Ever go to write a business post for Facebook and find yourself looking at your ex-boyfriend’s mom’s new dog?

The Vortex is real. Leaving some people red-eyed, confused and wondering what happened to the last 45 minutes? Instagram happened.

Social for business is a great way to connect with your customers, improve brand awareness and if used effectively, can be a great inbound to your website.

It’s also a trap.

If you are not systemizing your posts and are just posting when you remember, you will find your social accounts stagnate and your time wasted.

It’s time to stop being socially awkward and start systemizing your social media.

Pick Your Platforms

If you are running a small-medium sized business, chances are you or 1–2 employees are managing your social media channels, and probably not full-time either.

Social doesn’t have to be a full-time job. The way to make sure your time is used most efficiently is to pick your platforms.

You do not need an account with every platform out there. Do some research into your customer and figure out where they are; every industry is different.

Teachers can be found heavily on Pinterest, Google+ and Twitter. If you are creating content for teachers, those are the platforms you want to be focused on engaging.

It is better to have more quality content and higher engagement with your audience than to be spread thin across 5+ channels.

Unite Your Channels

Now that you figured out which channels you are going to concentrate on, unite them using a social media manager like Hootsuite or Buffer.

Both offer free versions and have their own positives and negatives.

Set Your Eyes On The Prize

But first what is the prize?

For the most part, social is about making connections and building brand awareness, but you can definitely get it working for you in other ways.

Are you looking to increase your revenue? Buy now buttons are slowly infiltrating social media channels.

Looking to increase your list? Wanting people to click to your site?

Just like any other marketing effort, you need to have a goal for your social campaigns. Take the time to figure out yours.

#fail

Blunders happen, but they can also negatively affect your brand. Creating a social media policy that your employees have to follow will mitigate your risk of a social faux pas.

Mark Your Calendars

It is a social affair after all. Create a calendar template in Google Spreadsheets that has the rough guidelines of each day or week.

Wheater you’re posting once a day or five times a day, ensure to include guidelines for post topics.

Some topic ideas are:

• blog posts (your company’s and ones you’ve read)
• random question to your audience
• benefits of service/product (don’t over do these ones)
• inspirational quotes (as corny as these are they are almost guaranteed to get the highest engagement rate)
• tips and tricks
• history of the company (if interesting)
• upcoming events — in education
• special promotions

All of these topics can be planned and posted ahead of time.

Buffer also has a fancy “suggestions” page if you’re running low on ideas. Be warned though, a lot of their suggestions are from 2014, so don’t rely solely on them.

Share your calendar with your whole team. Most people read multiple blogs to keep current in their industry. Encourage them to share links of relevant articles they liked with you.

Create a new tab in your calendar where they can all be collected in one place.

You should also have a tab for all the resources your team has made. If you have a few great e-books, infographics or blog posts you can periodically re-post them.

If they aren’t evergreen, make sure to mark an expiry date so you’re not posting outdated content.

Be Spontaneous

Ensure to mix up your social with planned and unplanned posts. Respond to a trending hashtag or comment on breaking news.

Re-tweet a follower, engage your audience and ensure to respond to as many, if not all, inquiries as you can.

Social is a two-way street, and you can’t just set it on auto-pilot.

“I Want It To Be Clever”

Your content should be interesting, witty, helpful, or funny. It should also be on point with your brand.

Your brand has a voice, don’t be afraid to express it. The more you personify your brand the easier it is for your network to connect with it.

Visuals are also a huge key in social success. Ensure to incorporate them into some of your posts.

For the design impaired you can use a website like Canva or if you want to make images on your mobile try out Over.

Utilize Google

You may want to tie in your social into your Google Analytics.

If you are using Hootsuite, they provide great analytic reports which get more detailed as you increase your plan.

Buffer’s freemium version offers only a basic overview of your activity. Reports are available with upgrades however.

If you haven’t yet, you should also set-up Google Alerts for your business. These are particularly helpful if a negative article or post is written. You always want to be the first one to reply and don’t want to be hearing about it secondhand.

Now Go Be A Social Butterfly

Social doesn’t have to be scary, but with the vast amount of platforms, it can often leave you with social anxiety.

Systemizing your social media will not only give you much-needed structure but it will also drastically cut down the time you put in. Giving you more time to work on your business.