If you want to make sure your social media channels are consistently spreading your brand messaging — and if you want these channels to connect more effectively and authentically with your audience – you’ll want to consider the importance of Social Media Management.

Social Media Management involves more than posting something to social media, crossing your fingers (and toes), and hoping for a deluge of likes, comments, and shares.

Social Media Management is a strategic process that involves creating, publishing, and analyzing content posted to common social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. And it involves engaging with users on those platforms (especially if they engage with your posts, or send a message, or lodge a complaint, or shower you with compliments).

And the analyzing part? That also occurs before anything is posted during any Social Media Management strategy. Why? Because research is necessary to determine the focus and implementation of any strategy.

Because having a thoughtful, goal-oriented presence on social media is important (instead of the “ohmygodpleaselikemypost” method that relies solely on intuition — and quite a bit of luck).

But utilizing social media to cultivate and engage customers offers endless marketing opportunities, and a chance to connect with –and build trust with – your discerning online audience.

Not sure if your business should use social media? Here are a few facts to help facilitate a wise decision:

• Social media helps brands launch their objectives across multiple public-facing platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). And these objectives include anything from raising brand awareness to increasing in-store traffic.
• 84% of people with Internet access use social media. This means there’s a good chance – a very good chance – your target audience does, too. In fact, they’re probably on right now, searching for services near them or watching an orchestra of cats play the French horn.
• 74% of people use social media to help them make a purchasing decision.
• 57% of consumers will follow a brand’s social media page to learn about new products or services.
• There are billions (literally billions) of monthly active users across social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn (just to name a few). That means there are massive audiences to take advantage of – to market to, and try to engage. However, an important part of Social Media Management is determining who your audience actually is, so let’s temper those dreams of global domination.
• Negligible start-up costs: Yes, you can run paid ads on certain social media platforms (more on that later), but utilizing social media channels to reach your audience is incredibly cost-efficient. Setting up Facebook or Instagram? Free. Posting stuff? Free. Responding to user comments? Free. So, you can create a steady stream of content yourself. And, if you’re having a hard time increasing response and engagement, you can consider boosting posts or targeted ads. Right – more on that later.

People are watching (even if you think they aren’t). They might not “like,” and they might not comment, but if they’re seeking you out, they’re also investigating your social media accounts. They’re looking for more reasons to trust you – more proof or your trustworthiness and competency.

There’s a large percentage of people who use social media without engaging. So, keep them in mind when you’re slightly depressed by the perceived lack of audience response.

As previously mentioned, Social Media Management is a process that, yes, includes posting content, but that’s only part of it – there’s a heck of a lot more creativity, monitoring, testing, and analyzing.

So, let’s break down our management process:

We’ll enact a social media audit.

This includes making sure your branding is consistent across all social media channels. We’ll compile and analyze your social media metrics like followers and engagement rate, and then we’ll review the social media presence of your direct competition.

We’ll research your target audience.

Who are you trying to reach? How old are they? What are their interests? Which social media channels do they use? Answering questions like these will make sure you’re targeting the right people on the right platform with an aligned interest in your messaging.

We’ll research your target audience (Part II).

Elaborating on “which social media channels do they use,” it’s important to realize where your target audience resides (online, that is). It would be wasteful to spend equal time across three social media channels when one shows more reach and engagement with your preferred audience. Sure, it’s nice to exist omnipotently across all digital platforms, but if your age demographic resides on Facebook, and your audience is more responsive on Facebook, then trust in the data, spend more time there, and spend less time on less responsive channels.

Nailing the “voice” or persona of you brand.

When posting to social media, what’s the persona of your written content? When reading your text, what does the “voice” sound like in the heads of your audience? It is lighthearted? Humorous? Helpful? Informative? Trustworthy? Transparent? Easygoing? The content you post is conveyed by a knowledgeable brand ambassador, so this “person” should convey al the characteristics of your brand.

Which leads us to your brand. Once you figure out the voice, your content — whenever possible and relevant – should use the colors and design elements of your brand.

Crafting your social media strategy.

And that includes building a separate strategy for each channel, since each channel is used differently and represented by certain demographics. When creating your strategy, we’ll consider things like…

• Your goals. What do you want to accomplish with social media? Do you want to introduce your brand to the uninitiated, or strengthen your brand with current customers? Do you want to direct people to sales or content existing on the website? Your goals help determine the content.
• Your industry or area(s) of expertise. What information are people in your industry looking for? What are they interested in? What do they want to know? If there’s a deficiency of certain information in your industry, there’s an opportunity to create that content — perhaps as a blog post or a more simple, explanatory graphic – and share it to social media.

Implementing social media design.

We’ll make sure each social media account features the correct – and consistent — visual branding elements. For example, your Facebook header, profile picture, and icon will properly convey the company branding.

Creating your social media calendar.

This shared content calendar shows approval-ready posts scheduled throughout the month. These posts could be anything from company announcements to sharing blog posts. And because the calendar is shared, clients can see the crafted posts and approve them before posting.

Creating and maintaining your ads.

Remember when I said, “More on that later”? Well, here we are (you made it!). If you really want to increase your reach and engagement, you’ll want to present ads into the social feeds of your targeted audience. We’ll create the graphics and text, select the targeting attributes, and then maintain the ads for their specified duration.

Engaging through responsiveness.

Social Media Managers will also be monitoring any activity on assigned social media channels — they’ll be responding to, and interacting with, your followers. This is an invaluable aspect of the service as it show attentiveness and great consideration for your audience – an attentiveness that helps secure brand loyalty.

And since more than 65% of people use social media for customer service, it’s imperative to respond to inquiries, less-than-awesome experiences, and positive customer reviews with equal measure and diligence.

Analyzing your performance.

This is an integral aspect of Social Media Management. Analysis tracks the performance of ads and organic posts; it shows which types of content engage, convert, or fall flat. And from these metrics, your Social Media Manager can glean the behavior and responsiveness of your audience (which better predicts the success of future content).

And this analysis – these metrics and results — will be shared with you on a regular basis. And we do this because we want you see how your investment is working. We want you to see any gains and losses, and watch how new data strengthens strategies to win the lager battle – to engage, grow, and gain the trust of your target audience.

The complete dismissal of your brand, its voice, and its mission.

Some Social Media Managers tend to think, “I’ll just be clever and funny.” Nope, it won’t work. What’s the brand’s voice? What’s the brand’s color? Where’s the logo? What’s the age demographic? What social media platform is this brand more suited for? What does the data actually say?? Sure, you can be clever and funny, but posting the latest unrelated meme or an image of half-eaten Peeps won’t win you any customers.

Paid Ads.

Well, okay, they certainly can be included, and actually, we do recommend them in order to really expand – and convert – more of your target audience. But technically, Social Media Management can be relegated to building more followers organically. This results in much slower progress, but it DOES make sure you’re maintaining brand awareness, and it will, over time, grow your audience. And remember — not everyone engages. So, keep spreading the message and building trust for those surveying more stealthily.

Struggling to grow your audience on social media? Afraid you’re not taking advantage of social media’s many advantages? Overwhelmed by all the ridiculous time it takes to properly grow and maintain your presence across one – or several – social media channels?

Then I suggest you hit this button (below) and let our Social Media Managers create a branded, mission-oriented social media presence.