How to Manage Your Business’s Social Media
Social media took the internet by storm, and it has grown into a dominant force in the marketing world. Managing your business’s social media is crucial to growing your presence online, engaging with customers, and creating successful marketing campaigns.
Knowing this, it can seem a little daunting. Keeping all of your social channels in order, posting quality and regular content, and keeping up with consumer interactions doesn’t have to be that hard though. Once you’ve got yourself a system, and a few helpful resources, you’ll be a social media master in no time at all.
First thing’s first though…
What is your message and who are you targeting?
Your message is key to any marketing effort, as is the purpose of the specific social media platform it is being dispersed upon. For example, Instagram is good for appealing to younger audiences, with a rough demographic between 14 – 40, whereas Facebook is a better option for reaching people over 40.
There is little point in going through the effort of setting up and curating content for a social media platform that your target audience doesn’t use. Research your target demographic and you can start to plan an appropriate social media strategy.
The next step is to work out your message.
What is the purpose of your business living on social? Is it to increase brand awareness, engage with customers, or showcase your work? Are you looking to grow your brand’s reputation, direct traffic to your website, or promote products, services, and events on a sharable platform?
Keep in mind, though, that gathering likes isn’t the only way to measure success with social media. Social media is great for engagement, and instead of looking at likes or shares success is measured by comment threads.
When it comes down to it, there is no one way to manage your account, and there is no right way or magic method! Social media is a very organic platform.
Tools of the Trade
The right tools make a world of difference. A spanner cannot do a hammer’s job, right? Equipping yourself with the right tools for social media management will make your job much easier.
We recommend getting a scheduling application that will automatically publish posts for you. Spending a few hours each month, creating posts and scheduling them, saves you splitting the task up over multiple days and rushing to publish on a schedule (which is another thing we recommend – keep to a consistent posting schedule).
It is also important to keep up with social media trends, especially those in your industry, and with how social media is changing. Facebook has changed enormously from what it was a few years ago, and Instagram has new features and side-along apps added every few months.
Do your research, keep up to date with hashtags and social media movements, and follow leaders in your area.
Final Tips
Keep on it. Monitor your platforms, note down your most and least successful posts, and engage with your followers.
Social media needs a fair bit of attention, don’t neglect it. Hiring a social media manager or community manager (or an agency like us!) to curate, monitor, and manage your business’s social media can be a good investment – especially if you don’t have the time to spare!
You don’t have to create original content for every post either! The benefit of social media is that it can be shared, and you can share posts from your clients, industry leaders, and any post relevant to your field.
Managing your business’s social media can seem a daunting task, but if you follow our advice and keep to a schedule you’ll be a social media master in no time at all.
