Mastering Social Media Management: Tips, Tools, and Strategies for Boosting Your Online Presence
Social media is an effective tool for businesses to connect to their audiences and grow their brand. What is the next stage after setting up your social media profiles? You will need to begin social media management.
Social media is continuous work. You don’t set it up once and forget about it. You have to keep posting and updating your account regularly. This is where social media management comes in.
In this article, we shall look at social media management, its importance, and the common mistakes to avoid. Let's get started.
What is social media management?
Social media management refers to the day-to-day management and administration of social media accounts.
It involves creating, scheduling, analysing, and engaging with content posted on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others.
Social media management is essential for businesses and organisations to establish an online presence, build brand awareness, and connect with their audience on social media platforms.
What is the difference between social media marketing and social media management?
You might be wondering, how is social media management different from social media marketing? Social media management and social media marketing are related but different concepts.
Social media marketing involves promoting a product or service using social media platforms. It also includes generating leads, driving traffic to a website, and increasing brand awareness.
It is the process of developing and executing social media advertising campaigns, creating targeted content, analysing results, and optimising campaigns for better performance.
On the other hand, social media management involves creating, scheduling, and publishing content, engaging with followers, monitoring performance, and managing the overall social media strategy.
Why is social media management important?
How to create a social media management plan
Every social media manager has a unique method of managing social media accounts. However, there is one formula that is consistent all across the board. Here are some steps to add to your social media management plan:
Define your goals
The key to a successful strategy is to set SMART goals that align with your business objectives. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Determine the objectives you want to achieve with your social media strategy, such as increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or generating leads.
Set up daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals to have a vision for your social media accounts at all times.
Create a content strategy.
Invest in creating quality content. Develop a content strategy that includes the type of content to post, the frequency of posting, and the tone of voice you will use.
Remain consistent with your content. Post at the same time daily, and keep up with the same branding. Over time, this ensures that your audience will easily recognize your posts.
Identify your target audience.
To identify your target audience, you can start by asking yourself some key questions:
Once you get to know your target audience, you can start tailoring your social media content and marketing efforts to meet their needs and preferences better.
Engage with your audience.
Engaging with your audience is a social media management tip that often needs to be used.
When you engage with your followers, you show them that you care about their opinions and value their input. This helps build trust and foster a sense of community around your brand.
Make sure to respond promptly to comments and messages from your followers. This shows that you are actively listening to their feedback.
Ask your followers questions and encourage them to share their opinions. This helps spark conversations and generate engagement.
Monitor and evaluate performance.
Use social media analytics tools to monitor performance, track engagement, and make data-driven decisions to improve your strategy.
Engagement metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and clicks can help you understand how your audience is responding to your content. Keep an eye on your engagement and utilise A/B testing to pinpoint the right strategy to increase engagement.
You can also utilise social media management tools to monitor brand mentions and track sentiment around your brand. This can help you identify potential issues or opportunities to engage with your audience.
Use social media management tools.
Social media apps today have in-depth analytics tools. However, there are additional resources you can use to refine your audience and track insights.
These tools can help you monitor your accounts, bulk publish, post in multiple apps simultaneously, and offer CRM or customer relationship management features to keep track of all your customers in one place.
Let's explore the most popular social media management tools.
Tools and resources for social media management
Social media management tools are software applications designed to help businesses manage their social media accounts more efficiently.
These tools provide a variety of features, such as scheduling posts, monitoring social media analytics, engaging with followers, and creating and publishing content across different platforms.
Using social media management tools can save time, improve productivity, and help ensure a consistent brand voice across all social media channels.
They can also provide valuable insights into audience behaviour and engagement, allowing users to adjust their social media strategy accordingly.
Let’s take a look at some popular social media management tools:
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Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a helpful social media management tool that enables businesses and individuals to manage their social media accounts from one platform. Founded in 2008, Hootsuite has over 18 million users in over 175 countries.
