Welcome to the future…

Well, the future of working smarter and not harder at least!

As we step into the new year, things are absolutely brimming over with innovation and possibilities.

In a world where time is precious and efficiency is king, it’s no surprise that businesses like yours are seeking to maximise productivity while minimising the grind.

This year, let's wave goodbye to burning the midnight oil and say hello to savvy strategies to achieve more in less time.

So, I’ve put together our best tips for how you can work smarter, not harder this year.

Work Smarter Not Harder This New Year

Get Strategic

The secret to saving time with social media? Having a tailored social media strategy to follow! A strategy is like a roadmap of social media activities. It outlines your goals, target audience, content pillars, and posting schedules, ensuring you have a clear direction for your efforts.

It helps you to maintain consistency in your messaging, building brand recognition and better engagement by producing content that is tailored to your audience’s preferences and aligns with your overall marketing goals. A strategy helps to keep you on track and stops you floundering when it is time to publish. 

But, they can be hard to come up with by yourself. That’s why it is a good idea to lean into the expertise of a social media expert to ensure your strategy is going to achieve good results. Here at Face Up Now, I create strategies that engage, inspire and educate your audience in a way that supports business growth. Here’s more info on my social strategies.

Align Your Marketing

What do you want to achieve in your business this year? Growth, more clients, refining your customer base, new products, or something else? 

Whatever you decide, ensure your marketing efforts are going to help you do that. Before you start strategising or creating anything, set your goals for the year. Then, you can ensure the content you are producing will help lead you towards achieving those goals.

Be Meaningful

When you are implementing your social media strategy, be very intentional about the content you are publishing. It’s not just about being present on social media, it’s about making a meaningful impact, standing out amongst the digital noise, and forging authentic connections with your audience. 

The good news is that meaningful posts are worth their weight in gold. Several meaningful posts a week are more effective than 20 pieces of fluff! So, if you focus on this kind of content, you will have to publish less to have a greater impact.

Use All The Tools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) took the world by storm in 2023, especially in the field of content creation with platforms like Chat GPT bringing AI tools to the masses. Now, we aren’t saying you should rely entirely on these platforms to write content on your behalf. But, they are a great way to generate ideas and give you a creative starting point.

Chat GPT is not the only tool you should be using to work a bit smarter in 2024. You can also utilise the power of Answer The Public and Ubersuggest for content ideas. And don’t forget that your social media platforms have analytics capabilities that can help you to identify the kind of content that your audience loves, minimising the risk of publishing flat content.

Go Evergreen

There will be some topics in your business that have timeless relevance. The kind of content that remains valuable and relevant to your audience over an extended period. Not tied to specific dates, events or trends, it is useful regardless of when it is shared.

This is the kind of content you want to write once, then keep in a designated folder to share time and again. Having the content there to publish when appropriate will not only save you time and resources in the long run, but will give you a way to maintain engagement and interest.

Repurpose

Evergreen content is not the only way you can work smarter. You can also harness the power of repurposing. Instead of creating new content from scratch every week, take the time to explore whether certain existing pieces can be repurposed into different formats like video, infographics, blogs or podcast episodes.

By simply taking what you have and using it in a different way, you extend the lifespan of the content and reach a wider audience. It’s a win-win!

Plan Now

The start of the year is a fantastic time to get ahead of the game for the year. Refreshed and energised from your summer break, you are motivated to hit the ground running and get stuck into your business. So, it is the perfect time of year to create content.

By working ahead now, you won’t run out of things to publish when business picks up later in the year.

Focus On The Results

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a social platform won’t work for you. Mostly, this is because your target audience is not hanging out there. So, don’t waste your time on platforms like these. Instead, focus on the ones that produce engagement and results.

Ask The Experts

You don’t know what you don't know. And you can waste a lot of time trying to learn all the things you don’t know about social media. This year, don’t waste your time doing that. Instead, simply engage an expert like me for support and guidance.

Drop me a line now and say cheers to a year of working smarter, achieving greater things and mastering the art of efficiency, one strategic post at a time.