The life of a small business owner can be harried and frenetic: working tirelessly to expand business, meet clients, guide employees, and jump on and off conference calls — and so much more. While social media might seem like an additional task on an ever-growing list, it can be used during the most chaotic times. Here is a list of ways and tools to maximize your social media efforts on the go:

1. Location, Location, Location

Apps like Foursquare have made it easy for your customer to share your location via smartphone. There are many benefits to using location-based services. You can engage with your community customers via GPS, text or mobile email once they check-in. You can use a location app to drive a loyalty program in your retail location. The Mayor of your store or restaurant should always get something free. Offer special coupons and deals to customers willing to check-in. Other popular location based services include Gypsii, which allows users to upload pictures and other information.

2. Engage in Twitter Chats

Twitter chats are a simple way to reach and expand your market by interacting with like-minded Twitter users. Twitter chats have a pre-arranged time and hashtag like, #weddingchat, #agchat, or #smallbizchat. Questions are introduced and users engage in meaningful conversation surrounding them for about an hour. This is a great way to meet other people and promote the services and principles of your business. There are Twitter chats on almost every conceivable topic including small business and public relations to literature and fitness.  By the way, don’t forget to join my #SmallBizChat every Wed 8-9pm ET for answers to your small business questions Here’s how to participate in #SmallBizChat bit.ly/S797e 

3. Use a Social Media Calendar

Incorporate a social media calendar into your practice. Social media calendars are the equivalent of an editorial calendar – it is used to outline your daily social media activity. Use it to plan the content you are going to post each day, you should have it down to the minute, particularly if you are hiring a virtual assistant to help you push out your social media marketing. Make sure to include all of your channels. It is much easier to maintain social media content if it’s planned beforehand. Start by making a weekly calendar and grow it from there.

4. Schedule content

Platforms like HootSuite,  SproutSocial and SocialBakers provide a dashboard that allows business owners to manage all their social media channels from one interface. They also allow users to compose content to be posted at a later date. A social media manager can write posts and upload pictures and schedule them to be posted throughout the week. This is an effective method because even if things get hectic during the week, your business can still maintain a strong social media presence.

5. Measure what’s working

You need to measure what content is really working for your followers and readers. Knowing the true depths of your engagement through analysis has many benefits. Use your Google analytics to  understand what ‘sticks’ with your audience, your referral sources, and what your audience is gaining from following your content on your blog.  Use tools like Simply Measured to understand detailed analysis and reports on your social media efforts.

6. Optimize your content

Make sure your content is getting seen by the right eyes by optimizing your content on your website. You can purchase an SEO wordpress plug-in such as Yoast to make your content more searchable. Tools like Power Editor, which ads tags to Facebook ads so it is seen by specific audiences, help save time and achieve results. When it comes to YouTube videos, use a concise and catchy headline. Add keywords to the description of the video. Use tags on your company name, the content of the video and any relevant keywords to make sure your video is found in organic searches.

7. Go where your customers are

The list of social media channels is growing by the day, but do not feel the pressure to become a Vine or Pinterest ninja just yet. Each quarter conduct a listening strategy to know where your customers spend most of their time online. Once you have that information, focus on that one platform. Are most of your prospects LinkedIn obsessed? Facebook Fanatics, Twitter Dominant? Google +ers? Or, are your customers diehard women DIYers that love Pinterest? Keeping a focus on your customers will prevent your social media marketing efforts from becoming a grind.

How do you use social media on the go?