[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Have you ever felt overwhelmed by having to figure out what kind of content to create, hashtags to make, when to like and comment and do all your engagement work all in the same day? Do you ever end up a few days behind or skipping a day because you just can’t get everything done in one day?
Me too.
Consistency in the world of Instagram is so important and we often forget that people are always watching. Taking a few days off of posting, or even just the simple act of forgetting to post one day because you are busy doing other things, can greatly stall your page growth process. This is something that I have learned more and more over the past few years and in the process, I have picked up skills that now help me make sure that no matter how “busy” I am or feel I am ALWAYS able to manage my time without getting behind.
My goal is to give you a sneak peek into my routine and how I manage to remain consistent with my own work, all while managing all my clients at the same time. A wise friend of mine once told me that you can’t sell your work to others if you aren’t doing it yourself. Therefore, I took it upon myself to stop letting my own work fall behind because I was too bogged down with other clients. Instead, I said to myself, that I had to figure out how to manage ALL of it at the same time.
Insert my weekly routine!
For some this all may seem overwhelming but, I can promise you, like with anything, repetition and adaptation is key.
The following are a few tips for being “consistent” that have really helped me in my road to better managing my time.
1) Create your content all in one day for the entire week on Sunday!
This is such a huge thing. I used to spend an hour or two every single day literally doing nothing other than creating images on Canva for myself and all my clients. I would say at least two hours a day I was editing, surfing for pictures or just staring at my computer trying to make content that I liked for that specific day. Talk about major time lost! I very quickly discovered that a lot of my time could have been better spent if I created the entire weeks’ worth of content in one day. I personally choose to do this on Sunday because it’s my down day. Grab your laptop, get your necessary caffeine and sit on the couch. Make your downtime a chance to get ahead of your schedule for the coming week.
My suggestion? If you are like me and have to manage your own page, plus several clients’ pages, then do ALL of one page’s content at a time before moving onto the next. You aren’t going to win an award for trying to multi-task in this department.
2) Schedule your entire weeks’ worth of posts with its captions and hashtags for each on SUNDAY!
Now you’re sitting on your couch and have created all your content for the entire week so that the fun part can begin. Insert my love of Planoly and its scheduling, hashtag batching and caption creation feature and hello, time saver! I have a Planoly account set up for myself and all of my clients individually and it is amazing! I am able to upload all of the weeks’ worth of content that I created for them and rearrange them to see what the grid will end up looking like. I then go in and create captions for each post and insert one of the hashtag groups that Planoly lets me save. Last part? Schedule each post for a specific time during the day and bam, done! (See image below for what the inside of Planoly looks like when you upload a piece of your newly created content). As you can see, you are able to create your caption, add hashtags (it even shows you the number of uses for each hashtag you are picking!) and schedule your post all in one spot. Genius!
3) Choose a specific time each day for engagement
This is my favorite part of learning how to manage my time better. Because I spent a few hours on Sunday creating and scheduling all my content for the entire week I now have the ability to be growth focused during the week. Every day I set aside a time block (every person will be different for how much of a block they need) to use PeopleMap (see my People Map Blog article here and get my engagement done. If you are just running one account you will need to set aside enough time to like and comment on 60 photos at least twice per day.
The goal with creating this schedule for yourself is to be able to see consistent growth over the course of the week and not have huge highs and lows. The lows will come when you forget to post or aren’t engaging every day.
Quick summary: Sundays are for creating all your content, uploading it into Planoly and creating each post’s caption, set of hashtags and then scheduling it for the time to be posted. Monday through Saturday your goal is to pick a time block long enough to use PeopleMap and engage (like and comment) on 60 photos twice a day.
Ultimately, I want you all to be able to start to see sustained growth with LESS stress. No more missed days of posting or days where you lose a bunch of followers. Plan ahead. If you don’t plan, then plan to feel like you’re on the struggle bus.
Failing to plan is planning to fail, am I right?!
Manage your time by being consistent with your practices. It really is that simple.
Related article: Social Media Management Tools: Engagement Gold Mines
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