Social Media Management tips to keep you ahead of the game
Social media is a big deal for anyone these days, especially business owners. Many people are being hired, or moved into a role where they are responsible for the social media for their organization. It can be tough to know where to start with social. There are right ways to do it, and wrong ways to do it. These social media management tips should help get you on the right track and using social media effectively.
Plan.
Having a plan for social media might sound excessive, but it can help you keep track or things and find content more easily. Plan what days will focus on what kinds of posts… meme Mondays, throwback Thursdays… That kind of thing.
Knowing ahead of time that you are looking for specific types of content on certain days helps you set aside time to find it. You do not want to be searching the internet five minutes before you are due to post for something to share. You will likely end up with junk on your page.
Schedule.
Hootsuite should be your new best friend. With the free plan on Hootsuite you can add three accounts, this means you could have your Facebook page, Twitter and Google + all running through one Hootsuite account. You can type out one message and schedule it to appear on three accounts at the same time, saving a whole bunch of hours of posting.
Hootsuite also allows for planning. Having things arranged ahead of times means you will be publishing more relevant and on-topic content rather than rushing and posting just anything.
Listen.
Watch how people react to certain posts, check what times of day you get the most interactions. By listening to what your social media pages are telling you you learn when and what you should be posting.
Optimize.
This might sound excessive, but you need to optimize your pages. Make them beautiful, make them shareable. The best example of this is using keywords in your Pinterest profile, this means you are more likely to show up for those keywords when people are searching or browsing on Pinterest.
Make sure your images are optimized for each platform. A banner for your Facebook will lose half of itself if you try to upload it on YouTube. Find the dimensions for each platform you are using and make new images and banners for all of them.
Learn the language.
Each platform has its own language, you need to learn it. Facebook likes long, descriptive posts, Instagram likes images and short, to the point copy. You cannot post the same message on all profiles and expect it to perform to its best on each one.
Learn about what each platform likes, what people respond to, and copy their tactics in your own work. It is simple but it works.
Interact.
Social media is not called social for fun. The biggest and best tip I can give you here is to be social. Talk to people, answer their questions and get involved in conversations. This is really important as a brand too. People actually do not want brands to be so stiff and rigid, they want there to be a real person available behind the social pages. So be that real person.
It is often said that people buy from people, and it is true. Be there to help people trust your brand, and help them make the decision to buy if that is what they are looking for.
Moderate.
Have you heard the word viral before? Viral is when something gets very, very popular on the internet. This happens a lot faster with bad news, or bad reviews. If you are moderating social pages you can be there to catch problems before they cause a major PR issue.
If you do come across bad feedback, make sure you respond publicly, but take it offline as soon as you can. This shows you are willing to deal with the problems brought to light, but at the same time you are not telling the whole world what you are offering in return for the problem to be taken offline. This could invite a lot of complaints if the reward is good enough.
Be consistent.
If you are going to be present on social media you should make sure you are popping up the same amount of times per day. What I mean by this is if you start posting to Facebook once a day, post once a day, every day. If you want to post more than once a day then post more than once a day, but do the same thing every day.
Post content that fits your audience. If you write about travel then post travel related stuff, not recipes or how to best groom your dog.
There is a lot more to learn about social media management if you want to do it correctly and have it work to build your brand. Following the steps above will set you on the right foot and help you expose your brand in the best light.
About the author
Natasha is a travel and social media blogger at Meldrums On The Move (www.meldrumsonthemove.com). She shares stories of her travels and tips she learns as a social media manager to help others grow their social presence and best represent themselves online.
Further reading
To improve your social media game even more, check out our articles on taking better selfies and cameras for Youtube.