Finding ways to streamline your workflow as a social media manager can be a huge advantage.
With the right strategies and tools, you can reduce stress and maximize your efficiency — even when managing multiple profiles.
Here are six ways to streamline your workflow as a social media manager.
Workflow Tip #1: Batch Your Content
Content creation can take a huge chunk of time out of your day, which is why content batching is one of the best ways to win back time in your schedule.
This is where you set aside time to create all of your content and write your captions in one sitting.
By doing this, you can focus on one task at a time and channel your creative energy without interruption.
Content batching is especially helpful for tasks that require a lot of prep, such as video content creation. By filming several videos in one go, you’ll save yourself all the time it takes to set up your tripod, create a backdrop, and prepare to go on camera.
It’s also easier and more efficient to write a full week’s worth of Instagram captions in one dedicated power hour. Once you’re in the zone, get as many captions written as possible!
With Later’s free scheduling tools, you can write captions for all of your upcoming posts on desktop or mobile. Plus, you can save different templates to use as guidelines for your captions, which is a great way to speed up your writing process.
TIP: Block off specific hours or days on your calendar for content creation — this will help you stay on top of your content strategy and be more consistent.
Workflow Tip #2: Streamline Your Content Collection Process
If user-generated content is part of your social strategy, there are ways to streamline how you find and credit your content.
With Later’s Search by Profile feature, you can find content from your favorite Instagram accounts and add it straight into your Media Library, ready to be scheduled. Simply enter a username or profile URL, select a post from their feed, and tap “Add to Library.”
Plus, Later will maintain the high-quality resolution of the post and will automatically add the handle of the user to your caption notes, making it easy to credit the original content creator.
And that’s just one way to collect media with Later. You can also browse all the posts you’ve been mentioned or tagged in, or search for all the posts that have a specific hashtag.
Ready to streamline your content collection process? Find out all the ways you can use Later to gather and schedule user-generated content in this quick video:
Workflow Tip #3: Curate Lists of Hashtags That Align With Your Content Pillars
ICYMI: Posts with at least one Instagram hashtag average 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag.
However, finding and adding up to 30 hashtags to your posts every time can be time-consuming.
To improve your workflow and save time, it’s a good idea to curate set lists of hashtags that you can use on rotation for your posts.
Plus, with Later’s Saved Captions feature, you can keep your lists of hashtags in one place — and add them to your captions in two quick taps.
TIP: Use a hashtags analytics tool, like Later’s Suggested Hashtags, to research the best hashtags to add to each of your curated lists.
Workflow Tip #4: Schedule Content to Multiple Platforms from One Dashboard
As a social media manager, you’re probably already using tons of different apps to create your content.
So when it comes to prepping and scheduling your posts, it makes sense to do it all from one easy-to-use dashboard.
With Later, you can schedule posts to multiple platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok) all from one dashboard.
Plus with built-in cropping tools, you can automatically crop the image or video to get optimal dimensions for each platform you post to. It’s a huge time-saver!
Workflow Tip #5: Automate Your Reporting Process
As the end of each month rolls around, compiling an analytics report can be a time consuming task.
However, analytics are one of the best ways to learn what’s working (or not working) for your social strategy.
Fortunately, there are a few ways you can streamline your reporting process.
Start by creating a report template to track your monthly analytics. While the exact metrics you track will ultimately depend on your individual goals, having a template in place helps speed up the process and keep you right on track.
Plus, Later gives the option to download up to three months of your Instagram analytics data as CSV files – so you’ll have all the key data to add right at your fingertips. Reporting made easy.
Workflow Tip #6: Create Saved Replies for Your Most Common DM Queries
Our final workflow hack is to set up Instagram Saved Replies that answer your most commonly asked questions.
Not only will this decrease the time you spend managing DMs, but it will also ensure your followers experience A+ customer service with quick and relevant replies.
It may seem like a small win, but over time you’ll build up a bank of Saved Replies that’ll save you hours of effort.
With the right tools and strategies, you’ll win-back tons of time in your schedule — leaving you more capacity to be creative and experiment with new content formats!
Ready to level up your social media workflow? Plan and schedule your content in advance with Later, it’s free!
