How to Manage Your Blog and Social Media
I often get asked how I manage to have my hands in so many things. And, I get it. If I were someone on the outside looking in at my life, I would think that I literally never stopped working to get all of my tasks done every day. But, the fact of the matter is, while I may consistently work 10+ hour days Monday through Friday (having 3 businesses, managing leads, and making sure all of our projects stay on track), most weekends I spend outside—away from my computer.
How (exactly) do I get through everything I need to week after week? Well, I schedule the shit out of myself.
Between what I need to do for TAYLRD, Sourced Co., and Enji, there is no way I could keep everything on track if I wasn’t scheduling out my time. And, it’s not rocket science—it’s holding myself accountable (because I am). So today, I wanted to share my approach to project managing myself, in hopes that there is a nugget or two in there for you to make your days a bit more efficient. Read on to learn how I manage my schedule, plan blog and social media content, and keep projects on track (or let’s be real, ahead of schedule)!
How I Plan Blog Content
Blogging is the bane of marketing existence for many a wedding pro. Because, in addition to writing being at the top of your I-already-don’t-want-to-do-this list, months go by before you realize you haven’t published anything (cue the frustration). But, as someone who gets hired to write blog posts so you don’t have to, avoidance is not an option for me. So, what’s my secret for consistently writing the blogs I need to for clients and my own businesses? Process. And, here’s mine:
Keep a running list of ideas so I never find myself without a topic to write about in my Basecamp account. It’s basically a brain dump of FAQs, keywords I want to write about, or timely topics I know I should cover.
Schedule time to plan what needs to get written. I typically spend 15 minutes at the start of every month figuring out what articles need to get written for each of my businesses and putting the topics in the blog tasks I have on my marketing calendar in Enji—and blocking time in my paper planner to write them all. (I block 2 hours per article to get it written and published). Then I spend 5 minutes per blog post…
Brainstorming “working titles” for each blog post I put on my calendar. I also write a super high-level outline for each one. Just something to get my ideas of what the structure should be jotted down—this is not where I do any research for the blog post.
When it’s time to write, I start by doing whatever research needs to be done and I build on the high-level outline I already started. Then it’s time to write the “ugly first draft” before coming back to refine it. If the blog post is for one of my businesses, I use Enji’s AI copywriter to get the first draft done in less than a minute (it’s crazy fast!). If it’s a blog a client is paying me to write, I write everything myself.
I love this approach because it gives me time to see the due date coming (rather than waking up on any particular day and realizing I scheduled a blog post to publish and it hasn’t been written). This also gives me time to schedule additional writing blocks if I find myself with writer’s block or for those instances where life decides to steal your day from you. Plus, it makes it easier for me to sync up the blog calendar with the social media one (hello repurposing content!)—which leads me to my next set of tips…
How I Schedule Social Media Posts
Social media can be a total chore if you haven’t done yourself the favor of laying a little groundwork. And, even though you’ll never hear me suggesting that you sit down and plan an entire month’s worth of posts in a day (1-2 weeks is hard enough!) I do have a scheduling routine that makes it possible for me to oversee and share 3 or 4 Instagram posts a day.
There is a recurring social media scheduling task on my Enji calendar every Friday, and I block a good chunk of my day (about 5 hours) to do my content creation and scheduling for the upcoming week. (You can pick whatever day is best for you—mine just happens to be at the end of the week when all y’all are working weddings.) The breakdown is 30 minutes each for Business For Good San Diego, TAYLRD, and Sourced Co. and the rest of the time for Enji.
Before I get started, I pull out my blog calendar for reference as well as any notes on marketing announcements that need to be made.
Then I spend a few minutes looking at my social media insights to see what content has been performing the best in the past month.
I open my marketing calendar in Enji and add posts with the social media scheduler on the days they need to go out—and then I get to creating content! My favorite thing about using Enji’s social media scheduler is the visual planner for Instagram because I can add “blank” posts that help me see how my grid is going to look without needing to imagine the gaps.
Most days I can get it all done, but sometimes I need to let it spill into the weekend because my brain just needs a break. It’s Enji’s content that often needs to get finished over the weekend because I am still in the phase where I am creating all the content from scratch—all the other accounts I manage have plenty of content I can repurpose.
How I Project Manage Myself
The key to keeping up with social media and consistently blogging (on top of all the other business and client tasks you are responsible for) is scheduling your time and then holding yourself accountable. I am not just talking about putting calls and meetings on the calendar. I am talking about micro-managing yourself (even though, please don’t anyone ever try to micro-manage me, haha). Regardless of the project, put the due date on your radar and then block as much time as you need on your calendar in the days, weeks, or even months ahead of it to make sure it is completed.
Think of it this way: you would never sign a contract to plan someone’s wedding and not assign yourself tasks to make sure you didn’t wake up the day before a wedding and not have anything done. So, why would you treat your own business that way?
I encourage you to find (or develop) a system that works for you and your brain—and stick to it! You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish with a little structure in your schedule.
Want to try using Enji’s AI copywriter and social media scheduler? Learn more about Enji’s marketing tools and start your free 14-day trial today!
