Quick – how many people do you have working on your content marketing team? At large organizations, this team can involve many players, from bloggers, content managers and community managers to social media strategists, social media managers, and community moderators. How can a small business keep up?

We periodically discuss ways to tackle some of the overwhelming amount of work blogging and social media can be for a small business owner, including setting realistic goals for what you have the time, budget and talent to take on. For example, scheduling three blog posts a week is unrealistic if you only have enough time to write two a month. Better to start with what you can handle and focus on writing two good ones. Focusing on one social media site and consistently offering content, monitoring and responding is a much better strategy than setting up accounts on six social media networks and having them inactive after a week or two.

But even this minimal level of social activity is a big time commitment, and it can also be a lonely job!

Don’t Go It Alone

Working with a team can go a long way to lightening the work load. It is also in keeping with the “social” part of social media and social networking. (Of course, one of the first steps to a successful program is making sure your employees are aware that you have one!)

Those who give social media advice often draw a parallel between social media networking and interactions at parties or in groups. Well, a party of one is no fun, and obviously provides no opportunity for interacting, learning, and exchanging of ideas, which is the ultimate goal of all of this. (To quote Andy Warhol: “One’s company, two’s a crowd, and three’s a party.”)

If your budget allows, hiring a community manager, bringing in an intern, or outsourcing your content marketing are always options for building your team. Remember, though, that anyone you hire will be speaking on behalf of your company, so even if you go this route, you’ll want to stay involved at some level to be sure your “voice” is consistently put forward. If hiring is not an option, consider looking to your existing staff for help. Is there someone in your office, or even a family member who spends some time on Facebook and would be willing to lend a hand?

Once you’ve determined how much time and resources you have for content and social media marketing, and who will be on your team, you can start working towards your content marketing goals. Teamwork starts at the planning stage (What are we writing about this month? What do our followers seem to react to on Facebook? What will we include in our newsletter?) and carries through to the actual implementation – writing the posts, sharing them, building your social community. We’ll cover this process in more detail in our next Quick Tip Tuesday post, Managing Your Editorial Calendar. Subscribe to our blog to be sure you receive this and for more tips on managing your content marketing program.