What is Social Media Management?
Social media management is the process of creating, publishing, promoting, and managing content across social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Social media management goes beyond just posting updates to your company’s social media profiles. It also includes engaging with your audience and looking for new opportunities to increase reach and visibility.
Social Media Management Tips:
1. Focus on Quality
It is always good to have a constant flow of content and announcements, but I would much rather have nothing at all than abysmal posts with incorrect information. We want to make sure that we are sharing content that is good enough to be re-shared or retweeted, passed on to colleagues across industries.
We also try to look for content that will last, not just trend for a week and disappear. If you are able to produce content or develop insights that will stay relevant in the industry, these are gold! For us, social media content does really well on—surprise!—social media. This tweet was posted in mid-June and I’m still seeing it being retweeted even now.
2. Analyze Data to Find the Perfect Quantity
and almost as important, quantity. Because let’s face it, social media is about what is going on NOW, right this second. This is especially true for Twitter; we recently found that engagement rate increased 46% week over week after publishing 30 more tweets than the week prior. In fact, those 30 extra tweets helped push 30% more traffic to the website with 60% more link clicks than the previous week.
3. Be Charming (Tools Can Help!)
When my mother complains about social media, she references her friends that only post to brag. “Tommy got into Harvard AND Yale! Such a hard choice!” *Insert picture of the son as the homecoming king*. But, being the charmer she is, she will congratulate them (with a “xoxo”) and as a result, they will like and share and comment on her posts as well. Be my mother! What goes around, comes back around: engage with others and they will engage with you. Though this sounds silly, Larry swears by it.
If you want your socials to be charming enough, attract visitors from your website and other digital platforms using shareable social buttons. Customize easy-to-install social media buttons to match your design preferences and boost your metrics, including site traffic and conversion rates.
For instance, you can use a share to Twitter button to boost engagement metrics on your website and social media pages. This is a widely used social button today, allowing users to share with their followers the webpages they are viewing in real time. Shareable buttons for Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media networks are also available.
4. Automate Repetitive Tasks with IFTTT
IFTTT, short for If This, Then That, is a social media recipe website! In a series of simple steps, this website will help you set up simple commands which link up different applications to automatically perform actions if triggered. For example, IF the weather app tells you there is a high UV index, THEN a reminder to put on sunscreen is triggered. IF you are tagged in a photo on Facebook, THEN save the photos to dropbox.
Social Media Management Tools:
You’ll find many social media management tools in the market, which can complicate your decision making. So, knowing what to look for in an effective social media management tool is crucial. Check the features, such as hashtag suggestions, collaboration tools, calendar planner, first comment scheduling, and other functions. Moreover, find out if customer support is available.
Here are some social media management tools available in the market:
1. Buffer
Prices: Forever free plan, $15, $99, $199, and $399 per month (with a 14-day free trial)
Description: Buffer is an intuitive, streamlined social media management platform trusted by brands, businesses, agencies, and individuals to help drive meaningful engagement and results on social media.
2. Sendible
Prices: $29, $99, $199, $299 per month, and enterprise pricing (with a 30-day free trial)
Description: Sendible is a social media management tool built specifically for agencies with several clients. On top of most features that social media management tools provide, Sendible allows you to customize your dashboard according to your branding to attract new clients.
3. Social Pilot
Prices: $10, $24, $40, $80 per month, and enterprise pricing (with a 14-day free trial)
Description: I like how Social Pilot fit many of the social media management tools (such as scheduling and analytics but not monitoring) into a simple dashboard and offer it at very affordable prices. With its client management feature, I believe it’s great for agencies that work with several clients
4. MavSocial
Prices: Free, $19, $78, $199, $499 per month (with 7-day free trial)
Description: MavSocial is a social media management tool with a focus on visual content. For the higher-priced plans, it seems that you can also manage your Facebook ads with MavSocial.
Conclusion
Social media management can be overwhelming, especially for first-timers. By applying the above tips, you can achieve your social media goals. Equally important is using the right tools to avoid manual, tedious work and focus on monitoring metrics that matter. This way, you can improve your social media content quality to boost your follower base.