What do we understand by social media management? Broadly speaking, this concept refers to the management of a company’s communication through social networks, to improve its results and achieve its objectives.
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Why is social media management important?
Many of us have grown up in the world of online friends and followers. A world in which, if we want to find a restaurant, learn new recipes, buy a spare part for a vehicle or clothes for a party, we use the internet and social networks.
We use social media for everything; we communicate, share photos, quote, and buy. We even look for recommendations to reinforce our beliefs and our purchase intention.
And when we are not satisfied with a product or service, we also use it to complain or to contact the company.
That is why the management of social networks is so important. Because every action we take in them is an opportunity to reach our potential clients and strengthen our relationship with them.
Let’s get to the point. This article brings together 12 tips that will help you overcome the main difficulties that social media management has, save time, money, and grow and attract your audience.
1. Define SMART Goals
The concept of SMART goals has been around for decades, but today it is very important in determining your presence on social media.
In short, brands must set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
An example of a good SMART goal for social media marketing would be something like: “We will increase our Twitter response rate by 25% by the end of the first quarter.”
- Specific: We have specifically identified the social channel (Twitter) and a metric (response rate).
- Measurable: The response rate can be measured with some analysis tools.
- Reachable: We don’t set any outrageous or unattainable goals. It is perfectly possible.
- Relevant: Our objective will have a direct impact on our relationship with the followers, something very relevant.
- Timing: The goal must be met by the end of the first trimester.
2. Identify Your Audience
Once you’ve defined your goals, you need to outline your target audience. Perhaps they are potential clients or perhaps they are the industry players and influencers. Either way, breaking down your audience will help you discover the following:
- What social networks are they active on?
- The publication schedule (we will see it later)
- The type of content you post
- The voice of your brand
- The information in your profiles
Many brands are present on social networks, but they do not publish content that speaks to a defined audience. Spend time looking at your audience, understanding what their challenges are and what brands they follow through social media.
This type of competitive analysis can help you understand how to stand out from your competition.
3. Quality is the Key
It is one thing to have a constant flow of publications and another is to offer quality to your followers. As primary stakeholders in growing a business, we need to focus on generating content that is good enough for people to want to share or stream to their friends and colleagues.
If we think about it, what are the chances that we interact with a poorly written or dubious source post on social media? What if a post puts your brand’s credibility at risk?
The social media manager of a company must make sure to share relevant content for users to re-share, send or broadcast their contacts.
For that, it is important to create content that lasts over time, and not just generate topics that are news for a day. If you can produce content or develop ideas that will remain relevant for a year or more, you have something important to say.
To complement the above, these are some of the types of content (see photo below) that you can create and publish on your website or your social networks.
4. The Quantity
Quality is indeed vital, but quantity is also critical. The reality is that there is a lot of content on the web, and there may be other content that can quickly override yours. It wouldn’t be weird at all.
This is particularly true for Twitter.
The trick is to be consistent with your posts and try to republish the same content multiple times, being careful not to become spam.
For example, the content of a blog can be broadcast through Twitter several times at different times of the day, highlighting paragraphs, main ideas, or even quotes. Other social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn do not allow that flexibility and we run the risk of becoming a nuisance for users.
Another good idea is to stay abreast of the latest trends in your industry, which will potentially attract more followers and could position your company as a leading expert in the field.
5. Try Different Schedules, Until You Find the Best One
Each country, each industry, each type of content, and each social network have different times to publish their content and obtain good results.
That is, there is no single strategy when it comes to publishing your content on social networks because it depends on several factors. While there are some basic guidelines, it is best to use a trial/error strategy, until you find the ideal place.
In our case, we are good at publishing content between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., then between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., and finally, finally, after 9:00 p.m., when most of the people are back at home.
But if we are going to publish a surprise offer, it will be better to publish it first thing in the day. Or very relevant news that has just been produced. In these cases, it is the importance of the content that defines the moment of publication.
But if it were a greeting or a promotional photo of a product, it might be better to spread it when most of your audience is connected.
In short, the most important thing here is to use data to determine how and when we are going to publish something. Experiment, test until you identify which one works best.
