By Susan Neal @SusanNealYoga

Have you ever had a task on your to do list for months, but lacked the motivation to tackle the intimidating job? For me, that task was social media. Oh, I had all my social media accounts set up. However, I did not regularly post.

In fact, I could find every excuse and would rather perform all the other items on my to do list than to post. I knew this needed to change, so at the BRMCWC, I took Edie Melson and DiAnn Mills class, Social Media, Marketing, and Branding, which provided an excellent overview as well as step-by-step instructions on how to simplify social media posting.

Once I got home, I joined ManageFlitter.com which allows you to delete unfollowers on Twitter. This tool helps you to balance out the number of people you follow compared with the number who follow you. So instead of following 1800 and only having 1400 follow me back, my numbers are very close now.

For Instagram, a similar program is the app InsTrack which allows you to delete up to ten unfollowers per hour. It took a long time to balance out my numbers. However, I continued to diligently remove unfollowers several times a day, until I unfollowed most of the accounts that did not follow me back.

The BRMCWC Social Media class conveyed the importance of having the same headshot and banner on all your sites so followers would know you from one platform to the next. So I hired a vendor on Fiverr.com to create social media banners for all of my accounts including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google +, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat. I wanted my logo and professional photograph included in the banners. Here is my banner.

Finally, I took the plunge and signed up for social media automation through PostPlanner.com. Edie uses Hootsuite.com and Dianne uses Buffer.com. However, I chose to use Post Planner, even though it costs $9 per month because it has a feature where you can post the same item weeks, months, or years later. I put a lot of time and effort into creating social media memes, so I am rescheduling them to run every two years. In fact, many evergreen posts can be repeated two years later, and followers would not even realize it.

Another feature of Post Planner is it has thousands of social media posts categorized by topics, that you can post, instantly. So you do not have to create or hunt for interesting, relevant information or gorgeous photos because they are right at your finger tips. Check out some of the interesting health and wellness posts on my Facebook page. Post Planner saves me a lot of time. If I had only taken the plunge months ago.

I can’t believe I procrastinated for over a year to subscribe to a social media automation system. It took ten minutes to join and two hours in video tutorials to figure out the program, but the progress in reference to scheduling posts is like light years ahead. If you have been on the fence regarding automating social media—do it! You will save yourself something that is so precious—your time, and you will begin to have an online presence because of your posting consistency. Edie and DiAnn emphasized the necessity of regular posting.

I work on my social media posting in the evening when I am winding down. I want to write during my most productive time of the day. I can get most of my posting completed for the week in two different one-hour sessions. Now I am posting daily on Facebook and a couple of times a day on Twitter (https://twitter.com/SusanNealYoga). This is much better than what I was doing before—maybe one post a week. A good rule of thumb recommended in the social media class was that out of every five posts only one should be about you or your product, and the other four posts should be valuable content for your followers.

Edie and DiAnn are teaching about social media again at Mountainside Marketing Conference (http://www.mountainsidemarketingconference.com/conference-information/) January 12-15, 2018 at Ridgecrest. If you did not have the opportunity to attend their class at the BRMCWC, I highly recommend this conference.

Susan Neal RN, MBA, and MHS has a passion for inspiring others to be healthy and grow in their faith because when our bodies function properly, we can serve God better. Her article, Eatin’ in Eden was published in Clubhouse magazine. She published two books, Scripture Yoga and Yoga for Beginners. Her hospice C.D., Bedside Encouragement: When You Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye, two Christian Yoga DVDs, God’s Mighty Angels and What the Bible Says About Prayer, and two Christian Yoga Card Decks, “Fruit of the Spirit” and “How to Receive God’s Peace” are available on Amazon.com and ChristianYoga.com. Susan’s two digital products, Eat to Live with a Low-Carbohydrate, Low-Glycemic, Anti-Inflammatory Diet (Gumroad.com) and How to Prevent, Improve, and Reverse Alzheimer’s and Dementia (Gumroad.com), are available at ChristianYoga.com and Gumroad. Susan is a member of Word Weavers International and has been interviewed on Moody Radio, Blog Talk Radio, and Premier Christian Radio of the UK. She is the founder of Scripture Yoga™ where theme based Bible verses are recited during a yoga class. If you would like to try a free Scripture Yoga™ class titled “The Lord’s Festivals” it is available at free Christian yoga class.