Social media management or also known as social management, is the process of managing social channels and creating high-quality content across social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, etc. A social media management strategy involves implementing social media marketing tactics and strategic organizational practices.
Social media management is not just about posting your content consistently and at the right time, like many people will tell you. The right SMM (social media management) plan will build grow your business and help solidify a foundation for your social channels and social media marketing campaigns.
Choosing the Best Social Media Management Platforms
Putting together the right plan of action for social media management is very time consuming, you will need to research what the best social media platforms are for your audience. Here’s a short insight into different social platforms and what they can do for your business goals:
Facebook – Facebook has a huge audience of over 2 million monthly users. With that being said, starting a Facebook business page costs you exactly $0! This can be a perfect platform to start your SMM efforts, until you start paying for ads to get page likes, and boosting posts by running Facebook ads. Facebook can be a very inexpensive alternative compared to running a TV or newspaper ad for your business.
Instagram – In terms of brand awareness and familiarity, Facebook still reigns supreme in the social media world. But social media is always evolving and trends show that Instagram’s users are much more engaged. Studies also show that Facebook users tend to ignore advertisements much more often than Instagram’s users: 32% of Facebook users regularly engage with brands, while 68% of Instagram users do.
Twitter – Twitter has 328 million active users worldwide and tends to be where users go for news and trends. Twitter additionally has a global appeal. 79% of users are located outside of the United States, with 67 million Americans! Twitter gives the opportunity to combine a massive worldwide audience with open communication.
LinkedIn – LinkedIn is the social media platform for B2B brands that are targeting businesses in different industries. With LinkedIn, you can find, interact, and share content with people based on the company type, industry, or job title.
YouTube – Online video is growing dramatically, with over 4 billion videos viewed daily! If you use YouTube for your business, you can easily reach your audience, both by creating videos and advertising on other people’s videos. YouTube is the second largest search engine and the third most visited website worldwide. 1 billion people visit YouTube each month globally. Talk about building a global presence for your social media management efforts!
Pinterest – Pinterest is another great channel for sharing image-focused content like some of the competitors on this list. This social platform has become a go-to for people who are interested in DIY, crafts, home improvement, nutrition, fitness, fashion, and more. If your brand sells a product or service that compliments with imagery, then looking into Pinterest can be an attractive choice.
Using a Social Media Content Management Strategy
Developing a social media strategy is an important factor for the continued growth of your social media accounts and social media marketing endeavors. After you have decided which channels you plan to use (we recommend to start with 2 if you do not have an agency). Subsequently, you’ll need to figure out how often you plan to post and what types of content you be will distributing to your audiences on each social channel.
Start by considering what you know about your targeted audience. What type of content do they enjoy the most? When are they online? Develop content that directly speaks to them but also engages with their needs and challenges.
There are two vital tasks that need to be highly prioritized, engagement and response/response time, this will be a consistent part of your social media management. Do you plan on outreaching your potential audience to strike a conversation, what will be your plans to engage with them? How fast will you respond to questions and concerns posted to your page(s)? How many posts will you like a day from your targeted audience? Factor these questions into your SMM research.
Creating Social Media Advertising Campaigns
Creating and executing social media ads is an essential part of social media management. Though there are many ways that you can do connect with your leads through organic social content, social media advertising complements this organic activity by allowing you to target specific audiences and improve visibility.
Many businesses new to space always get mixed up between organic social media and paid social media. We will explain it as simple and briefly as possible;
Organic social media: Using free tools provided by each social network to build a social community and interact with it, sharing posts, using hashtags, direct messaging and responding to customer comments.
Paid social media: Paying to display adverts (whatever the format – text, image, video, carousel, etc.) or sponsored messages to social network users based on user profile e.g. demographic. A cost is incurred depending on the type of ad planned; for example, many ads incur a cost per click (CPC).
For example, posting ads on Facebook can help drive more revenue for your business as it enables you to reach new leads who are similar or identical to your current customers. These are individuals who may have never seen your brand or website in the past, however, they will be encouraged to visit after seeing relevant content from your social media ads.
Tracking Performance Over Time
As with any other type of digital marketing campaign you have, you’ll want to make sure that you trace, measure and scale your social media campaign results over time. This is the only way to know if your campaigns are actually doing something and helping you meet your marketing goals. This data will help you better understand the outcome of your social media efforts and can accurately measure your ROI.
Reviewing your performance also helps you identify areas of improvement. Once you know what needs attention, you can start taking steps to enhance your social media strategy. Many businesses use social media for strictly sales and get discouraged after a month. The most common duration we see success using social media management and advertising strategies is between two to three months. Do not get discouraged and keep trying new tactics!
Why is Social Media Management Important?
Social media management brings strategy and control to your social marketing efforts. Using SMM helps you organize and oversee your social channels immensely. Social media management improves the ROI of your social marketing campaigns and ensures you’re making the right connections with your targeted audience, it:
Saves valuable marketing time: Creating and scheduling posts in advance enables you to maintain a consistent presence online, without having to rush to create content at random times throughout the day.
Increases authority: Publishing your content via social media will build a huge boost to your authority. This will show everyone that you know your industry and it will give an added padding to your SEO efforts as well!
Understand your audience: Social media tools show where your audience comes from, any useful demographics, when they are normally on, and how they interact with certain content you publish.
Improves customer service: Respond promptly to customer questions and direct messages. Build a direct relationship with your audience and potential audience.
Boost brand awareness: Social media puts your brand as a "socially conscious" organization, which builds connections like no other time period has seen before. Huge brands such as Coca-Cola and General Motors implement this in their marketing campaigns.
How Much Does Social Media Management Cost?
Social media management tools and services vary in costs, which is why it's so important to get a quote by an SMM agency before you make a decision. Additionally, you'll want an accurate estimate of how much social media management tools and services will cost for your particular goals and expectations.
Our Favorite Social Media Management Tools (Paid & Free)
If you'd prefer to take on your brand's social media responsibilities yourself, then there are a few excellent tools you can choose from. Social media for business shouldn't involve logging into a standard Instagram or Facebook account, just like you would with a personal page. Many businesses like yours use special tools that make life a lot easier.
Social media management tools can let you schedule posts, manage customer service comments and simply review analytics, and learn about trends in how your customers interact with your business. Here are our 4 top picks;
Hootsuite – lets you schedule an unlimited amount of posts (30-day free trial).
Sprout Social – ideal for businesses that need a simple SMM tool (free trial - no credit card required. No software to install).
IFTTT – a great free service that helps you manage your social platforms.
Buffer – Simple to use interface and mobile app (free trial).
Knowing what is a social media management and why it’s important helps solve a lot of your problems, actually implementing them is another. Hiring a social media management company will take care of the other half of your problems, and will ultimately ease your social media campaign. Do not wait to get your business on social media, no matter the size of your organization, these tactics will help you succeed in your highly competitive market.