How Having Systems and a Team in Place Can Help You Master Social Media

This is episode 16 of Author Audience.

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message, create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Welcome to Author Audience, where I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. Today I'm rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me as I share how having a system and a team can save you a lot of grief when using social media marketing. My name is Shelly Hitz and I love social media. I actually really enjoy marketing, but I know a lot of authors don't and so in this episode I want to share the power of having a system and having a team in place when you're using social media marketing. I know I say this a lot, but I truly believe you have a God given message to share with the world. There is something unique that God has given you that he has shown you, that he has taught you through your experiences that can help others. And I am passionate about helping you get that message to more people. The question is, are you ready to shine? It's time for this week's Center Stage Spotlight training. This is where I share training and strategies to help you grow your business or ministry through writing and publishing books, marketing online, and creating products and services to sell on the back end. I'm not just about books, but so much more. Actually. This episode is going to be all about managing your social media so that it doesn't drive you crazy. This is episode 16 titled how having systems and a team in place can help you master social media. Sound good? I know that this is going to bring you one step closer to getting your message to more people. So be prepared to shine. So when I talk about social media, a lot of times I get the deer in the headlights look in author's eyes. I get that look because.

It'S overwhelming many times and a lot of authors think they have to do everything and they feel the bright shiny object syndrome. Every new platform that they have to be part of, but part of the strategy with social media marketing and what I teach in authoraudienceacademy.com is having one or two platforms that you really master and you do really well at not feeling like you have to do everything. Okay, so if you're in a place where you can do this, repeat after me, I do not have to do everything.

Did you say it? I hope so. If not, just say it to yourself. I do not have to do everything.

That is a relief. That's a Relief to me too, because I. I love to check everything out, but I can't do everything either. And so that is the first step is just realizing that you really want to focus on one or two social media platforms. Now, once you've done that, I highly recommend creating systems. I share my six step ascent method on how I'm able to publish books, quality books, fast. And the S in a sense, stands for systems. That is my secret sauce. I've been able to create repeatable systems that I can use over and over and over again. My systems are in author Audience Academy. You get access to those systems when you sign up. But I recommend that you create your own systems. What works well for me may work well for you, or you may need to adapt it to your business, to your ministry, to your personality, to your gifts, and to your team. And so what I love to do is I love using Evernote. I have a tutorial. It's actually right now one of my most popular YouTube videos. You can see it@shellyhits.com YouTube and then once you get to my channel, just search for your Evernote and you'll find it. But I love using Evernote for creating these systems. What I'll do is I'll create checklists and then that way I can adapt them as I go and I can update them, I can put links in them, I can share those notes with other people and, and it's just a great way for me to have those systems on every single device and they automatically sync between each other. So that's what I use. But you can use anything. I know some people love using Trello, some people love using Asana. You know, some people simply have it in pen and paper in a notebook. Whatever you use, you need to start writing out those tasks that you do on a repeated basis. And social media is one of those. So. So when you're posting to social media, you can write out the steps. After a while, you may get used to what those steps are, but it's still good to write those out because when we get to the teams in just a minute, you can then pass that task off to someone else very easily when you've written it out. But also you can really. It takes the pressure off. You know, sometimes when you get down to do something online. I don't know about you, but this even happens to me. And I'm a technological girl. I love gadgets, I love, you know, the tech stuff. But sometimes I get down on thinking, how did I do that again? How did I add that clickable link on Pinterest again, or how did I schedule that on that video on Facebook so that it would have that call to action link. And you know, all the. There's so many different things. So I just recommend writing it down even if you think you got it, even if you think you know it. Because one day you may just come to your computer and blank out. And when that happens, you will have a backup because you'll have your checklist. Plus, it also helps you not ever forget something. So it's so easy. Like when I publish a new book, I have my post publication checklist that's inside Author audience Academy as well. And I have that checklist because I've published a lot of books. And it was so easy for me to forget steps. It was so easy for me to forget things. So similar to that, when you have a checklist for your social media marketing, you won't forget things. And it just takes the pressure off. You can just kind of cruise, go on autopilot, use less brain energy. How many of us need to conserve a little bit on brain energy? I know I do. So anything that helps me on that is a plus. So a system. Have I convinced you yet to start writing out those repeatable tasks? I want you to start with social media, so choose one or two. What is your number one social media platform that you are currently using? For me, right now I'm really focusing on Facebook and, and Periscope, but that may change. I also am really starting to enjoy Twitter, but Facebook is definitely my number one. So I would start with Facebook and I would start writing out the things that I do. And for you, it may be a Facebook group that you're really active in and that you are the owner of, or it may be a Facebook page, maybe your profile, or it may be all three. But then you write down the steps of what you're doing on your Facebook page or on your Facebook profile and how the steps, like how you're scheduling things, how you're doing things, and just start writing it out. All right, so once you have those systems in place, then the real power comes when you start delegating, when you have a team. Now, this is not new to me. I've seen many people teach this concept, but I wanted to share this with you again today. One of the things that is really powerful is when you start creating a list, have three different columns and have a column of things that list out things related to social media that you just simply don't know how to do. So there Might be a certain task related to social media that you're just, you just don't know how to do. Maybe it's graphic editing for your, your image, you know, quote posts, you can hire that out. But you know, make a list of things that you just, you can't do. You're just. Or you don't, you don't have the skills to do that. Now make a second column on what you really don't enjoy. You can do it, you have the skills, you can create that graphic, but you just don't really enjoy it. And to be honest, maybe someone else could do it even better than the way that you're doing it now. And then make a third column and you want to write in that third column things you shouldn't be doing. So you maybe even like to do it, you enjoy it. But if you're making that graphic for your social media posts every day or every week or whatever, and you could pay someone a few dollars, maybe $5 or whatever, and you figure out what your time is worth. If you're able to pay someone to do that, take it off your plate and then you're able to do other things that are earning you more money, then you really should be delegating those things. So this is kind of an eye opening exercise. You can do this with any part of your business. But I just recommend think about this regarding social media marketing and then think about who you can hire, what tasks you can outsource, and you know, what can you take off of your plate you can get started for very inexpensively. Fiverr.com F I V E-R-R.com is a place you can just hire someone one time, one project at a time. A lot of times it's $5. You can, you know, add extras for more but for your graphics, so you can find a really good graphic designer there that will make your graphics for social media take that off your plate and do that for you. Or let's say you're researching quotes, just general quotes in your niche online. You could pay someone on Fiverr to do that research for you. Maybe it's quotes about books, you know, for me, for my niche, or maybe it's quotes about running or whatever it might be that your niche is. You could actually pay someone to do some of that research for you and then you can go through those quotes and decide which ones you want to post. You could also actually pay someone to write tweets or to pick out quotes from your blog post, your evergreen blog post, so they could Go through your blog post, pick out some different quotes from there and put together tweets for you. The content's already written, you've already written your blog post. You just need to keep reminding people about it. On social media, especially on Twitter, it's really important. And so you could just pay someone to write those tweets for you. And maybe they even put hashtags, you have a list of different hashtags that they could choose from and they add some hashtags, they make sure they're 140 characters or less, that sort of thing. And then you may even pay someone to be a social media manager and they actually help schedule your posts and tweets. Another great resource to find people is upwork.com it used to be Elance and Odesk. They came together and now it's Upwork.com and I've used people on there. I'm using outsourcers on there right now. And it's a great place to find people either for project based or ongoing tier tasks. And you can just pay them hourly, you can pay them per task and it can be an ongoing contract that. It's not like they have to be part time with you or anything but, but you have someone there that you can pay ongoing to do this work for you. So take a breath. There's also the option of bartering. Maybe you love writing tweets, but you don't like scheduling stuff or you don't like the graphic stuff. Well, maybe you can barter and you could write tweets for someone else and they could make the graphics for you. Or you know, maybe you really don't mind scheduling stuff and you could do some scheduling for someone and they could do research for you. I don't know. I mean, get creative, find ways to create a team, a team that can help you because it is going to help multiply your time, it's going to help take that stress off of you and you're going to be able to reach more people because you're going to be able to create more content and get more involved involvement on social media because of having a team. So we talked about systems and we talked about a team. So your take action tip for today is first of all to choose one social media platform to focus on one or two. But let's for this activity choose one and write out your repeatable system for that social media platform. So you may have to break it up into different tasks, but write down a system of what you want to do for social media for that platform. And then the second thing is find one thing, at least one thing that you can give to someone else to do that. You can delegate. You can hire someone on fiverr.com or find someone on upwork.com and start delegating. Oh, you will love it. I mean, it will, it will evolve as your business grows. And that's what's happening for me. I'm hiring more people as my business grows, and I'm offloading more off of me. But you'll find that it really is powerful when you develop systems and you have teams in place to help you implement those systems. Make sure to get all the show notes and resources from Today's episode@authoraudience.com 16. That's the number 16. Before we end, I want to give you a backstage pass in this week's Godly Gains segment. Oh, we talked about systems and teams today about delegating things that either you can't do or you don't enjoy or maybe you shouldn't even be doing.

