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Turn Down The Hustle: Empowering Online T-Shirt Sellers
Are you a t-shirt maker or a seller of handmade products? Are you trying to turn your creative passion into a thriving business while balancing your 9-5 job? You're in the right place!
I'm Amy, and I've been where you are. I know what it's like to have a million ideas but limited time in the day. That's why I created the "Turn Down The Hustle" podcast – a weekly show designed to help busy creatives like you.
Join me as we dive into practical tips and actionable insights. We'll cover marketing strategies that work specifically for t-shirt makers and simple techniques to enhance your craft. But that's not all – we'll also have honest conversations about the real challenges of being a creative entrepreneur.
So, grab a cup of coffee and hit play. Listen to "Turn Down The Hustle" while you're fulfilling orders or taking a well-deserved break. Together, we'll navigate this entrepreneurial journey and find harmony between creativity and business.
For more information, show-notes & to join a community of t-shirt makers like you -- visit: www.sunkissedva.com/podcast
Turn Down The Hustle: Empowering Online T-Shirt Sellers
21 | Facebook Group Tools: Scheduled Posts
Ever felt like you're chained to your social media feed, desperately trying to keep up the facade of an always-on presence? Break free from the relentless cycle with our latest episode, where we unveil the transformative strategy of scheduled posts. Imagine savoring your kid's ball game or indulging in some well-earned downtime, all while your online community buzzes with the latest content, as if by magic. We dive into six compelling reasons to embrace this approach, from the practical time-saving elegance of batch working to the productivity surge of time blocking. It's not just about efficiency; it's about rediscovering the moments that make life vibrant and ensuring your business thrives without your constant surveillance.
This episode is a treasure trove of personal anecdotes and expert advice on maintaining a consistent, engaging online presence that doesn't sacrifice your personal joys. We explore how weaving your real-life experiences into your social strategy, through structured sharing like weekly emails or scheduled posts, fosters a genuine connection with your audience. There's a nod to Queen B Graphics and Designs for those bomb graphics she creates for those who crave organizational nirvana with content calendar packages and planners, complete with a special listener discount to get you started. Join us as we chart a course towards a balanced life, where passion for your business and personal fulfillment coexist in perfect harmony.
Save 21% on your next Content Calendar with code "21" by clicking here.
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We are in our final episode of the series for Facebook group tools. We have talked about four other tools, so if you missed those, make sure you go back and listen to those episodes. Today we are talking about scheduled posts. So I would say the biggest business hack of all times is scheduled posts. Scheduled posts what are they? They're auto posted at a future date or time from when you created it.
Speaker 1:To your audience it looks like man. She is on it. She is online all the time. She is super active in her business, when really you might be at the ball field because you didn't even just post that. You scheduled the post. So it's helping you get that time back, or turning down the hustle. You can schedule your post directly in your Facebook group. You can hit the little clock looking icon to schedule it for a future date, or you can use the business suite planner tool so you can schedule it to your page or your group, however you want to do directly in Facebook. Or you can use Send Share. So it's not a Facebook group tool, but it is an option if you want to schedule it to your Facebook page or your story. In a lot of other places. Scheduling your post is the ultimate turn down the hustle. Today, we're going to be talking about six reasons you should be scheduling your social media content.
Speaker 2:You're listening to Turn Down the Hustle, the podcast dedicated to transforming how you run your creative online t-shirt business by working smarter, not harder, so you can spend more time with your why, people and passions that matter most in your life. So throw on your favorite graphic tee and turn up the heat. Press, because it's time to turn down the hustle. Here's your host digital marketer. Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker, freckled hype girl and owner of SunKist Virtual Assistant, amy.
Speaker 1:The first reason you should be scheduling your post is it allows you to batch work. Why is batch working so important? So from a study that the University of California at Irvine did, they found that it takes around 23 minutes for people to get back on task if you jump task. So let's say you are on Facebook trying to post something maybe in real time your engagement graphic and then you get an email. You go over there, address the email, respond whatever you need to do, it takes, on average, 23 minutes for you to get focused back into what you were doing. So by scheduling your posts, that allows you to stay focused and see the tasks through to completion.
