There is no one who gets more excited about the latest tool than a social media professional. For me, my brain goes to all the new things I could do with it. Here is the problem: It gets really hard for clients when you’re constantly change your business processes because you have a new tool you want to use. Simple always seems to be the right choice.

But you want to be more efficient! You want to streamline all your processes! That’s great. Your client wants to get work done and achieve their goals. Having to constantly learn new things may get you excited, but it likely will tire your overworked client out.

So how do you balance your enthusiasm with your client’s needs?

Client communication

There are a lot of tools out there for project management that can aid your business with client communication. In my experience, I don’t normally have a client who wants that level of detail. What they do want is one simple place where they can tell what’s coming up and when.

What I do for this is a Google doc. The tabs include a monthly overview, weekly details and a place for them to tell me anything I need to know. I keep it as simple as possible so they can easily get the information they need and give me information I need without having to sign up for anything.

From what clients have told me, they don’t want another program to sign up for. They just want a simple, reliable way to get and give information. So as much as a project management program may feel like a more efficient tool, for most clients it’s probably a skip. But it is great for internal communications where you need to be more precise about what is happening. Does that mean you have to transfer information from one program to another? Yes, but the ease for clients makes it worth to me.

Keep content simple

There’s a time and place for complex content that has several moving parts. That’s mostly on the backend with very few exceptions.

What most fans want is something that they can interact with easily and doesn’t ask much of them. A photo album with fifty photos that your audience will have to comb through? Not simple. A fun photo (or video) with a link to the fuller album hosted elsewhere (bonus points if it offers high res downloads) is a much simpler post for your fans that should garner higher engagement rates. Why? Because they’re not choosing between what to engage with on social media, but they’re also not having to go through a ton of content to find something they want to engage with. No choices means they are more likely to engage with what is presented to them.

Is that way of doing things simple on the backend? Nope. It requires a little more planning and finding a place to host images. But in the long run, presented something simple to your audience will go a long way.

Simple boundaries that you stick to

Something that I have found is that your clients do understand simple boundaries. They will also test them. And if you reward every test by breaking your boundaries, then you will quickly find that you are very far from your original boundaries without a great way to get back to them.

I have boundaries on times I respond to regular requests and the ways that clients can contact me. And then clients have a way to reliably get me for emergency situations that pop up and vice versa. If they break these boundaries, I gently remind them. If it becomes a habit, then we will part ways. It’s all very simple, and it’s all in the best interests of both of us.

This also supports the kind of professional life I want to lead. Life as a whole has become super complicated. Even though you can’t make all of your professional life simple, there are certain aspects you can control enough to make them simple. And that can create a better relationship with your clients.

How are you making your business simple?