Social media is just like any other business activity, you need to be sure that it is helping you reach your goals and that the time spent is worth it in the long run. That’s why figuring out a time management strategy for your social media tasks is critical to getting the best return on your investment. At Smokeball, we understand that each channel is different and learning the new features or platforms can be overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be, if you put aside 30 mins a day to manage two to three social platforms.

Focus On Effective Social Media Platforms

Every social media platform is different as each will provide different benefits to your law firm.  And it’s up to you to determine which social media platforms provide the best benefits to your legal practice. Once you figure it out, that’s where you should invest most of your social media time. Let’s take a look at a few tactics for finding out which social media platform is a winner for your law firm:

• Test multiple platforms. Set aside at least three months to work on two or more social media platforms. You should make it a daily habit to post and interact on your platforms and be sure to include links with a call to action that direct readers to a landing page where you can later track how many people visited from that social platform. This is a great way to measure the effectiveness of the social media platforms and narrowing down your choices based on your results.
• Track conversion rates.  Track how many visitors on each platform clicked links to your landing page, and the number of completed the actions on the landing page you sent them to during an appropriate duration. Setting up correct conversion tracking or goal measurements is important to track your conversion rates. With your conversions it’s a great way to reach out to potential clients.
• Assess the results. Once you’ve tracked conversion rates over the course of three months, assess which platform provided the highest conversion rates. This is the platform where you should invest the majority of your social media time.

You should also consider the possibility that some social media platforms are great for only certain interactions. For example, maybe Twitter has a higher conversion rate when you’re interacting with job candidates while LinkedIn works much better for recruiters and employers. This information can help you make good decisions about how you will split your social media time.

Streamline Your Process

Even if you’ve been on social media for several years already, you need to create (or refine) your process so that you can get more done in less time.

• Use a social media management tool. Tools such as HootSuite Sprout Social or Buffer allows you to post across multiple social media platforms with just one click, as well as manage various social media accounts under different names. Social media management tools can be incredible timesavers.
• Batch similar tasks. The act of switching from one type of task to another takes time and energy that can add up to many wasted hours each week. This is why batching similar tasks together can go a long way in helping your effectively manage your social media time. For example, you might decide to spend 10 minutes responding to direct messages on Twitter and 20 minutes replying to the most important people you follow on Facebook.  
• Schedule posts in advance. Placing your social media posts on a calendar is one of the most effective ways of managing your social media time. Social media management tools such as HootSuite allow you to schedule posts in advance which makes it easier to organize your social media tasks. You could technically schedule all of your posts for the week, freeing up your workdays for other important items.

Outsource Your Work

One of the most effective ways to manage your social media time is to outsource some or all of your work to someone else who understands your company’s business objective. Once you’ve created your system and created a template for the type of social media content you want to produce, it will be easy to hand off the work to someone else.

Don’t let social media tasks eat away too much time in your day, use the best strategies to effectively manage your social media.

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Lynn Luong is the Digital Marketing Manager for Smokeball, a case management software that increases productivity and efficiency for solo attorneys  and small law firms to become more profitable.  Lynn has over 8 years of experience in marketing with a focus on digital by developing successful strategies and managing many areas of marketing.