And I know all of you are in different places in your business. Some of you may be at the very beginning and really scared to hire anyone. Some of you may be already hiring people and using them successfully. But it made me think about Moses. And in Exodus 18 verses 18 to 23, we get a glimpse of Moses trying to do everything and getting worn out. And so his father in law, Jethro, was giving him advice about delegation. And I thought this was the perfect scripture to share today. It's long, but it really fits. It says, both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out, for this thing is too much for you. You are not able to perform it by yourself. Listen to my voice. I will give you counsel and God will be with you. Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statues and the laws, and show them the way in which they they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure and all these people will also be able to go to their place in peace. Oh, did you hear the language in those verses? You will surely wear yourself out. This is too much for you. And I want to encourage you today that if you try to do everything, if you try to be everything in your business, there will come a point when you'll wear out. Now, I totally understand being in the beginning of a business and not having a huge budget, but there are options. There are places like fiverr.com there are bartering options, and there are places like Upwork where you can hire outsourcers for less than you think. And so, just as Jethro was encouraging Moses to delegate, I encourage you to take these steps. This isn't fun stuff. This isn't the stuff that's really talked about a lot because it's not. Not necessarily fun, but it is freeing. When you get these systems in place, when you get a team in place, it will free you to be who God has created you to be. It is my hope and my goal that these episodes are bringing you one step closer to being able to shine and reach more people with your message. You have a voice and an authentic message and I'm excited to see you make it happen. Today we talked about social media marketing and on my website I have a free training on 27 Ways to Sell more books. I think you might be interested in downloading this training and even if you're not ready for it right this minute, get it and have it for when you're ready to try another way or to add another marketing strategy to your marketing plan. You can get this free training@authoraudience.com sell S E L L that's authoraudience.com sell I'm excited to share with you in the next episode where I will be interviewing one of my Author Audience Academy members on how to create multiple products from one piece of content. She has done this successfully and I think you'll be really interested to learn about her success. I'll see you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.