Managing social media involves organizing, creating, sharing, and keeping an eye on content across various social media platforms. It's a multifaceted task that includes several strategies and platforms. Social media managers need to know the basics, keep up with the latest trends, analyze their performance for better results, and plan their projects so their team can easily keep up with daily tasks.
In this detailed guide, you will get a closer look at understanding social media management. Continue reading to find all that today's marketers need to manage social media.
What Is Social Media Management?
Before diving into social media marketing, be ready to perform a variety of daily tasks. You will be juggling updates and monitoring performance across several platforms non-stop.
Using social media platforms for business is different from personal use. You need to be mindful about everything you share and say, as it impacts your brand's online presence.
That's why many businesses stick to a formal tone online. However, some brands adopt a more relaxed approach.
Choosing a tone depends on what fits your brand and audience. If a casual tone doesn't suit, it's wise to keep interactions formal and respectful.
But there's much more to social media management than this. Here are the tasks you will need to tackle.
Key Components Of Social Media Management
- Making Content: This step is about creating content that grabs the attention of your audience. This could be anything from written posts and pictures to videos and infographics.
- Posting: This step is about deciding when and how often to post your content on different social media sites. The timing and frequency can change based on the platform you are using and who you are trying to reach.
- Interacting: This step involves talking to your followers by replying to their messages and comments and joining in on discussions. It's a great way to build strong connections and trust with your audience.
- Analyzing: This step is about keeping an eye on how well your social media activities are doing, including how many people are interacting with your posts, how far your posts are reaching, and how many people are seeing them. Understanding these aspects will help you figure out what's working, what's not, and how you can improve your approach.
How Does Social Media Management Help Your Business?
Saving Time
You will save a lot of time by managing your social media well and using social media automation tools where appropriate. This means you won't have to spend 40-50 hours a week on your social media strategy.
Improving Customer Support
Social media management greatly enhances customer support. Customers receive fast responses and solutions to their issues through social media platforms.
Read more: Guide to Improving Customer Experience on Social Media
Protecting Your Brand's Reputation
Ignoring comments and messages will make customers feel neglected, potentially harming your online brand reputation and long-term customer relationships. A key benefit of social media management is ensuring that every comment or DM is addressed well within an acceptable response time.
Establishing Authority
When your brand is seen as an authority in your industry, people view you as a reliable and trustworthy source of information. Being active on social media increases your visibility and makes your content a familiar presence in people's feeds.
Social Media Management Tips
Regardless of the social media platforms you are using, there are some strategies you can apply to make your campaigns more successful.
Conduct Competitor Research
Before you dive into improving your online presence, it's important to know who your competitors are and conduct competitor research. This helps you understand their strategies and performance online.
Look for both direct competitors, who target the same customers with similar products or services as yours, and indirect competitors, who cater to a different customer segment. Understanding your indirect competitors will reveal new opportunities for growth.
Audit Your Current Social Media Performance
Start by examining each of your social media profiles as if you are seeing them for the first time. Check your social media analytics and data. Reflect on the goals you set for each platform and determine if you have met them. Remember, your understanding of the platform and audience will evolve, possibly making your initial goals less relevant.
Compare your social media presence with that of your competitors. Note any similarities or differences in strategies and how their engagement and reach compare to yours. Also, consider if they are using some specific marketing strategy like influencer marketing and if it's a strategy you should adopt.
Finding areas where your performance is lacking is not a setback. The very act of reviewing and assessing your social media strategy is a positive step forward.
Learn more: How To Conduct A Social Media Audit For Your Business
Set Realistic SMART Goals
To make your social media goals more effective, use the SMART method. Here's a simple breakdown:
- Specific: Make your goal clear and detailed. For instance, aiming for 100 new LinkedIn followers is more specific than just wanting more social media followers.
- Measurable: Attach a number to your goal. This could be the number of followers, comments, or likes, which are all straightforward to track on social media.
- Attainable: Be realistic. Getting 1 million views on your first YouTube video is unlikely. Research what's achievable to avoid disappointment.
- Relevant: Ensure your goal fits with your broader marketing aims and the company's objectives for the period. For example, you might think you need to be on TikTok because everyone else is, but first, consider if it genuinely serves your purpose before investing time and resources.
- Time-bound: Set a deadline or timeframe for achieving your goal to prevent it from being overlooked in favor of other projects.
Work Out A Realistic Budget
A good starting point is to allocate about 5% of your revenue to marketing. This percentage can vary, with possibly a higher allocation for B2B and lower for B2C businesses. Ensure your budget covers content creation tools, a marketing project management tool, and any external assistance you will need.
Know Your Audience & Their Platforms
Before you go after potential customers, you need to have a clear picture of who they are. Your ideal customer is someone who finds value in your offerings and sees how it complements their lifestyle. Collect as much information about them as you can to tailor your marketing strategy to their needs.
