Managing Your Time Doing Social Media Marketing

If you’ve worked in digital marketing, you know it’s not a walk in the park. Long hours, running after deadlines and demanding goals to meet. Everything (including the algorithm) is moving and changing too fast! It just feels like you’re stuck in a whirlpool of tasks and changes, almost drowning (but still surviving), wishing that you have more time for your task and for your own personal life too.

No worries! It’s normal to feel this way. Especially if you haven’t had much prior experience in social media marketing just like me when I first started my agency career at Plexxie as a Social Media Account Executive, we’re all on the same boat at one point in time!

BUT! What if I say, all these can be avoided? The solution lies in time management. Yes… it’s the boring same-old answer yet it’s so hard to master. However, those who eventually learn how to master it set a good foundation for their career ahead. Should you decide to continue your pursuit in the social media and digital marketing industry or not, you will be more confident in yourself no matter the challenges that arise.

So instead of just telling you that “you should manage your time well” just like everyone else, here are some strategies for you to up your social media game! 

Strategy 1 – Set your foundations for the month right 

Set a day, maybe the last 1-2 weeks of the current month to plan for the upcoming month so that you have a clear overview of what needs to be done. Your calendar would be your newly found best friend! Personally, google calendar works well for me where I would just create a whole new calendar to separate my personal itineraries. Some would prefer a physical calendar or notebook, whichever is more comfortable for you.

Take your time to clear your mind ensuring that you are in the right state of mind. Here is a rough guide on what you can include in the calendar.

• List out all the task that needs to be done and by when. Such as social media Content Calendar, sending out drafts to clients as well as social media reports. How many days before do you need to get started?

• List out all the dates and times of the social media post to be out. You may even colour-code it to cater to different social media accounts. The key is to know your priorities and be prepared for what is up ahead. This lays the foundation for your upcoming month and you’ll be on the ball for whatever lies ahead.

Strategy 2 – Create a Social Media Kanban Board 

This is a lifesaver when you’re in the digital marketing industry. Where there are so many designs going to and fro between multiple clients and different designers, you are bound to miss out on certain information that could be crucial. 

If you don’t know what a Kanban Board is, here is a rough idea of how it works. 

You can easily find this template on Notion. 

Track the progress of your social media post designs by creating a card on the board. Indicate the title of the social media post, date, time and progress of the design. When the design is ready, you can shift the progress to ready for approval or even edit in progress when the client’s feedbacks are in. Lastly, what has already been posted up on the social media account and what hasn’t.

There are many ways for you to customize your kanban board. Feel free to play around with it until you find a style that is suitable for you.

Strategy 3 – Never trust that you’ll remember 

One of your greatest lies to ourselves is “I’ll do it later”.  But truth be told, most of the time… We don’t. By the time you realize it, it might be too late especially when you’re in the social media industry where certain posts may be time sensitive.

Even if you managed to remember in time, this would eventually cause you to do so many more last-minute tasks and the things that you plan to do are all being pushed back. 

Cultivate the habit of writing everything down in one place where it’s always visible to you. Be it on your phone, your notebook, or your calendar, the moment you receive a task write it down. 

CONCLUSION

If you think about it, learning time management is like learning to cycle. You might trip and fall, keep looking down at where you’re pedalling (focusing on the things that you thought would be important but actually aren’t). But with constant practice and finding a strategy that suits your working style over time. You will get to enjoy all the fun of creating social media content and having a sense of achievement that you played a huge role in creating a successful social media page.