7 Tips for Superior Social Media Management

So you’ve finished setting up all of your business social media pages, and it’s time to start posting. Now what? Don’t worry — we’re here with pro tips to help walk you through social media management.

Whether you’ve hired an agency (like us) to manage your social media, or you’ve decided to post, snap, and ‘like’ on your own you’re probably curious as to what a successful digital media strategy might look like. In this blog, I’ll give you the insider tips you need to take your social accounts to the next level.

#1: Be Genuine

This is number one because it really is THAT important. If you only take one thing away from this entire blog, remember that authenticity shows through on digital media and it can be the factor that sets you above your competitors. Social platforms are meant to be just that — social — and you don’t want to come off as a robot with zero personality.

Professionalism is an important player here, but you don’t want to be a total square either. Set a tone that matches your business objectives and works well within your industry. If you’re in the funeral business for example, you might not want to have a sarcastic edge. However, when your business falls within a creative categorization, it would be crazy to have an overly serious tone.

#2: Connect With Followers

Social media is all about building community and connections. Yes, your overall goal is brand awareness and increasing conversions through channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram but that doesn’t happen simply by gaining a certain number of followers. In order to grow, you have to build. As a general rule, your first benchmark should be to reach 10,000 followers — after which you’ll begin to see a snowball effect and that number will continue to jump at a much faster pace.

While time consuming, thanking people for following your page goes a long way and can actually help you build even more connections. Chipotle does a great job with audience interaction — they make it a point to reply to each mention on their Twitter page. Follow back, and research industry thought leaders to connect with online. Interaction is key, which brings me to number three on the list…

#3: Interact, Act, React

Confused yet? Let me clarify. Successful social media management isn’t just posting some stuff online and waiting for other people to react to your message. A large component of social networking is the networking part! Strike up a conversation with that awesome blogger you follow — interact. Comment on an author’s latest Instagram photo — react. This is the key to building strong engagement on all of your platforms, and higher engagement leads to higher conversions.

If you have 200,000 idle followers on your Facebook page, the likelihood of even a fourth of those people converting into customers is very small. However, if you had 100,000 captive, highly engaged followers the chance of conversion is much greater.

#4: Schedule And Strategize

Time is the most precious commodity, and at least once a day you probably wish there was more of it — so why waste it posting updates to your social accounts every day at various times? There are better ways to manage your time, and I’m going to share with you one of the most valuable pieces of information I ever received about social posting.

Schedule everything. It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised at how many people think social needs to happen in the moment. The truth is, most successful bloggers gather content over time and then schedule it out later. Analyze your data to determine the best days and times to post to your audience, then schedule ahead of time. Having a solid content strategy in place makes it easier to spread content over time, and get the most out of it, too.

Of course there’s a time for live videos, and happening-right-now posts — but having a schedule will help you stay organized and allows you to leverage those spontaneous posts as supplements to an ongoing strategy.

#5: Utilize Tools

Agencies (iSynergy included) utilize massive toolboxes chock full of platforms designed to help digital media coordinators like myself successfully manage multiple client social media accounts simultaneously while saving time. So, whether you’re the CEO of a startup managing your own social media accounts or a seasoned pro it’s important to have the right tools up your sleeve.

Scheduling Tools:

Buffer – manage all of your social accounts in one place, and schedule posts without jumping between platforms.
Hootsuite – similar to Buffer, this platform has enhanced features for team management.
Sprout Social – cross-platform publishing, with a higher level of reporting and focus on providing social customer service.
HubSpot – integrated within their marketing software, HubSpot offers social monitoring and post scheduling capabilities across platforms.

Content Curation:

Paper.li – don’t have time to research industry posts? This platform will curate content based on keywords you pick, then publish them from your Twitter at set times.

Photo Editing:

VSCO – easy to use, wide selection of filters, and best of all — there’s a free version.
Snappa – great alternative to Photoshop for anyone without a graphic designer on their team. Free and paid packages are available.
Canva – simple graphic design software with wide array of templates for social media graphics.

#6: Keep Branding Consistent

It’s also important to be consistent on your social pages with posts, themes, tone, and visuals. Research has shown that 93% of buyers cite visual appearance as the top deciding factor in buying decisions. If you have multiple people handling your social media management, be sure to set guidelines for uniformity that align with your brand awareness plan.

For example, Instagram allows you to manage your filters to pick which ones display and in what order. This makes team management flow more consistently, since it’s easy to stick with your brand’s identity. When planning out your social calendar, it can be helpful to have specific themes each month to give direction to your posts. That way, followers have an idea of what they can expect from your content and look forward to what’s coming next.

#7: Post Regularly

As I mentioned earlier, scheduling out your social posts is a great way to save time and be more productive — but only if you keep up on it! There’s nothing more detrimental to your forward progress than falling off the social wagon halfway down the road. Only commit as much time to managing your social accounts as you can realistically afford. Don’t start off the month posting 3 times a day, then as you become busier, slow down to one post a week.

To start off, a good baseline for post frequency is about 2 times per week on each of your top social platforms. Another solid rule-of-thumb to keep in mind is that social posting is a lot like sleep. You can’t avoid sleep for 4 days then make up for it on the 5th day by napping for 18 hours; you can’t go M.I.A for a week on your social media page, then make up for it with 6 posts in one day. You’ll annoy followers, and damage your credibility.

Well, there you have it — my top 7 insider tips for superior social media management! I hope you find them to be useful in your quest for digital success. If you’d like to learn more about the services we offer, including social media management, please visit our services page today.