Use social media tools, like Facebook's Audience Insights, to learn more about your audience. You can input the details from your customer profiles into your preferred social media platform to identify new audience segments.
Don't forget to use existing data from your customer service and sales teams.
Read more: How To Create A Detailed Buyer Persona
Ensure To Provide Customer Support
Make an effort to understand your audience and develop genuine connections with them. Always respond promptly and thoughtfully to any complaints received online, and take constructive criticism seriously.
Know more: Social Media Customer Service - How To Do It Right
What Is Social Media Management Software?
Social media management tools are designed to help businesses handle and interact with multiple social media platforms simultaneously. It provides a centralized place for planning campaigns, executing strategies, and getting immediate feedback. While using spreadsheets might be feasible initially, adopting social media management software is essential for quicker scaling of your social media marketing efforts.
Features To Look For In The Best Social Media Management Tools
Here are the key features that will help you save time, organize your social media tasks, and enhance your overall strategy every day using a social media management tool
Scheduling
This feature automates the process of posting content to ensure your posts go live on various social platforms at the best times without the need to post manually.
Read more: 12 Best Social Media Scheduling Tools In 2024
Automation
Automation ranges from setting up automatic replies to social mentions to simultaneously sharing a single piece of content across multiple channels.
With cross-posting, you can share the same content across multiple social platforms with a few clicks. It saves you time and ensures consistent messaging across your brand persona.
Free Templates
You can find no-cost templates for all aspects of social media management, from strategy implementation to performance tracking. For instance, Statusbrew provides various templates specifically for measuring all important aspects of your social media.
Read more: How To Create Social Media Reporting Templates
App Integrations
Integrating third-party apps with your social media management tools will reduce repetitive tasks and allow your team to concentrate on creating high-quality content rather than on mundane data entry.
Reporting & Analytics
These features offer insights into the performance of your social media activities and help you understand what's working and what's not. This information is important for setting future objectives, allocating budgets, and more.
Social Media Management Tools
Statusbrew
If you are aiming to increase your social media engagement, Statusbrew is a top choice. It provides a unified inbox for managing comments and messages from various social media platforms to simplify the process of interacting with your audience and resolving their issues promptly.
Statusbrew is a great tool for social media marketers who want to keep all their work in one spot. Along with features to schedule posts, it also includes ways to engage with customers and keep an eye on your social media activities, all from one dashboard.
Statusbrew is your go-to tool if you want a straightforward way to plan your posts and simplify managing your social media. It's designed to save you time and help you achieve your social goals faster.
Statusbrew helps businesses grow their brand reputation by offering data analysis. The platform supports team collaboration by allowing several users from to work together on social media campaigns.
Buffer
Buffer focuses on helping your business grow with its easy-to-navigate and user-friendly design, which is perfect for sharing engaging content on major social platforms. It gives businesses the tools they need to expand and manage various social media profiles.
Moreover, Buffer includes a free tool called Pablo for creating eye-catching images for your social media posts. With the help of its AI assistant, you can also breathe new life into old posts by transforming them into new content.
AgoraPulse
AgoraPulse has also introduced an AI writing assistant to enhance your content and make it more appealing for each social media platform you use. Additionally, it includes an AI image creation tool from Canva for easy content creation.
For those focused on Facebook, AgoraPulse's Facebook Barometer tool is a quick way to get important insights on metrics such as reach, engagement, and click-through rates. This feature, along with reports on Facebook Ads and tools for employee advocacy, is available even in the platform's free version.
Common Social Media Management Mistakes To Avoid
- Ignoring Your Followers: Not replying to comments or disregarding what your audience prefers will damage your brand's image and cause you to lose followers.
- Too Much Self-Promotion: Constantly pushing your products or brand will annoy your audience. Instead, aim to add value and build connections with your followers.
- Mixed Brand Messages: Having a different look or tone on various platforms will confuse your followers and negatively affect how they see your brand. Make sure your branding is uniform across all your social media accounts.
- Not Paying Attention to Data: Not keeping an eye on how your social media is performing will lead to strategies that don't work and a waste of effort. Analyze your data to figure out what's bringing results and what isn't.
Final Thoughts
To wrap it up, managing social media isn't as straightforward as it appears. As the competition for capturing your user's attention has increased, it requires patience, creativity, and significant effort to maintain an impactful social media presence that genuinely enriches your users' lives.
Social media management tools might look similar at first glance, but each one brings its own special features to the table. There's a tool out there for everyone, but finding the right one means thinking about what you specifically need from a social media management tool before diving in.
If creating content is where you need support, look for a tool that includes an AI feature to whip up new posts quickly. If strategy and growth are your focus areas, then a platform that comes with built-in performance indicators might be just what you need.
Regardless of the tool you end up choosing, be sure to look out for free trials. They offer a great opportunity to test out the tool and see how it fits with your business operations before you decide to invest in a paid subscription.
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