For many women and mom entrepreneurs, summer months mean the kids are home on break…and for some, the business takes one too. With 5 of my own kids running wild and bouncing off the walls these days, I can understand why many of us choose to slow down, cutback, or close up shop altogether, to spend time with our little people and enjoy time off.
As tempting as it may sound…the worst thing you could do is kill your momentum just because it’s summer. This is actually the best time to step your game up because so many other home based business owners will be sleeping in or lounging out pool side…BUT…
You may be thinking, “well, I actually want to spend more time with my kids at the park or the beach.” Or, “my family goes away during this time of year.” “I don’t have time to run my business full-time.”
Well, what if you could have the best of both worlds?
There are 2 things you can do. First, if you are really strapped for time, you can get someone to manage your social media for you.
Second, you can do it yourself by finding the best online tools that will do what you need to get done and implement them in your marketing!
This is a practice I use regularly (more so when my kids are on breaks) and many of my colleagues do too (savvy women run in packs…you didn’t know). The types of tools you need are those that will automate much (not all), of your social media activity.
So, here’s a quick lineup of some of my favorite tools and what I’m using right now:
HootSuite ~ This is what I consider to be my marketing assistant. There is so much the HootSuite dashboard offers, from managing multiple social networks, RSS feeds, scheduling posts and tweets – to Facebook and Google analytics and integration.
I use it primarily to schedule my blog articles to post to my various social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook pages AND groups. I also use it to automate my most important marketing campaigns and promotional material for an entire month! I set it and forget it….nuff said!
(I suggest you click the ‘view plans and pricing’ option and sign-up for the 30 day free pro trial to be able to manage a lot more of your social media. You can cancel before the 30 days is up and downgrade to the free version or pay the $9.99 and stay pro.)
~ This is currently my next favorite after HootSuite…running closely behind. It is similar to HootSuite by making it easy to share content. Basically, you “fill up” Buffer with links to content you like and want to share at one time in the day, and Buffer automagically posts them for you through the day.
All you have to do is keep that Buffer topped up to have a consistent social media presence all day round, all week long. I fill up Buffer in the evenings when I’m playing catch up with reading blogs and want to share relevant content to my Facebook pages. I mostly use it when I want to “recycle” my own posts on Twitter.
Hyper Alerts ~ At one point in my business, my laptop and I were attached at the wrists, because I had an addictive relationship with Facebook. That’s all changed since I started using Hyper Alerts. It allows me to get notifications via email and reports posts and comments on my Facebook Pages.
It’s cool because you can get notifications from pages you don’t admin…just in case you want to stay in the know. So, maybe this encourages me to spend more time attached to my Android…but hey, I’m not perfect and there is a reason they call it a MOBILE device!
These are the tools I’m using to automate most parts of my business marketing. I’m a night owl so I create my content when my house is quiet and “set it and forget it!” I can spend the majority of my days doing what I want to do and hangout with my kids.
What are some of YOUR favorite time-saving or automation tools you use? Share them below in the comments:
Tamyka Washington
