What Is Social Media Management?
Your social media is key to your marketing plan. Whether you have a small local business or a large presence online already, social media is imperative in this day and age. Since it’s here to stay, it should be an essential piece of your business marketing strategy. Through social media, you can connect with your customers, create trust in your brand, and boost your leads and sales.
Social media is always changing, and new platforms pop up frequently. When you first hear the word “social media,” you might think about the obvious giants, which include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. There are so many more you can check out to your advantage, including relative newcomers TikTok, Weibo, and Reddit.
With an online presence, you also need some sort of social media management. What is social media management? Here are the basics to get you started on managing your social media:
What Is Social Media Management?
Social media management is developing a strategy around your social media accounts, based on analyzing who you reach and how that audience engages with you. Once you have a good idea of who your audience is, you will have a better idea of what kind of content they’ll enjoy most, when to post, and how to turn that engagement into leads and sales.
Having a plan tailored to specific audiences on different platforms will help you measure and monitor many important things, such as changes in trends, how your industry is perceived (which can help you get ahead of any PR issues), and anything you can use to your company’s advantage in marketing.
Previously, social media management was a side project in a lot of companies’ marketing strategies, but it’s safe to say that these strategies take the lead on most campaigns these days.
Why Should I Invest in It?
The benefits of investing in your social media management are legion. If nothing else, it can save you money. Social media platforms are free to join, and you can post content and respond to user comments without having to pay any money to do so. You may decide to pay for ads on these platforms later, but if you’re just starting, you can build your base without spending any money or too much time.
You’ll also have incredible reach with a social media account. Most humans on this planet log onto at least one social media account every day and spend an average of 147 minutes online, so your company has a new opportunity every day to reach out to them.
Connecting with your audience is never a bad thing. Even if you don’t generate a lead or a sale now, if your audience has a positive or humorous experience with your advertising, they’re more likely to remember your company later.
How Do I Get Started?
The best way to get started is to complete a social media audit. What social media platforms do you use already? How often do you post? What kind of responses do you get? Are there new social media platforms that fit better or fit in addition to what you have currently?
Answering these questions will let you see how effective your current strategy is and how to pinpoint where you’re wasting your time and resources. You’ll also be able to see which platforms are bringing in the best results. Once you know that, you can decide if you want to build on those platforms more, and/or tweak how you handle the other platforms. Analytics are your friend.
You should also think about your target audience. What age are they? What time do they tend to be online? How active are they on this platform? Is there another platform where they might be more active or engaged?
How Do I Stand Out?
Another question to ask yourself is how popular this platform you’ve chosen is among other marketers, whether they’re from your industry or not. Knowing this answer means you’ll have a better idea of how much content you’ll have to create in order to really stand out in a crowd. It might be a risk to try out a new platform, but if there aren’t as many advertisers, you might simply be ahead of the curve.
One thing that helps people remember things is humor. Make someone laugh, and they’ll remember you and your product. In fact, your ad is most likely to make an impression if they’re humorous, followed by the trustworthiness of your brand, whether your product is new, whether the ad is relatable, and whether it’s informative. Check out these 10 companies that used humor to their advantage. Remember the Old Spice ads? Of course you do.
What Kind of Budget Should I Set?
There are a couple of ways to build new campaigns—one of them is to build everything from scratch organically a little at a time, and another is to set up paid campaigns. Either way, you’ll need a budget. No two companies have the same budget, so you’ll have to determine a few things first. For instance, consider the size of your business and how many services or products you provide. If you are a smaller business, of course, you’ll be able to spend less money.
Also, be aware of the size of your team. Not only is overworking your marketing team an easy way for a campaign to fall apart, but a smaller team also requires less time and less money. However, if you intend to use the services of an ad agency, the budget is going to be bigger because an ad agency has more resources to put behind your campaign.
Social media management and digital advertising don’t have to be a scary topic, but if you want an extra hand or a better strategy, InnoVision is your obvious choice. Staying ahead of the curve with InnoVision is easy. Our goal is to partner with our clients, not just to create one campaign, but to build a long-term relationship that grows your company and engages your customers. Contact us today.
