The secret of social media marketing efficiency

How many hours per day does your company spend on social media?

According to a poll of 3,300 social media marketers in the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 58% of marketers spend six or more hours per week on social media marketing activities.

Whatever your answer, the likelihood is that you need that time to be as efficient and cost-effective as possible. In marketing, as with every other business function, efficiency is everything. In these budget-crushing times, saving time equals saving money. As marketing departments across the country plan for 2012, it pays to break down social media efforts to examine how to create the most efficient, well-oiled machine possible.

However many hours you are pumping into social activity per week, the time can probably be divided into three main categories:

Listening: Every business needs a social media monitoring solution that gathers data from across the web for continual analysis. Whether you are using social channels for brand research, promotion or lead generation, you need to select the appropriate tool and customise it to your specific needs for maximum efficiency.

Communicating: Building strong relationships on networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is vital to carrying out communication strategies. To ensure efficiency, establish exactly where conversations about your brand are happening before dedicating precious resources to joining the discussion.

Creating content: While the other two steps can be undertaken as needed, creating content – whether writing your businesss blog or building an application that allows people to interact with your brand – usually requires more strategic planning.

Consider implementing a system for aggregating useful links and spreading your content resources across multiple formats and channels ways as two ways to streamline your content strategy.

Will you be dedicating more or less time to social media in 2012? If you’re feeling frazzled and in need of a New Year’s efficiency overhaul – call our hotline on 0845 053 6855