Five tips to stay in control of your social media accounts

For business owners, social media can get overwhelming. Notifications, messages, comments. Every day of the week. An endless cycle and it can all just get too much.

Read more: Five tools to help schedule social media posts for your business

With so many different channels, it can be like an avalanche of content and it can seem impossible to stay on top of it all.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. You can make some smart and strategic moves by planning and becoming a little savvy with social media marketing tricks.

Here are my top tips to help you stay in control of your social media:

1. Clean up your accounts

Do you find that when you scroll through your social media feeds there are a lot of posts that just aren’t relevant to you or your business? Then it is time for a cleanup.

Unfriending or unfollowing people can sometimes feel unfriendly but it is essential to maintaining your social media accounts.

By snipping away those accounts that are irrelevant to you or your business, you will be able to free up the room for more meaningful connections.

Here are a couple of sites that can help you clean up your social media accounts:

Tweepi:This site will find those accounts that don’t follow you back and clear out the inactive accounts.

Crowdfireapp: Instead of going through all your followers who don’t follow you back on Twitter or Instagram, Crowdfireapp collates and lets you unfollow in bulk with one simple red button.

2. Identify influencers

Now that you’ve cleaned up your accounts, you need to go searching for those accounts or influencers that you are relevant to you.

Finding these people can be daunting and difficult, but there are sites that will help you find your hubs.

Twitter search is powerful for searching keywords, hashtags or people you want to follow on Twitter. Just type in keywords that relate to your industry and suggestions will start popping up.

Other social media network searching tools include Sprout Social, Social Mention, andSmashFuse. Find which site works best for you to find influential people in your field to follow and engage with.

3. Schedule your social media posts

Scheduling posts will save you time, make it easier to post at more popular times and get more engagement with your audience.

There are some great sites you can use that will schedule your posts like Hootsuite andBuffer,which  allow you to upload content to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ in advanced. This means you can sit down, plan all your posts, and have a site upload them at the times you chose.

So now you only have to go in and out of your social media sites to continue the conversations with those people engaging in your content.

4. Create boundaries

Social media can be addictive. It can be easy to fall into the social media black hole and before you know it, you’ve spent two hours scrolling on your phone. Setting up a few boundaries will help you be more productive.

Give yourself a time limit on how long you will spend on each social media platform. Set a timer so you don’t lose track of time and when the timer goes off, return to your regular work or activities.

Try setting up a couple of 30 minute timed social media sessions a day and soon you will feel that you are being much more purposeful and effective with your time.

5. Take a break

Social media fatigue will make you feel drained and overwhelmed. You should take a break from social media on a regular basis and take time to renew, recharge, and come back refreshed.

Social media can be overwhelming but by thinking about managing your sites laterally, you will be able to stay in control.

Catriona Pollard is the author of From Unknown To Expert, a step-by-step framework designed to help entrepreneurs develop effective PR and social media strategies to become recognised as influencers in their field. She is also the director of Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.CP Communications, which merges traditional PR tactics with cutting-edge social media strategies that engage consumers as well as business.