Managing Social Media — Why Can’t It Be A Little.. Easier?
Many businesses see social media as a “necessary evil” — Something you have to do because everyone else is doing it. After all, if you’re not using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc., you’re missing out. While that’s true, it gives us a sad face every time we think about businesses seeing social media as a chore, because, done right, it can be easy, and powerful.
It’s all about having a plan — Now, before you click away in disgust at having to plan something else, it’s not a big plan. We’re not talking a high-fallutin’ plan for a Rube Goldberg-esque style machine, just a simple, common sense approach to make things easy, and, perhaps, a little more joyful.
Don’t believe us? Read on…
Who’s going to have the responsibility for social media? First things first, who do you want to handle your social media accounts? Now, that could be one of your people who have a great understanding of the right approach, tools, and techniques to use — Or, you could outsource it to a creative marketing agency who has your brand’s best interests at heart. Like… Us, for example? (we aren’t always subtle)
Anyway, you need to have someone who is going to have responsibility for your social media, who can review and post everything you need, and who can speak with your company’s voice. They need to understand and love your customers.
Where do you post? Different types of business will get the most advantage from different social platforms. You probably won’t find much of an audience for your recipes on LinkedIn, and folks on Pinterest probably aren’t going to be thrilled by your course on chartered accountancy. But, once you can match your message to your social media, that’s when things get real interesting.
- Facebook — Pretty much everyone uses Facebook — Over 20% of all pages seen on the web are on Facebook. You need to be there, simple as that.
- Twitter — With millions of people using Twitter, and the opportunity to easily go viral with the right message, Twitter is also pretty much essential.
- Pinterest — Do you have a visually appealing product, service, or brand? If so, Pinterest is a great place to get traction.
Instagram — Like Pinterest, Instagram is perfect for pretty products. - LinkedIn — Marketing more to professionals and business people? This is your natural choice.
- YouTube — Although not seen as a “traditional” social network, YouTube gets billions of hits every month. Make an amazing video and watch your views skyrocket.
- Google Plus — Yes, there are still people and businesses using Google Plus, don’t disregard it and ps. it could help with your Google ranking.
When should you post? You know where to post, but do you know when to post? Once you understand when your customers are likely to be using social media, you can take advantage of that, and share delicious bits of information, just when they need it. They’ll be wowed by your ideas, share them on themselves, and suddenly you’ve got a viral social media presence. Nice!
Get to scheduling. One of the main pains businesses have with social media is having to send out all their posts manually, to all the different platforms. Well, good news, friends. There are some great scheduling tools out there to make posting and sharing a breeze. Two that we love are Hootsuite and Buffer. Both are awesome at letting you queue up posts, then setting things off and letting them post on your behalf.
Be careful though, lots of social media is about reacting, responding, and posting in real time — That’s what gets you engagement. So, don’t just rely on scheduling tools, build them into your overall social media approach.
And there you have it, the basics you need to get in place for easier social media success — That wasn’t so bad now, was it?