We’re starting to feel like we’re finally getting a decent following in our online presence but it’s starting to get to be a bit much to keep up with. Between handling the online review responses and posting to the various channels, we feel like we’re swimming upstream somedays. Any tips?

– Millennially Challenged

Do you remember when you could manage your online presence without adding an inordinate amount of stress to your life? Me either. It had to be circa 1999 when my GeoCities website was going live. All I had to worry about was which neon color to use and whether it was going to clash with my background pattern.

Today Internetting is hard. I’ve been at this game for a long time, but never has it been more complex and more challenging to reach customers online. There are countless channels and platforms to reach customers, and each one requires its own nuance. How can you stay on top of it?

Here’s my advice. You’re a car wash professional. You’re someone who excels at creating a process to generate repeatable results in the most efficient way possible. So, let’s take some of those skills and apply them to your online presence.

To do this, you need to change the way you’re looking at your online presence. Think about it in terms of a process. How might you be able to be more efficient in your posting across various channels? How might you be able to automate responses to messages? How might you be able to repeat your results in a templated fashion?

I like to start with a simple inventory of the channel I’m actively engaged in with my business. Then, starting with the last quarter’s worth of posts, I map out the types of content I’ve been posting over those channels. Next, I look at the results of those posts, and see what seems to have been effective.

From there, I’ve got the basis for the type of content that is working, where it’s working and how frequently I’ve been posting. Then, it’s simply a matter of building the content calendar in a way that capitalizes on my findings.

Now, you’ve got a blueprint for what to post, when and on what platform.

The next step is to look into a scheduling tool like Buffer, Sprout Social, HootSuite, Agora Pulse, or CoSchedule. There are tons of options out there, but you’ll ultimately have to figure out what will work best for you and your business. If you aren’t scheduling your posts, you’ll go insane!

Champ Savage is a marketing expert. It says so right on his business card. He has traveled the world bringing ideas to business owners of all kinds, and his accolades are even more numerous than his passport stamps. Now, Savage lends his expertise exclusively to CAR WASH Magazine and its readers.