One thing that is SO important in social media management is planning. Planning, planning, and then some more planning! If you aren’t planning you social media posts in advance, you’re doing yourself (and your business) a disservice. Chances are, you’ve experienced the sweaty-frustration that comes with needing to get something posted to your accounts RIGHT NOW. You scramble to your phone or computer and in a rush, slap something acceptable up on Facebook or Instagram, and breathe a sigh of relief. Panic posting is not what we’d call “fun”, and social media SHOULD be fun! This is why we recommend sitting down and planning out your posts in advance.

Planning saves time and allows us to stay in the moment. This doesn’t just apply to running your social media accounts, but in all aspects of your small business.
If you need proof, here are some wise words from our very own Misty on how chaotic life can get when you aren’t balancing your work with your life.

Question time:

What do you want to gain from your social media accounts? Whether it’s leads, sales, website clicks, employees, or referrals, it’s good to know what areas to focus on.

It’s also important to have the understanding that social media is fluid and being flexible is key to not only growth, but to avoiding burn out. Social media burnout is a REAL thing that happens to so many business owners. It can leave you feeling like you’ve failed because you simply can’t keep up. You haven’t failed. You just need to plan better! I know, we make it sound so simple. Don’t worry—we’ll break it down for you!

While your small business’s structure might not require a complicated marketing schedule, you should at least have an idea of where you’re going. Do you have events in the future you want to make sure make it on your socials? Do you have a sale coming up or plan to be closed on a day you’re typically open?

Plan ahead, and sleep better at night knowing you don’t have to wake up one morning and scramble to get that sale or promotion live that day.

When you plan your social media content in advance, you don’t have to panic when everything goes wrong because you’ve already got posts scheduled.

But don’t get too caught up in adhering to strict guidelines. That tends to be where people (ourselves included) get stuck. Your business’ social media shouldn’t be ALL business. Your fluid schedule should include your STORY. Not just where you’re going, but where do you want to go? Between the day-to-day business, remember that you are a person with personality, and your clients are, too. Think about how you want to connect with your followers. What stories you want to tell (and yes, your stories are absolutely interesting). Peppering those personal touches into your social media not only helps you connect with followers, but keeps your social media moving in an organic and, dare we say it, friendly way.

When you stay ahead of the game, you can spend your valuable time focusing on the million other tasks that need to get done without worrying about your social media accounts.

Things break. Programs don’t work. Websites go down. The internet crashes. Or maybe your memory is just not all that great and you straight up forget to post. Life gets busy—forgetting happens. You’re human! Plus, don’t you want to just be able to take a day away from social media? A day where you don’t have to worry about logging in at all? Planning ahead gifts you with days just like that. Listen, as much as we love social media, we also value our time away from it.

We value our time just as much as we value yours. We value that work-life balance we all spend so much time trying to achieve.

If you want to be better about managing your own social media accounts, take some time to sit down and plan out your posts. You can only fly by the seat of your pants for so long until you hit a wall.

When you sit down to plan, remember this:

Not every post you publish has to be perfect, but you’re a lot more likely to get the details right when you aren’t rushing to get things posted.