Manage Your Social Media Like a Pro
A few short years ago you probably sniggered when you saw ads for “social media manager” posts, but now you realise it can be a full-time job in itself! If your company isn’t quite big enough to hire one yet, however, you’ll have to be your own social media manager, so here’s how to manage it like a good ’un.
Pick the right platforms
Using the right platforms from the get-go can save you a lot of time and cut right to the heart of your target audience. You don’t need to be on every platform and network going, so work out who your target market and audience is and choose the sites that they use. Look at age, gender, interests, ethnicity, then look up which platforms they prefer at the Pew Research Center.
Then choose the best two or three sites so you don’t have to spend all day posting into the void! Check your demographic once a year or so to stay fresh.
Make weekly content calendars
Sit down, work out what you need to write in the next week to a month, then get to it. So, Easter’s coming up? Time to think about chocolate egg giveaways… Make sure the content is different for each platform.
Set posts in advance
You can use a scheduling tool to publish posts so that once your 12 “summer activities for bored and whinging kids” posts have been written, you can publish them to your three main platforms – one a week each – for the next month. Job done, no fiddling about and having to remember times and dates.
Some platforms have their own scheduling tools; with others, you may need to pay a small fee to outsource the task. Either way, your blog and your social media stay fresh and new. Team this up with your content calendar for the best results.
Have a set time to respond to messages
Social media is a two-way street, so make sure you respond to as many messages, questions and reviews as you can. Even if it’s just to thank someone for a kind message, respond. Customer engagement is especially important when it comes to negative reviews and complaints though – the world is watching, so respond in a timely and professional manner. Spend 10-15 minutes a day on this task so you keep abreast of new messages and make urgent queries or complaints a priority.
