Managing Social Media [As a Team-of-One]

Managing social media for a business as a team-of-one is a daunting task. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest all have their own rules, guidelines, best practices, and unique social etiquette.

Not only do you have to find and create content to feed the monster that is social media, but your content has to be interesting and engaging all while driving customers to your website to prove social ROI to executives.

According to Simply Measured, “social media will account for 22.5% of marketing budgets in the next five years.”

But many digital marketing budgets are small and show no signs of increasing. Yet, businesses of all shapes and sizes find a way to create engaging social media content that drives qualified customers to their website.

How do they do it? Glad you asked.

Efficiency.

You too can be a pro with a social media team-of-one. Start here with these resources and you’ll be well on your way.

1. Management

Hootsuite: One of the leading social media management platforms

Pros:

• Low cost with a team of one or two

• Monitor your brand with hashtags and keyword mentions

• Unlimited tweet scheduling with native picture uploads

• Basic analytics with built-in link shortening

• All-in-one “Social Interface"

Cons:

• Interface can be overwhelming at times

• Not all social platforms work perfectly when posting content

 TweetDeck: Powerful Twitter-focused management dashboard

 Pros:

• Monitor your brand on Twitter with hashtags and keyword mentions

• Easy tracking and organizing of multiple Twitter accounts

• Simple tweet scheduling capabilities exclusive to Twitter

• Easy-to-use “custom” streams for your accounts and keywords

 Cons:

• Exclusive to Twitter and so does not do apply to other social networks

• Tweet scheduler is very basic

• Lack of robust analytics and Google Analytics integration

Even with a program like Hootsuite or TweetDeck, I always recommend posting “natively” to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, & Google+. It takes a few extra minutes, but these platforms rely heavily on visuals to increase engagement and posting natively to each allows managers to ensure quality images.

Though Instagram, Google+, and LinkedIn do not have a native scheduling feature at the moment, Facebook does allow you to schedule posts in advance. The more you practice, the better you will become at each platform.

2. Content

The most challenging part of social media is coming up with fresh content to share with your audience on a regular basis. Luckily, you don’t have to be a creative genius or marketing master to come up with some great content your fans will love.

Research: Use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram Data

Keeping an eye on what’s trending in social media and monitoring your competition are great ways to find, curate, and create new content.

Do so by following your favorite business’ social accounts on all social media platforms, use the “Watch Page” feature on Facebook, set up keywords or hashtags on Hootsuite, and get Google Alerts going for your business.

Monitoring your competition on social media is perfect for finding out what works and what doesn’t in your specific industry. What are audiences responding to? What are they engaging with? Is your competition running promotions or give-a-ways?

Following and monitoring doesn’t mean that you should ever directly steal content, but that doesn’t mean you can’t repurpose it in your own creative way.

Optimize

Use Facebook “Insights” to figure out which days and times work best with your audience. For advanced users, you can also use “Insights” for optimization of types of posts, videos, and keywords.

Use Hootsuite’s “AutoScheduler” feature for Twitter. Type in your tweet, add a link and picture, hit “AutoScheduler,” and watch the magic happen.

Specifically for Instagram, there is a great too called Iconosquare. Iconosquare will help you to optimize your posts, follow new fans, monitor hashtag campaigns, and much more. Plus, it’s free for basic use. 

3. Design

Canva

Don’t have time to learn Photoshop? No problem, social media mogul Guy Kawasaki and his team have created a wonderful product called Canva.

I like to call Canva the “Photoshop for Beginners.”

Canva provides stunning layout templates, stock photos, shapes, colors, and hundreds of different custom designs.

It’s easy to use and many of the designs in the program are offered for free. If you want to use their advanced designs, you can for a small price.

Consider this: “Facebook posts with photos account for a whopping 87% of total interactions.”

SlideShare

SlideShare takes professional presentations and allows your audience members to easily share the information.

4 Pros of Using SlideShare

1. Demonstrate your expertise

2. Drive traffic to your website of choice

3. Eye-catching presentations that will impress your audience

4. Combines educational information with powerful visuals

5. (Bonus) More fun to use than PowerPoint!

Today’s audience is hungry for fun and educational information that they can share with their friends and they are looking to you to provide it.

4. Education

“The entire world of knowledge is at your fingertips… Dive in!”

The world of social media is rapidly changing. The businesses that do it best are the ones that stay ahead of the curve.

To stay ahead of the curve you must stay educated.

Feedly: An Online News Curator with Topics that You Designate

• Sharpen your skills on a daily basis

• Follow important industry topics and influential blogs

• Easy to share articles

• Practical, ready-to-apply knowledge without all of the fluff

 Social Media Examiner

• One of the leading resources exclusively for social media smarts

• They run the social media experiments for you and then report

• Daily social media educational articles

 Simply Measured

• Great resource for measuring social media and content marketing

• Analytics for all levels of social media managers. Beginner – Expert

• Advice on measuring what’s truly important

The resources in this article will not only help you to find, curate, and create content, but they will help you to provide data behind your social media ROI.

Because let’s face it, at one point, you will have to demonstrate how your social media efforts are moving the needle.

Don’t be nervous! If you’ve utilized the resources above (and experimented a little) you will be impacting your business in a positive way.

And remember, when in doubt, Google is your friend. There are hundreds of resources out there to help you with whatever question or topic that you are curious about.

Above all, always keep in the forefront of your mind – the WHY.

Why social media? What do you hope to accomplish with all of your hard work? What does my boss hope that I accomplish?

By creating a plan with realistic and achievable goals, your social media will have a purpose.

Most importantly, your friends will no longer giggle when you tell them that part of your job is “Social Media Management.” You will be driving the bottom line and creating a lasting impact at your company.

Questions? Comments?

Drop them below!

- Brian