Productivity is a buzzword in any company, but the truth is that it can be subjective and hard to define. Things like sales and growth numbers are often straightforward to determine. The term “increasing productivity” usually winds up in a jumble of meaningless corporate speak alongside “circling back” and “putting a pin in this for later.” How do you accelerate productivity on social media?
In reality, productivity and earnings go hand in hand: productivity refers to the ability of each dollar spent to provide you with the best possible return.
How your company culture fosters a productive work environment
Every employee brings something to the table. Each approach to a task and each new idea is valuable. The goal should be to build a team that compliments each other. A supportive team will naturally become more productive. They will reach their goals more quickly and provide a more fulfilling work environment for everyone.
Focus your productivity improvements on reducing the time spent on repetitive, routine tasks that drain your team’s life. Many reports, planning documents, and trackers may help increase accountability by the end of the quarter – but it will cost work hours and zap the motivation away from your creative team.
It starts with leadership
A staff that finds a productive workflow is a gift to leadership. Your job is to motivate your team and provide them with the tools needed to perform their work. Being prepared and respecting your staff will also help you deal better with unexpected changes in workload or when key players need to take time off.
Ways to make every hour count
Once you’ve established a productive, healthy team, you have to get to work. Here are three simple ways to help your social media teams do more with less.
1. Identify your reusable content.
A thorough inventory of evergreen content is the content management equivalent to “sharpening the saw” to chop future trees faster.
It’s not only about knowing which pieces can be reused later. It’s also about knowing when they should be reused to keep the maximum possible impact.
For example, seasonal or holiday-based content can be posted again with minimal tweaks at a predictable time. Lighter humorous posts will work better at a specific time of the day, but they need to be spaced enough to ensure your followers can’t tell they’re seeing an oddly familiar piece. Additionally, provide enough room for new content to be shared when it’s fresh.
You don’t need a very complex or detail-rich inventory of evergreen content to be successful. You should, however, identify at least three separate categories: topic explainers, holiday content, and audience favorites. Spreading these evenly among new posts can enhance traffic and keep your page active in off hours.
2. Automate your schedule
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all allow you to schedule future posts on the platform without using extra tools. However, this process is tedious and time-consuming, leaving much room for human error. For example, a simple miscalculation can push too many evergreen posts in one day, leaving no room for the day’s trending topic.
On the other hand, an AI-powered scheduler such as True Anthem can take all these metrics (impact, rush hours, breaking news) into account and adapt to them without a staff member babysitting them.
3. Keep your tools simple and centralized
Almost all productivity tools now include a web-based app – from content planners to collaborative boards or keyword trackers.
There’s a specialized tool for everything, but too many specialized tools can harm productivity: too many open tabs increase distraction, importing raw data across services takes time, and constant switches result in lost time.
Using an all-in-one tool is an easy way to streamline your entire process. In economic terms, it will allow you to negotiate better deals and more support from one specific provider. It will also increase productivity by allowing you to share metadata across platforms easily and in a consistent format.
Finally, it will streamline your human resource strategies, simplifying the onboarding process for new employees – or even handovers in the event of a departure.
So does your star copywriter need to take some time off? A new war broke out, and you need to double the frequency of Twitter updates? Productive workers and optimized tools will prevent the ensuing burnout and even act as a motivator for further projects.
If you would like to know more about getting set up, contact True Anthem. We’ll give you a personalized demo and help you get started.
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