Boost your social media success with 5 time-saving hacks from an expert VA

Is social media consuming too much of your time? As a virtual social media assistant, I know first-hand how much work it can be! That’s why  I’m sharing my top five time-saving tips, so you can get organized and boost your social media productivity and quality.

1. Create a social media content calendar

Instead of creating content on the go and posting at random times, create the perfect social media content calendar—a schedule of “where/what/when” for your Social Media.

Where will you be posting?

Is it for Instagram? LinkedIn? Facebook?

What will you be posting?

Is it a YouTube video? A Reel? A TikTok?

When will you be posting?

Is it every Monday at 9:00 a.m.? Different times/days for each platform?

I recommend you regularly research and determine the best days and times you should post for each platform. Social media content platforms like Hootsuite will often learn your audience’s engagement habits and provide the best times to publish content on each channel.

For example, I found that it is recommended you post 2-4 times a day on TikTok, seven days a week.

On LinkedIn, it is recommended to skip posting on Sundays.

Instagram’s algorithm suggests posting two times a day, seven days a week.

Once you know how often you need to post in a week and what, create your content production plan.

2. Create a content production plan

Having a production plan will save you lots of time. Essentially, a content production plan is a structured production schedule which helps you batch create content.

Instead of filming and posting on the fly, having a plan and schedule will help you save time. You can allocate one day to produce everything instead of scattering production to random times and days. Also, creating a plan that allows you to batch create and leverage the content across all platforms is a fantastic way to maximize content value.

For example, let’s say you have a podcast on which you record and post weekly interviews. If you only post these recordings on Spotify, you have one piece of content.

However, if you also film your podcast, you can then use that recording to post on YouTube. So now, your one piece of content has been leveraged for two platforms.

Furthermore, you can edit and pull out the best parts of your video to create 10-20 mini clips and leverage them to post on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

So, your Spotify podcast, which was originally one piece of content, is now also on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn—six platforms instead of one and 11-21 pieces of content instead of just one—all in one day of filming.

Check out the following tools to help you stay organized and save even more time.

3. Use social media management platforms for scheduling

Now that you know your social media calendar and have created all the content you need for the week, it’s time to publish! The best way to save time posting is to use a social media management platform tool like Hootsuite (Loomly and Later are excellent alternatives). This allows you to post and schedule all your content in advance, in one place.

4. Use project management tools

I recommend using a project management tool like Notion for your content production plan. I use it to create my production flows and schedule, especially when working with a team. Check out “kanban boards” to learn about one of the ways to use Notion (ClickUp and monday.com are great alternatives).

5. Use Canva for graphics

Canva is an excellent online tool that you can use to create beautiful graphics for your social

media posts. They have thousands of fonts and graphics that you can use and pre-made templates, saving you hours of work.

Now you’re ready to create and publish content like a pro

In conclusion, follow my five time-saving tips if you want to run your social media like the pros. You’ll save time and energy in running your social media and produce more and better quality content that you and your followers will love.

And if you want more regular guidance from a social media expert, contact the Virtual Gurus team and ask to be matched with a virtual social media assistant.