Speaker 1:What exactly is batching your work? It's whenever you group similar tasks and complete them all at once. So think about meal prepping. Instead of preparing ingredients every night or running to the grocery store every day, you can cook three meals at once that last your family for six days. Let's apply that now to your social media content. Instead of your plan A being posting in real time daily, schedule your content for a week or a month all in one sitting. So you say, today I'm going to schedule all of my engagement for the entire month and tomorrow I'm going to schedule all of my product drops for the entire month. The time you will save by having to open up your files, carving out time in your schedule to do this every day and staying focused to actually submit the post, that time will compound over time. As a small business owner, every minute counts that we have when we're not at our nine to five when you schedule your post, set a goal to schedule two weeks at a time. To start, by using this batching technique for scheduling your post, you are also starting to use a technique known as time blocking, which I am a super fan of time blocking to stay focused and that allows you to minimize the task switching that you do, where, on average, it takes 23 minutes to get back to what you're doing. I recommend trying out that technique, time blocking and you can search on my website time blocking at sunkissvacom if you want more resources to help you do that. Once your batch work is complete and all of your baseline business tasks are scheduled, that's what frees you up to make those in real time posts as you want, or those are organic posts of you at the press, or maybe taking a picture of the box of shirts that just arrived and anticipating the hype of is your order in this box. It frees you up to do that, versus forcing yourself to be creative each day to make those certain posts because you don't have those baseline posts scheduled. And if on one day you don't feel like making an organic post, hey, no sweat, your scheduled posts are going to carry it for you.
Speaker 1:Moving on to the second reason why you should be scheduling your posts is consistency. We need to be what we want our customers to be consistent. Part of being consistent as a business owner is providing quality items within your post to turnaround time and showing up to meet our customers online. If we go silent or take long, unannounced breaks from social media, our customers may forget about our offer, unless you have an established email list which you know I'm a super fan of in which case you are so reaching them weekly. So plug there. If you don't have an email list that you're already building and emailing your followers and subscribers weekly, I highly recommend you start. So if you do fall off the consistency train on social media, no sweat, you're still reaching them. But it takes time to build a relationship, especially if you aren't ever meeting your customers in person.
Speaker 1:As a small business owner, days off online typically get blurred. It's not realistic to show up every single day, fully present to your small business. That's why scheduled posts can fill those gaps. When you cannot be present online at that very moment, feel the weight lifted from your shoulders when you receive a notification that your scheduled post has been posted. You may even forget that you scheduled it, and that's what makes it even more exhilarating whenever you're getting notifications that so and so commented on your post and you didn't even have to do any work that day. It's a good feeling.
Speaker 1:The next reason to schedule your Facebook post is one that I thought about of a way to not outsmart the algorithm, but just not rely on it per se, and that is for predictability. You are well aware of how harsh social media algorithms can be. For example, you are competing in your customers newsfeed against their personal friends news stories, the latest coffee shop grand opening announcements, engagement party photos and other businesses, not to mention ads, and it can push your post further and further down, maybe not even be seen. So what if your customers knew exactly what posts to look for from you and when? You can with the predictability of posts, so not relying on social media to be shown to them or to give them a notification. Instead, your customers know when to go looking for something.
Speaker 1:I don't recommend using social media to surprise your customers with posts or posting structure meaning. Instead, I recommend you get in the habit of scheduling your posts for the same day, at the same time. If there's a certain themed post, for instance, if you schedule and in case you missed it post, pick the same time and same day of the week every week, I will link that in the show notes of what and in case you missed it post looks like, also with a template to get started. Eventually, your customers will start associating your posts with a particular date and time of the week Instead of relying on Facebook to get the information be predictable and consistent. They will come to your group knowing what they will find and what they are looking for.
Speaker 1:Ecavia on the In case you missed it post. Facebook has been in some groups removing those links directly in your post. So if that is happening in your group, you can get creative with the in case you missed it post. Have a summary wrap-up of what they missed, but put some of those links in the comments. This will also help you. So if you know you schedule your post for 8 am Every Saturday, you've already done the bulk work of those posts, but then you know when to come back online to drop those links in there.
Speaker 1:Regarding predictability, keep your call to action and links in the same place every time. If you use an emoji Such as an arrow or like that finger pointing, use this emoji every time, so their eyes eventually know precisely what they are scanning for. So if they're like, okay, where is she wanting me to click, they just look for that emoji and they know that's associated with an action. Or If you want to try the strategy of putting links only in your comments, I would keep it consistent with that, so your followers always know to check the comments for that link. Just remember, though, with links and comments, you're gonna have to revisit that post At the time of this episode. There is not a way to automatically have a comment go out, like your scheduling comments, once that post has been scheduled. The beauty of scheduling your posts is that your customers will have all the information even if you're asleep. Another technique is teasing a product and asking those to comment who are interested. So if they're interested, go comment and then go back and reply to their comments with their link. All right, number four is a good end.
