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7 Tips for Effective Social Media Management

By ||Published On: June 30th, 2020||Categories: Blogging, Marketing, Planning, Social Media||
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Managing Social Media for Your Business

Social media is one of the fastest growing tech industries, so it’s no surprise that social media management has turned into a prevalent 21st century business. The question is, how do you cultivate effective social media management for your business?

In 2021, Pew Research recorded that about 72% of the U.S. population uses social media for both personal and business use. While we’re aware that most of the people around us are on social media, have you also noticed businesses using social media? For instance, you might have seen a business Facebook page showcasing their products and business culture, or an Instagram account that spotlights their employees or clients. You’ve also probably seen these same companies pop up on your Facebook or Instagram feed as ads or sponsored content.

An advantage of social media is that it enables a rapid response to questions, which leads to higher customer satisfaction. It even has the potential of assisting with sales. Outside of customer interaction and sales, social media plays a huge part in your business’ online presence and visibility. These are just a few of the reasons why it’s important to learn how to use effective social media marketing for your business.

In-House Social Media Management

Now that we’ve covered how social media can be effective for a business, let’s also consider who will be running your business’ social media. Some businesses have the time or can afford to delegate social media efforts to someone in-house. Whether you do this collectively or designate a single person to tackle social media, you need to keep track of the platforms and their latest updates. Below are 7 useful tips for effective social media management.

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Find Your Channel

One thing to note is that while it is generally recommended that a business utilize more than one social media channel, it is not necessary to be present on all social media platforms. For instance, an oil and gas company would probably not need to be on Pinterest, but they may benefit from having a presence on LinkedIn. It is important to evaluate your field, audience, and overall brand tone to find the right platforms for your business.

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Find Your Brand’s Voice

A key point to keep in mind when managing your social media channels is that it is important to stay consistent. The consistency of your online voice and presence will help you to gain trust and credibility with your audience. Find the direction you want to go and run with that. Make sure that you are keeping up a steady flow of posts to your platforms that fits your brand voice.

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Time Your Posts

It’s important to find the best times to post as well as the perfect post volume. Each platform engages users differently and they expect content at different volumes and times. Make sure you’re posting when your audience is active. Research each platform and try different strategies to find the best content for your audience and the right amount to keep them engaged instead of annoyed.

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Stay on Top of Algorithms

Social media is ever-changing. Likewise to technology, social media is adapting to its users and large corporations are constantly trying to figure out how to better pinpoint their publics, oftentimes by changing their algorithms.

Algorithms are the set of rules that ultimately rank the order that a user sees content on a particular platform. We mention these because it’s one thing to have good content and ads, but it’s another thing to make sure people see it. You might have the perfect image-making rhythm down until Facebook changes the way it reads images and starts pushing down your content. This is why it’s important to read the latest updates on platforms and read articles on how others address their content. A couple of notable algorithmic changes can be found here: Facebook, Instagram, and Google.

target icon Target Your Ads

Ads can target both your existing market as well as the markets you want to expand into. Most ad builders allow you to get specific on targeting, or very broad if that’s the route you want to go. Before you begin, consider what audience you’re looking to reach. Generally, ads will ask you where you’d like to place them; this is helpful for businesses when they are looking to expand their reach.

money icon Find Your Budget

With ad spend in mind, how much is your company looking to invest in ads or sponsored content? You need to find the sweet spot that isn’t too much but reaches your target audience effectively. It’s also important to allocate your money to your best platforms. For instance, for a fashion business, your ad spend might be better utilized on Instagram than Facebook.

report analysis Analyze Your Results

As discussed above it’s important also to find the best ways to showcase your content, including the best times of day for each platform, the best types of content, and your perfect ad audience. Get familiar with each platform’s ad builder and use their metrics to find the best times and content for your business to utilize. Effective social media is something that should be ever-improving and adapting to its audience.

Social Media Planning

Keeping up with social media channels is no simple task. You need to stay organized and keep track of what you are posting. A great way to organize your social media content for your business is with a content calendar. This type of calendar acts as a management tool that outlines what and when you post and on which platform. To make things easier for you, Firefly Marketing has developed an easy-to-use 2024 social media content calendar template for you to use. Did we mention it’s a free download?

Need Some Help?

If your business has the resources to devote a large portion of its time to social media this process can be smooth and easy! If you need some help however, there’s no shame in turning to the experts to guide you where you need it most. An agency can help to alleviate some of the pressures of staying on top of the ever-changing social media game. An agency can also help you fine-tune your marketing strategy to get the most out of your time and money.

In this case, social media management becomes a collaboration between client and agency. The business can focus its efforts on the soft content. This is the content that is light and fun. It’s your everyday content showcasing your products, company culture, or everyday life. With this a steady flow of light content, the agency can then focus on ads strategies and continued marketing goals to improve the overall brand recognition and reach, in turn increasing revenue.

If you’re looking to hire an agency to help you manage your social media it’s important to discuss the roles that each of you will play in detail and collaborate on these pieces to make sure that all of your objectives are pushing the business in the right direction.

Agency and Client Roles in Effective Social Media Management

Below are some examples of roles the client and agency might play in a collaborative and effective social media management strategy. Keep in mind that these are dependent upon the need and attainability of each client.

Client-Side

  • Shares relevant data, reports, and insights of business and/or past social media efforts
  • Have a vision for the future of the brand
  • Develop specific, measurable and achievable objectives
  • Provide any documents, pictures, or content that you’d like the agency to use
  • Participate in social media efforts (as determined by the business and the agency)
  • Provide feedback to the agency

Agency Side

  • Provide analysis of business and market dynamics
  • Propose potential business-building tactics
  • Propose creative concepts with a relevance and realism strategy
  • Communicate strategy as necessary
  • React quickly to find solutions to problems
  • Provides training about how to use marketing tools (as determined by the business and the agency)

Team Collaboration

  • Communicate the ongoing goals of the social media efforts
  • Collaborate on content creation (as determined by the business and the agency)

Check out our Free Social Media Content Calendar!

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Questions?

If you’re looking for some help with your social media management contact us today for a free quote!

Need some more tips on creating your social media content and managing your platforms?

Read our article Social Media 101 for some useful tips on how to utilize each platform to its fullest including social media content creation, social media content management, what type of content is best for social media, and social media management benefits.

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About the Author: Laura Williams

Account Executive – Laura is energized by building relationships. She believes that communication is key & creating meaningful collaborations is what it's all about. She's got the skill to read a room and share her calming energy to help others feel welcome. If you catch her in action, she might be snapping a pic, say cheese!

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