helps, because we can identify not only what materials would work most efficiently for both their brand and their budget, but also what materials would save them time. It really helps to clear the client's head on where their money should be focused, where their time can be saved, and provides a clear direction for the project outcomes.

To create a 'walk through' of your own, all you need is a big piece of paper, a pen, and the following guide (download here).

At the end of this journey, you should clearly see where your branding is coming into contact with your clients, and how you can improve it to give a stronger, more consistent brand experience. This will simultaneously work harder for your business, and save you time and money.