Speaker 1:Number four reason why you should be scheduling your posts is For strategy. Have you ever felt like you're posting without any real plan or structure? Each day you're kind of just grabbing straws. You don't really know which direction to go. Like I mentioned in an earlier reason, maybe you're just trying to find things to post and it's stressing you out. If you think of something, you post it, but then realize the following day that you realize you hadn't posted that sale. It is extremely tough to create a strategy for your business If you haven't looked at it from a God's eye view, to see exactly when you are going. Think about swimming underwater. You will know a lot better where you are swimming or where you are headed If you come to the surface and look around before going under again. The same can be said for your business. By scheduling your posts ahead of time, you can review what holidays are coming, be mindful of that vacation you want to take, space out your sales so you're not hitting them day after day, and Strategically plan any giveaways. And, to add, having a plan, let you see where your business is going and you can keep it on track. Simply move posts around in a logical order before hitting that schedule button. Side note if you feel like you need help planning out those holidays or your vacation Around your product drop so scheduling those I highly recommend you go to Sun Kiss VA comm forward slash Pdo. That's Papa Delta Oscar. I will link it in the show notes to check out my product drop organizer plan. It was created for this specific reason in mind.
Speaker 1:The fifth reason is for engagement. How many birthdays, graduations or bachelorette parties have you thrown? Think about that. And how did it go? Did you leave the party after the guests arrive Because you forgot to go get the cake? You didn't think through using masking tape for the banner and now it's falling off the wall. You got to go get a different tape. Your lack of preparedness made it pretty hard to entertain, enjoy and engage with your guests. You can't really enjoy them if you're stressed out Trying to run around grab things. It's just not well put together. The same thing happens on social media when you aren't prepared and constantly playing catch up. If you schedule your posts, this will allow you to enjoy your hard work with your social media followers. Instead of showing up frazzled to your group, you can cut loose with them in the comments and enjoy the post with them.
Speaker 1:Posting your engagement, whether it's organic or a templated graphic, can only go so far. Once you've posted it now, it's expected that you're going to follow up with those comments and engage with them. I get it as your business grows or you get busy. You're not going to be able to do this all the time, but that's where I want you to be more targeted and intentional with the posts that you do share. So if you're finding yourself that you can't go back and engage on all of the posts that you're putting out there into the ether, what I recommend is that you reduce the amount that you're posting to allow you to go back and engage Once you get in a good habit pattern. Then you can increase this amount. And, yes, you're not spamming the newsfeed with more posts from you. So this might be a mental block for you or hurdle to get over to think, hey, wait, if I'm not able to engage, I should post less. But this is coming from a strategy of building community, so I'd rather have a few posts where we have really good conversation and I'm able to make connections, versus having a ton of posts that are I'm ghost, I'm silent, I'm no longer there. To me, that's not a good strategy if you're trying to build community and engagement.
Speaker 1:The last reason to schedule your posts number six is really simple. It's what matters most. What about the time you get back from not stressing and trying to brainstorm every day what to post? What if your scheduled posts show up for you so you can spend more time with your? Why? You started a business? To provide a better life for your family or find freedom and being your own boss. What good is pursuing that dream if you are owned and controlled by your phone? Scheduling your posts allows you to put down the phone, spend time with your loved ones. Also, you know when your posts will be scheduled, so showing up for 10 minutes around the time that post first hits the interweb goes a long way.
Speaker 1:I highly recommend sharing who you are and more about your life with your audience, but this doesn't have to be posted in real time. Capture those moments and enjoy them to the fullest. Set aside 15 minutes a week to grab all the photos from your camera roll and add them to an album so you can share with your group as a scheduled post. Maybe you sprinkle these out, or what you did over the week can go out in your weekly email as you're sharing about your new, latest drop. But don't forget what matters most, and by scheduling your posts it helps you keep this in perspective.
Speaker 1:All right, amy, you got me. I'm convinced I need to schedule posts, but when I'm supposed to be scheduling. So if you're feeling confused or kind of lost on what exactly you should be scheduling or where to start, I would love to help you. Queen B Graphics and Designs creates all of the graphics that are in my content calendar packages or tea party planners. I will link it in the show notes for you to get started, and also by listening to this episode, I'm going to give you a discount code to be used one time on your next content calendar. It will save you 21% off. So all you need to do is type in 21 in that discount code field and you will get 21% off to represent episode 21 today.
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