A few weeks ago I was on a 1:1 coaching call with a client when she asked me, “How do you “do” social media without letting it consume you?”

I’ve been asked this question before but for whatever reason this time it stopped me in my tracks.  In the past my answer has always been: batch your content, meaning you don’t need to write an entire month’s content in one day; break it up into bite size tasks, like filming all your Reels for the month one day, and write your captions the following day, and repurpose old content, both of which can and will help take some of the overwhelm/stress of planning a month’s content calendar. However, if you don’t have a system for batching your content or repurposing your content, then I hate to break it to you, but you’re going to find yourself feeling overwhelmed and stressed about figuring out how to manage your content calendar and social media strategy. 

I recently read Atomic Habits by James Clear, a book that I will for sure be adding to “10 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read”. There was a lot of highlighting going on when I was reading but one phrase I highlighted and hope you take away from this blog post even if you don’t read Atomic Habits, is this:

“If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still succeed?”

What if instead of focusing on the goal of “being consistent on Instagram this month,” you focused on the system and tools you are going to use to help you stay consistent?

Salon owners repeatedly tell me they want to “be consistent” or “get more engagement” on their social media platforms. While those are acceptable goals to have, I always question what consistency looks like? To you, being consistent might mean posting once a week, but to your competition consistent might mean posting 3 times a week. Furthermore, how are you going to measure your consistency? No matter your goals, ask yourself what tasks or habits are you forming to achieve a successful social media system.

Are you setting aside time to work on captions each week or month? Or are you frantically trying to write it the morning it needs to be posted?

Are you scheduling posts in Later, or another scheduling app? Or wasting the time of posting it (I know there will be exceptions to this, since there are no apps out there that let you auto publish Reels).

Are you spending at least 30 minutes a day engaging thoughtfully with your audience? Or are you wasting hours mindlessly scrolling?

Just like all the other systems you have in your business: ordering inventory, payroll, etc, you need a system for your social media if you want to start seeing results. 

What a social media system is vs. what it is not

Let me make it clear that writing your Instagram post ideas in a note on your phone, downloading a content calendar template, and having your front desk employee post to your Instagram stories every day is NOT a system. This is organized chaos.

When I first started my business, I had a lot of organized chaos. How I created client content calendars back in 2018 is no where close to how I create them today. It took me 4 years to master my social media system to the point where I finally don’t feel overwhelmed and consistently burnt out. 

I started The Buzzing Blonde to help small businesses understand how to navigate social media platforms in order to help their business thrive. My mission still stands. I am making it my mission to help educate and teach salon owners and beauty professionals how to create a social media system. Everyone’s systems are going to look different, but here is a peak into what my system looks like:

Researching > Collecting inspiration> Creating > Batching > Scheduling > Testing > Tracking > Engaging > Repurposing > Repeat

Whatever your system, it should stay consistent. Social media is constantly changing. Almost every other day there are new updates, new features and new obstacles. It is my job as a social media manager to help my customers understand these changes and how to navigate them into their systems. 

How to come up with a social media system

I can’t tell you how to come up with a social media system in one blog post. I already told you what works for you might not work for me. I can however offer a few suggestions, or things to consider when creating a system for you and your business. 

• Schedule days/times to research content topics

• Schedule days/times you will create graphics for your social media 

• Schedule specific times each day when you will engage on each social media platform

• Schedule days/times you will batch Reels/TikToks

• Schedule days/ times you will work on captions

• Schedule day/times to track your social media insights each week

• Schedule days/times once a month to repurpose old content

• Create social media boundaries for yourself

Tools to Help You create a social media system:

• Later (or any other scheduling app) for scheduling content

• Airtable for planning out content – you can keep all your social media ideas here since they have an app 

• Canva for creating graphics

• Mojo for creating fun and engaging Instagram stories

• Check out this blog for content ideas

So, how do you “do” social media without letting it consume you?

You create a system. 

Everyone’s system is going to look different, after all, we all learn differently, but that’s one of the things I love about 1:1 coaching. I get to help you create a social media content calendar system that works for you and your brain. 

If you are a salon owner looking for a system that works for you, let’s create one together!