Here are some tips to help you manage your social media presence quickly and effectively:
Be selective
It’s a common misconception among business owners to think that their company has to be present across all social media platforms. This is simply not true, and it is much better to manage 1 or 2 platforms well that work for your business. Think about your company and which social platforms may work best for it. If you are in financial services, LinkedIn or Twitter would be good for you. If you sell handmade items then Instagram or Pinterest may align better with your brand.
Schedule in bulk
Writing posts one at a time on an ad-hoc basis is not the most effective way to manage your accounts. Other things can consume your day and your social media will be left forgotten, and stagnant accounts can quickly lose followers. Set aside a few hours to write and schedule your posts in bulk. Once your accounts are set up you can leave the posts to run automatically at specified times and get on with your day.
Outsource
If you truly don’t have the time or resources to create graphics and write social posts then consider outsourcing to a service like Smarcomms to handle all of your content creation for you. This will allow you to have your social media posts managed for you while you focus on other aspects of your business. It will save a ton of time and professional designers will generate all of your graphics and captions for you that reflect your brand.
Use a content planner
Keeping content new and interesting is important for your social profiles. Designing a calendar that helps you keep up with holidays and important events can be a great way to keep your social accounts on track. As well as assisting with your content creation it can help you expand your audience by increasing your exposure across different industries or locations. It can also help you to capitalise on important news or industry sources, positioning you as an expert.
Manage your engagement time
You will want to ensure that you are making time to communicate with your followers. Engagement is undoubtedly a part of any social media strategy and you will want to connect with your audience regularly so they do not lose interest in your accounts. Set a reminder each day and dedicate time to spend on each of your social media channels to follow up, answer messages, or respond to comments. Maintaining a presence in this way can help keep your accounts fresh and lets your users know you are available to speak with them.
Re-use content
Get more mileage out of your content by re-using it. Posts that are made this way can be recycled and rescheduled multiple times to target different audiences, and articles can be shared to increase user engagement. It’s a great way to add interest and use your own resources to generate more content. If you happen to have a blog on your website your written articles can be a fantastic resource. Design bite-sized posts to share information and tips from your blog and increase interest, or use quotes or interesting facts and share them with your followers. Remember to link back to your original post to drive traffic back to your site from your social channels.
Create top quality graphics
With the sheer number of posts flooding social media you only have a second to grab users attention. Having clear, high definition, quality graphics and images can help your posts to stand out. Tools like Canva have a number of free tools to help you quickly create stunning graphics that are on-brand and eye-catching. Use templates and customize them with your own graphics to reflect your logo and incorporate your brand colors to create images and content that are easily recognised as your business.
Consolidate accounts
Being able to access all of your social media accounts in one place by using tools like Cloud Campaign makes managing your social channels more streamlined and far less time-consuming. Some platforms will allow you to monitor and post comments and respond to other users from their dashboards. This can help you to manage everything all in one place and while many tools are paid services some are available free of charge.
Use content curation
Fill up your social media accounts by curating engaging and relevant content for your audience. Industry news, the latest products, or informative articles can all be gathered and shared using a paid service or RSS feeds. Even though the content is not your own you can use it to add interest and expand your reach across all of your social accounts. Having the latest updates posted to your channels can add value to your existing audience and attract new followers.
Review analytics
Most social platforms come with their own analytics dashboard so you can monitor how well your content is being received by your audience. Tracking clicks, likes, shares, and engagement, can help you to identify the type of content that is working well. Use the data insights to create more posts that resonate with your followers, and eliminate the content that does not elicit any clicks or shares. This can help you to refine the type of content you are posting and target the areas or interest groups that get the best response.