When you are overseeing a busy marketing team, you have multiple activities to oversee. From planning new product launches to scheduling marketing activities, you barely have a few minutes to monitor your company’s LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram pages.
If you are putting together a marketing plan, you may be wondering how much time your team should spend on social media marketing. The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the time you spend on your social.
Let’s take a look at the optimal time you should invest in social media marketing.
How Social Media Marketing Helps Your Business
If you are a business owner, you cannot ignore the importance of social media. You have millions of audience on social media who could be interested in your products or services.
However, without a plan and a social media marketing strategy, you may not achieve the desired results. With social media, you connect with your audience and build relationships with loyal customers.
You can find every type of customer on social media, which means if you carve out a niche for your products, you can easily find new leads. Besides, the data analytics available on social media platforms help you improve visibility.
Your social media marketing efforts help you learn about customers’ demands and provide superior products and services. You can study customer behaviors and come up with products matching their needs.
How Much Time Should You Dedicate to Social Media Marketing Daily?
According to a survey by VerticalResponse, 43% of business owners dedicate six hours weekly to social media marketing. That is almost equivalent to the whole workday or one hour twelve minutes daily, and most create posts for popular social media sites.
While the time seems reasonable for many small businesses, if you have a large company, you have to dedicate more time to social media marketing. For instance, a large business will need a comprehensive social media marketing plan that has the following aspects:
- Scheduling social media posts: You need to create a schedule for creating and sharing posts on socials.
- Monitoring social media: It is crucial to pay attention to brand mentions and ensure the audience is aware of the company’s products and services.
- Interacting with your audience: A successful social media marketing campaign requires regular interactions with the audience, from answering questions to engaging in simple conversations.
- Expanding your reach: You need to connect with other industry leaders and boost your visibility.
What Factors Influence Time Expenditure on Social Media Marketing?
With all the benefits of social media marketing, does time really matter? How much time you spend on your social media marketing depends on your social media strategy and various factors, including:
Social Media Objectives
The amount of time you spend on social media will depend on the objectives you want to achieve. For instance, if you are a small business, your main aim for using social media is to connect with your local audience and expand your reach.
However, an international business may be focused on building brand awareness by boosting social visibility. That means you need to spend more time on social media and maintain consistency in posting to grow your audience.
When you have objectives for social media, you may reduce time spent surfing and have a focused approach to your social media campaign.
Target Audience
In social media marketing, your target audience determines the time you spend on your campaigns. For instance, if you are targeting an international audience, time is a major factor.
You have to keep your audience updated on the latest news and events depending on their time zones. That’s why you need detailed buyer personas.
When creating a schedule for social media campaigns, you determine when your audience is the most active on Facebook, LinkedIn and X.
Social Media Platforms
The time you spend on social media marketing depends on the social media platforms. If your company has an account on all social media platforms, you will spend more time creating and optimizing content for each platform.
Some platforms, like LinkedIn, may require less time, while other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, where you have to be active, need a lot of time.
Available Resources
What tools do you have for your social media marketing campaign? When you have scheduling tools and technology to help you create content for your social media campaign, you can minimize time spent on social media pages.
For instance, you can create content for an entire week and schedule your posts, and you can spend a few hours daily responding to your audience and reviewing the data analytics.
Conclusion
After analyzing the factors that affect your social media marketing, you can estimate the average time you should invest in marketing. You can spend 6 to 10 hours a week or more, depending on your business needs.
Whether you spend an hour daily or more, it is important to remain connected and engaged with your audience.