Features offered by Hootsuite:
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool that allows businesses and individuals to manage their social media accounts from a single dashboard. Founded in 2010, Buffer is now used by over 75,000 companies and individuals.
Buffer's Optimal Timing Tool analyses a user's social media account activity and engagement history to suggest the most optimal times to post on each platform. This tool helps users maximise their reach and engagement by posting at times when their audience is most active.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social offers a unique feature for social media management - it provides CRM features. This means you can track customers based on their available information in one place.
Sprout Social also allows you to track all your social media contacts, track interactions, and segment contacts based on their engagement level, location, and other factors.
Sprout Social's CRM system integrates with popular customer relationship management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce and HubSpot, allowing businesses to streamline their social media and customer relationship management efforts.
Common social media management mistakes to avoid
Your social media management strategy can make or break your brand. Poor social media management can potentially harm your business’s reputation.
Mistakes like ignoring customer feedback may lead to your audiences spreading information you don't care about your customers. This can cost you credibility and profits as well.
Such mistakes can cause you to have to start from scratch again, figuring out how to undo the damage to your business's online reputation.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common social media management mistakes to avoid
Inconsistent branding
One major mistake in social media management is inconsistent branding. You may have heard of logos, brand colours, and branding, and these are supposed to be consistent throughout the lifetime of a brand, unless in the case of a rebranding strategy.
But if you keep changing brand colours or the tone of your branding in every social media post, your audiences will likely get confused. You won't create a lasting impression without consistency in branding.
Building trust with your audiences is essential in social media management. You can do this by having a consistent brand image across all social media platforms.
Strengthen your brand image with proper branding.
Ignoring customer feedback
How often have you commented "pp" (price, please) on a clothing store's post, and no one answered you? Did you end up shopping from that account?
Social media allows brands to connect and communicate with their audiences. If you don't reply to DMs or comment back on customers' queries, they will feel unheard and undervalued.
A customer that feels that way will not be returning to your business.
It's essential to respond promptly and respectfully to all customer comments and messages, even if it's a negative one.
Posting irrelevant content
An electronics shop on Instagram posting an irrelevant meme can lead to low engagement and loss of followers. Avoid posting content other than what people signed up for.
It's important to research the audience's interests and preferences and create content that matches their interests and mindsets.
Utilise a social media calendar to plan and schedule your posts to avoid last-minute postings. Here are some examples of what to post on your social media:
Over-promoting
Another pitfall that social media managers face is over-promoting the product. Your social media posts should feel natural, and most people are on social media for entertainment purposes.
Constantly promoting products or services can make a social media account look spammy and pushy. Balancing promotional content with valuable and engaging content, such as tips, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or user-generated content, is crucial.
Such posts make the account seem exciting and engaging rather than sales-y. You may have a business agenda - but it is vital to keep customers engaged.
Ignoring analytics
Measuring analytics allows you to track trends and forecast customer behaviour. It is a waste of resources to ignore the analytics of your social media profiles, and your Meta account has features to help you track in-depth statistics.
Ignoring analytics can lead to missed opportunities for improvement and growth. It's important to regularly analyse the metrics and adjust the strategy accordingly.
Neglecting social media etiquette
Social media etiquette is necessary for companies to preserve their online reputation. There are certain rules to follow when posting on social media - much like how you have to be appropriate in real life.
Here are ways to ensure social media etiquette:
Avoiding social etiquette can make a business or individual look unprofessional or disrespectful.
Over to you
Effective social media management is essential for businesses of all sizes to build and maintain their online presence, engage with their audience, and achieve their marketing goals.
In this article, we have examined the importance of social media management for brands. Social media management involves actively publishing content to attract audiences, and social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram may require daily posting to drive up views.
This can get time and labour-intensive. Avoiding mistakes like inconsistent branding and irrelevant content is crucial to avoid losing potential customers. To keep up with social media algorithms and drive up sales, consider working with a social media management agency.