9 Top Tips for Successful Social Media Management and Marketing
Social media is an essential part of any business, but it can be hard to know where to start so we've put together our top tips for successful social media management and marketing to help you out!
Social media is more than just a place to share a bit of content - it's a way to connect with customers, create brand awareness and increase sales. But it can be overwhelming and difficult to know where to start.
If you take the time to consider your content, taking into account knowing not only what you are posting but why you are posting it you will reduce your social overwhelm and feel in charge of your social marketing.
To help set you off in the right direction, here’s our top tips…
START WITH A PLAN
Plan ahead. Start by identifying your goals and objectives for using social media in your business. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Or do you want to sell products directly through social media? Ensure they align with your business plan (if you haven’t got a business plan we need to talk!)
GET TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Get to know your audience. Just like any other form of marketing, it's important to know who your customers are. Find out what they like, what they don't like, where they hang out online and how they use different social media platforms. This will help you create content that will resonate with them and build a strong relationship with them.
STAY ON BRAND
Be consistent by staying true to your brand. Use the same tone of voice, language, colours and font throughout all channels used by your business (e.g., website, blogs, Facebook page). By using the same style as other posts from the same source (e.g., company blog), the audience will get to know your brand, will have confidence in its reliability and it will help to build your brand recognition and trust.
CREATE A ROUTINE
We all know that social media is an important part of our businesses, but it can also be a huge time suck. Juggling your time between your core business function and your marketing can be really tricky. It’s easy to get distracted by going down a rabbit hole of content, overthink the latest comments and replies on your feeds or second guess your latest post.
The best way we've found to stay on top of your accounts while still getting all of your other work done is to create a routine. Set aside some time every day or every week (this will depend on your own business) that is specifically for researching, planning and scheduling posts in advance, checking your accounts and responding to comments, etc. You don't have to do everything at once - if you have a routine and a system in place you’ll be able to consistently stay on top of it all.
ADD VALUE, BE HELPFUL
One of the most important tips for successful social media is to add value. Ask yourself: What does my audience need? How can I help?
For example, if you're a personal trainer and you want to connect with people who are interested in fitness, offer tips on how to get started or what supplements might be right for them. Or if you're an interior designer, offer tips on how to make small changes that can have a big impact on their homes.
The key is being helpful in a way that adds value to your audience's life.
BE CONSISTENT
Posting regularly is important because it helps build trust with your audience - and trust is one of the most important components of any relationship, especially in business. If a consumer trusts you, then they're more likely to buy from or follow you than someone who seems like they might disappear at any moment. Consistency shows them that they can rely on you no matter what happens in their daily lives.
Posting regularly also helps you stay on top of consumers' minds, which is key in social media marketing. You want to make sure that people are thinking about your brand at all times, not just when they're searching for what they need online or when they think of it.
REPURPOSE CONTENT
Repurposing content can save so much time when it comes to social media posting. Repetition is important in marketing, and if you've written something that's really resonated with your audience, then you should definitely keep sharing it!
For example, take a blog and turn it into a carousel post for Instagram, take an older post and turn it into an infographic, take your Instagram stories and turn them into a reel! May as well put it on Tiktok too!
You don't have to reinvent the wheel - just repurpose it!
INTERACT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
You should also use your social media accounts to interact with your audience. This is a great way to build relationships with people who might like what you have to offer. It's not called social media for nothing!
Respond to comments, questions and concerns your audience might have. When you reply to these comments, it shows that you care about what they have to say. Another way to interact with your audience is to ask for feedback or advice - try asking a question or doing a poll. Not only will this build more trust with your audience it will also provide some good feedback!
By interacting with your audience via social media platforms you can create a community of loyal followers who will continue supporting your brand because they feel connected to it.
MONITOR AND ADJUST AS REQUIRED
Social media is a constantly evolving field, and the best way to stay on top of it is to monitor your results and adjust as necessary.
All social media platforms have built in analytics tools, sometimes called insights. Take a look because you’ll find some very helpful info here. You can quickly see which content is performing best, which posts are getting shared the most, and which users are engaging with your page the most. This will help you make informed decisions about what content to share in the future, so that you don't waste time on content that isn't working for you.