5 Social Media Tips For Bridal Businesses By Event Planner Turned Social Media Expert Nicole Pope!

1. Plan Now; Save Time Later.

Each week, set aside just one to two hours to plan and schedule your social media posts. While you’re busy helping your clients during the rest of the week, your social media accounts will be hard at work, finding new clients for you.

2. Know Your Audience.

Know when your readers are most tuned in, and which keywords and hashtags resonate with them. Are your readers reading your posts on the weekends, or on weekday mornings? When you’re posting on social media, schedule your posts to arrive at the times when your readers are logged in. Also, don’t forget to understand your target demographics! With Pinterest, for instance, know that over 75% of the readers you’ll reach will be female. Your social media presence will be so much more impactful if you just keep these points in mind while you’re crafting and scheduling your posts.

3. Look for Time-Saving Hacks.

Keep a cheat-sheet with your notes for each social media account. When I was creating posts for my event planning business, I found myself stopping to look up the image size requirements so much that I walked away from my keyboard one night and created my own cheat sheet.

4. Say it with Pictures!

Was it already a cliché when my grandmother told me that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words?’ If you have something important to say, say it with images. Images have a bigger impact on readers who are scanning their feeds, and they’re more likely to be shared with your readers’ friends and followers, who may just use that image to discover you! Images are more effective, especially on Pinterest and Instagram.

5. Be Present.

Yes, I know it sounds like a yoga mantra :-) But, actually, it’s sage social media advice. I recommend having a presence on as many social networks as possible. Start with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Don’t forget YouTube if videos are an important part of your work. Also, while you’re on social media, it almost goes without saying, but remember to comment on and like others’ posts. You’ll gain a loyal following, and it’ll help you get noticed. (And you might even make some new friends too!) .

When I started my event planning business, I knew that people needed to know I was an event planner, who could help them plan their events. Sounds simple, right? Well, it should be. Until life gets in the way.

I soon learned that each of my potential clients had a life, and demands on their time. They were busy with kids, work, hobbies, interests, friends. In an ideal world, I knew my clients would find me, when they went to pick the absolute best person to plan their dream corporate outing or family reunion. But, I also knew that life gets in the way, sometimes.

As I built my business, I noticed that many potential clients go with the approach I call ‘top of mind.’ They tend to select the first event planner that comes to mind...Maybe it’s a friend, or a friend of a friend, or someone a former co-worker used.

To succeed in any business, you’ve got to get to ‘top of mind’.

One night, while I was having dinner with my friend Rachel, we were discussing (or lamenting, maybe :-)), the realities of running a local business while parenting small children. When my kids were at school, my potential clients were at work. When my potential clients were out and about, during evenings and weekends, looking for someone like me to plan their events, I was busy being a mom.

Later that night, as I drove home from that dinner, the idea came to me.

What if I could find a way to reach those clients when they were available, but spend the time reaching them when I was available?

The idea for 18er was born.

Whenever I talk with Rachel (or any of my friends), one thing keeps coming up: everyone wants their posts to get published when their readers are active on social media, not when they create the actual posts.

So I designed 18er so that, with just one to two hours a week, I have my next month of social media content written and scheduled to get published exactly when I want.

I even include statistics to show me which keywords and hashtags as well as the best day of week and time of day that gets the most social media engagement. I keep that in mind as I schedule my future posts.

I still use that cheat-sheet I created a while ago, to wrap my head around image size requirements across various social media networks. When I told Rachel about it, she made a copy, and, before long, I was sharing it with all of my friends, and friends of friends.

As I was planning for 18er's features, I knew I had to find a way to automate and include that cheat-sheet. It made sense to build it as part of the Visual Composer, which has 40+ built-in simple yet beautiful templates to help me resize my images so they are compatible with the requirements of various social media networks.

I hated the time lost hopping between Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram! When you’re a mom, or a parent, or just about anyone these days, your time is so valuable. I knew I had to build something like Streams, which lets me connect with and engage my friends, fans and followers across all of my social media accounts at once. I love having a dashboard that allows me to tweet, retweet, comment, and like from one page. It’s one of the features on 18er that generates the most positive feedback.

When I created 18er to solve my social media problems, frustrations, and just to give me more time, I couldn’t wait to share it with my friends. Now, I’m ready to take it to the world and share 18er with you! 18er has made such a difference in our lives. I can’t wait to hear about the changes it makes in yours!

18er was built so you can stay connected to your business while you grow your business.

Join us in making social media manageable. Sign up for a free account on 18er today.

Want to learn more about how 18er can make social media work for you? Check out this video!