The Process For Successful Social Media Management
We've all heard the phrase, "If you throw shit against a wall, some of it has gotta stick." When it comes to social media, you can't just post whatever feels right or talk only about your business. It simply won't stick and will not impress your audience. Today we're going to focus on how strategy fits into your social media management efforts. We strongly believe that in order to have a successful social media presence, you must first develop a personalized strategy. A great social media strategy should answer these six important questions.
1. WHY are you on social media?
You should have a purpose in your efforts and set goals that you are trying to reach. Remember that your social media goals should support the overall business objectives. If they don't, time to rethink. Schedule benchmarks where you assess how well you're doing in reaching these goals.
2. WHAT are you saying on social media?
Think about what your tone will be. Are you going to be upbeat and positive? Quirky & humorous? Having a well-defined tone will become familiar and comforting to your audience over time. You also must decide what content you will be posting. Be sure that you're only posting about your company 20% of the time. The rest of your content mix should be related to other interests your audience has.
3. WHO are you talking to on social media?
Think about your target market. What are their shared demographics? Beyond that, write out what their interests are. The better you know them, the better content you'll be able to serve them and the more successful your social media pages will be.
4. WHERE are you placing your message?
Where is your target market spending their time? There are plenty of stats online that can help you figure this out. You should be active wherever they are. Don't waste your time on social media pages that are irrelevant to your audience. For example, if your target audience is 50+, don't waste your time on Instagram.
5. WHEN are you sharing content?
Find out when your audience is online for each social media site. Facebook has a great tool under Insights that tells you exactly when your followers are most active. Other sites also have peak days and times. You should be posting at the times when most of your audience is online.
6. HOW are you getting this done efficiently?
There are many tools available to help you manage your social media efforts as efficiently as possible. A few that we use are: Feedly (for finding content), Buffer (for scheduling content) and Sprout Social & SuperMetrics (for analyzing social metrics). Doing social media right is a ton of work. Make sure you're employing tools like these to make it easier on you and your team.
