In just less than two decades, social media has fundamentally transformed the way we communicate with each other, bringing the world closer than ever before. Hence, businesses of the 21st century have no option but to get on social media to thrive.
But with billions of users across multiple social media platforms, finding your optimal audience can quickly become challenging. Little wonder many businesses get lost in the endless swamp of social media. But here’s a secret: getting noticed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and other channels isn’t as hard as you think. A big chunk of success lies in managing your social media presence effectively.
In this post, we examine some tips for social media management that we have used at The Real Social Company to attain outstanding results for our clients.
What is Social Media Management?
Social media management is the process of creating, publishing, promoting, and managing content across social media platforms, including Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, and YouTube, to name a few.
However, social media management extends way beyond posting content on your company’s social media profiles. It also incorporates proper engagement with your audience and researching opportunities to widen your reach and visibility.
Secrets for Effective Social Media Management
Here are some of the tips we use for managing social media successfully:
Focus is Key
One grave mistake entrepreneurs make is trying to be on all social media platforms, from Twitter to Facebook. While major corporations might have no trouble doing this, small businesses typically do not have the resources to maintain meaningful dialogue across all platforms. Consequently, their online presence adds little value to their business.
What you need to do is focus on one or two platforms where you can effectively attract customers. For instance, a restaurant might find greater success on Instagram, while a recruiting firm might find success on LinkedIn. The key is to focus on platforms that can have the most impact on your business.
Prioritize Quality
While it is good to constantly flood your social media wall with content, it’s more important to ensure those contents add value to your audience. By doing so, your post will be retweeted or reshared with the connections of your audience. That’s part of the secret of going viral.
While there’s always a strong urge to go along with fleeting trends, it pays better to develop content and insights that’ll stay relevant in your industry for a long time. You’ve probably had some content that was reshared even months after you first posted them – those are the kind of high-value content you want to focus on. Think about it, you wouldn’t interact with – let alone share – a terrible post.
Automate for Efficiency
If you’re going to manage your social media 100 percent manually, then you’re in for some grueling tasks, especially for a small business. That’s precisely why most people find it difficult to maintain consistency.
But thanks to technology, several online tools exist to make social media management seamless. Some popular examples of scheduling tools include Tweetdeck, HootSuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social. Asides from scheduling posts, they also provide analytics about the performance of your accounts.
IFTTT (short for If This, Then That) is another tool that’s perfectly suited for automating repetitive tasks by just setting up some simple commands. For instance, IF you are tagged in a photo on Facebook, THEN you can set it up to save the picture in your Dropbox.
Utilize Social Media Analytics
As Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”. But how on earth are you going to know what’s working and what’s not working without tracking and evaluating your contents? Failing to do so will guarantee you keep doing the same wrong things. That’s why we’re a big fan of Analytics at The Real Social Company.
To use analytics optimally, you first have to specifically point out what you want to keep track of, i.e. what metrics are important to you. This may be new followers, comments, mentions, and so on. You also have to specify the timeframe of interest.
As stated earlier, software platforms like Tweekdeck, HoostSuite, Butter, and Sprout Social has an analytics dashboard where you can track important metrics from your social media accounts. This enables you to keep track of your progress and single out strategies that are working.
Experiment, Experiment, Experiment
No two businesses are the same. That’s why what works for company A isn’t guaranteed to work for company B. Therefore, you need to constantly fine-tune your content, try a different approach till you find out what works best for you.
But the thing is what works today what not work tomorrow – thanks to the ever-changing online landscape caused by shifting demographics, and the inclusion of new platforms, to name a few. To give a practical example, the coronavirus pandemic led to the ascent of ZOOM. Companies that we’re able to quickly adapt were better able to minimize the impact of the lockdown restrictions.
However, you shouldn’t wait until you’re forced to do so before you experiment. Try out new things like harnessing live video to connect to your social media audiences around the world. You might eventually stumble on something that will immensely benefit your business.
Be Human!
There’s a big difference between engaging with a person versus a business on social media. And if you’re like most people, you prefer engaging with a human. That’s why you must manage your social accounts with sass and flair while always putting in the human touch. Your social media provides a great platform to interact with disgruntled customers to understand and resolve their pains, and also get invaluable feedback. You must show that your company cares!
Wrap Up
Once you crack the secrets of social media management, you’ll be astonished by the results you’ll obtain in no time. But as an entrepreneur, you probably have a lot on your hands right now. That’s why involving a social media management company is a great idea. The Real Social Company can help you attain effective results.