6. The power of the visual
What you have to know about publishing on social networks is that videos and images are the most attractive types of content for users. It is a matter of seeing the success and growth that Instagram has had compared to other platforms.
The good news is that making content visual doesn’t mean having a design area or a full production budget. Sometimes the simplest works very well:
- Photos or videos of the team
- Customer photos
- Event photos
- Offers and promotions
- Photos with powerful phrases or quotes
- Infographics
And with so many tools available for creating social images and videos, it’s easier than ever to prepare this type of content. We recommend Canva, it’s free and easy to use.
7. Make Yourself Known
One of the first things to do when we have a social network is to tell everyone. To our family, friends, clients, suppliers, partners, collaborators, etc.
And to help us in that task, we have several channels:
- Add the icons and link to your social networks in the footer of your site.
- Also, include them in the email signature.
- In the documents or reports that you prepare.
- On business cards.
- Send an email telling your audience of interest.
The icons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn can be easily integrated into almost any platform and layout, so it’s not a complicated thing to do.
8. Help Yourself With Management Tools
If you are alone in managing your company’s social networks and you also have a lot of things to do, stay calm. No one will expect you to post more than 20 times a day. On the contrary, if you feel overwhelmed you should think of two things:
- The quality of the publication (point 1).
- Management tools.
These tools are the best and when you begin to master them, they are of great help in managing networks. We use Hootsuite to manage our social communities, but several alternatives work in a similar way, such as Buffer, which in its free version allows you to leave up to 10 scheduled publications on each social profile.
The advantages are several:
- Time-saving
- Ability to automatically schedule posts
- Organization and scheduling. They are very useful.
- Manage content from a single platform.
- Track and review the returns on investment.
9. Plan the Budget According to the Performance of the Platform
Let’s not forget why we are here. We are talking about companies, sales, and business. And in the business world, time is of the essence. We must also put it this way if we want to be successful on social media.
So, if we are going to allocate resources to each of the company’s social networks, we must implement a strategy that considers the time and money factor.
A common practice is to allocate resources based on what each platform gives you. If Facebook gives the highest ROI, invest more in Facebook and if it’s LinkedIn, do the same.
When it comes to social media advertising, it’s best to proceed with caution and with a very specific budget in mind. Never forget that spending more money does not necessarily equate to greater success, and beware, spending money on social ads is very easy.
10. Use Social Media Analytics
Analysis and monitoring are a constant in the management of social networks. It is that we cannot know where we are going if we do not know the statistics and the results of what we have already done.
Otherwise, how will we know how many people are viewing your posts and participating on Facebook? And how will you know that videos work better for your audience than photos?
We have to make decisions based on data. Forever.
These are the main metrics that you should consider in any digital strategy:
- Number of followers
- Scope
- Interactions
- Engagement or the commitment of your followers
- Conversion
- ROI
- Mentions
- Web traffic they generate
Let us remember this golden phrase: what is not measured, cannot be managed.
11. Be Real
One of the worst mistakes made on social media is appearing as a company without a face and a personality. Today, people want to get to know the companies they relate to on a more personal level.
Many brands today make jokes and are not afraid to talk to their followers as they would to their friends. While more and more users prefer to link with companies that share the same values or concerns.
Showing the human side of your brand means showing the faces behind social media. Whether it’s photos in the office, in a meeting, or at work, users value the naturalness of things and are interested in forming a connection with those companies.
And this brings us directly to our next point.
12. Look for Relationships, Not Just Followers
Having 100 followers who regularly interact with you and your content is infinitely more valuable than having 10,000 who ignore you.
The wonderful thing about social media is that you can instantly build relationships with followers from almost anywhere.
If you’re not sure how to get started when it comes to building relationships, here are some ideas:
- Always mention or tag the people you refer to in your social media posts.
- Answer questions that people ask.
- Respond when people mention you or share your content.
- Don’t just “like” others’ posts, comment, participate, ask, start a conversation.
So, if you are a brand and you decide to be on social networks, you already know that you have to have an active presence, a strategy, and a work plan, monitoring, and analysis. Otherwise, you will be navigating blindly, without a clear objective, and without data on the result of your actions.