Social media in 2017 is changing the way businesses communicate with customers, the way they sell their products and services, and the way they make themselves available online for the world to see. While social media can often seem like all fun and games, it's actually a ton of work. Ask any social media manager or intern, and they'll tell you! There's a ton of planning that goes into posting, planning, and staying active on multiple profiles at once on an everyday basis. We're talking about the ways your business can plan social content for the quarter today; read on!
1. Get friendly with a digital calendar or planner; it'll be your best friend
- There are so many of these available online, but unfortunately, most of them aren't designed to really help keep you organized on a daily basis... a lot of the features just add extra noise. We've had the best luck with Google Spreadsheets, broken down on a monthly and weekly basis. You can share them with your entire team for transparency, add and change posts freely, and send email updates to any team member who might need notification. Plus, it's free!
2. Adopt a marketing automation platform, like Hubspot
- Hubspot is a life and time saver when it comes to scheduling social posts from one simple space online. The mobile app is perfect for on-the-go tweeting, Facebook monitoring, and general social media updating and planning. The platform will also send you weekly and monthly stat breakdowns and analytics of how your social accounts are performing so you can drill down and see where improvements are needed, what campaigns and posts performed the best, and which didn't do as well.
3. Hold monthly brainstorming sessions
- Whether they're team-wide or company-wide is totally up to you, but we've found that having these brainstorming meetings company-wide helps us expand our creativity and come up with some really fun ideas for the upcoming quarter! No idea is a bad idea, and we can always take a suggestion and run with it.
4. Plan ahead
- Know when big holidays are, and what accolades you'll need for those particular posts. Schedule these ahead of time if you'll be on vacation or out of the office, so you don't have to stress or scramble to get something completed at the last minute.
5. Be on the same page with your graphic designer, blogger, and other team members
- Communication is key in any marketing team, especially when there are so many moving parts. You've got the graphic designer who needs to know what images you need and when. You have a blogger who writes all your content. Your social media mastermind promotes all that content through various platforms. These three play an integral role in marketing your brand, so they should be on the same page with deadlines, campaigns, and all necessary components.
6. Have a strategy to promote your social posts
- Whether you're using Twitter or Facebook ads, you run campaigns on Snapchat or Instagram, purely Adwords or YouTube ads, whatever it may be.. make sure your strategy is mapped out in advance so you aren't running around like a chicken with your head cut off the day your campaign launches.
7. Have fun with it!
- Some of our most popular posts have been the silliest - National Hot Dog Day, for example, when we went to Sonic and ordered 50 chili cheese dogs and had a hot dog eating contest at the office. Our Facebook page blew up from that campaign alone, which we never expected! Be adventurous and see where it takes you; you might be surprised!