In 2017 the average person will be spending over 130 hours daily on social media. Majority of these people are spending more than half of their social time on Facebook and Youtube. You need to spend your time focusing on the social platforms that will generate you the best leads. The question is, how much time should you be spending on your social media marketing efforts?

Before you jump into this article, I’ll tell you right now there is no ONE answer for every business. The amount of time you should spend is dependent on multiple variables, but let’s try and get an idea of what amount of time will give you the best ROI.

 

Step 1. Identify your goals on social media

In order to determine how much time you’ll need to spend on social media, you first need to figure out what you want to get from social media. If you’re looking to gain brand awareness, be in touch with customers, or generate leads, the amount of time and effort you’ll need to put in will vary.


content

Step 2. Come up with a content plan

Once you know what you want to accomplish on social media, you want to sit down and decide on how you’re going to do that. This stage is difficult to know ahead of time, and will likely require a lot of experimentation and tweaking. See what sort of content your audience is interested in, what gets the most engagement and generates leads?

Knowing the right content, when to publish the content, and in what frequency, will put you well on your way to figuring out how much time you should spend on social media.

resources

Step 3. Evaluate your resources

If you’ve properly identified your goals and come up with a thorough content plan then you basically know how much time you’ll need to spend on social media. If you have a marketing agency or automation service at your disposal this can help cut down the amount of time you’ll spend on social media. The more money, time, and manpower you have, the more time you can put into your social media marketing.

 

DOIT

Step 4. Stop planning and start doing

 

This seems like a fairly obvious point, yet so many small business owners manage to drop the ball here. Social media marketing can often be a daunting and tedious task. However, if you put in the time, you are sure to see the fruits of your labor.

 

So, how much time should your small business spend on social media? As long as it takes until you get it right. But don’t stress out. We are here to help.