Growing social media channels? Then you are generating content. But as your channels and engagement grow, how do you continue to feed the content demand? Is it possible? Is there an end?
Here are my three tips on how to keep the beast fed.
1. Identify the social media channels that are right for your brand and/or your clients' brands
So your client just read about the latest social media channel. Uh-huh...TikTok. And they want everything to be focused on it. Is that a good call? Should you be on all channels? Don't listen to them, they're getting FOMO (fear of missing out).
You, yes you! The amazing content-generating-internet-savvy-polymarketing-machine that is behind this screen. Remember to believe in your analytics.
Where is your audience?
Where can your audience grow?
Are they engaged?
Answer these questions by analysing where your audience touchpoints are with your brand.
How do you interact with them?
Then you'll start getting a good idea of whether bringing in "the latest platform" will be of added value to your brand.
Always keep in mind what your goals are for the social content you publish.Tis will give you a better understanding of whether that platform can help reach your goals. Perhaps you will realise another platform is better suited.
Whatever your mix of channels is, you must have a good reason behind that choice. And "Because my daughter posted a duck face/peace sign and got 238 likes" is not a good reason.
2. Know the best times to post
You don't want to share social content if your target audience isn't online or engaging at that time. Social media management tools like Hootsuite or Buffer can let you know when the best time to post for you specifically is.
You can also figure this out by visiting the the metrics section of each of your channels, ie. Insights on Instagram. There you will find what time your audience engages with you the most. If you are just starting, try running A/B tests by posting similar content type posts at different times.
You should soon start to empathise with your audience.
In this case, you want to be asking yourself:
Who is my audience
When do they look at what screens?
Nothing better than hitting them with a fresh new post at the top of their feed when they next check into their phone.
3. Batch Cooking Content
Some incredibly organized people cook all their dinners on one day, freeze it, and then have that all ready to go for the remaining days of the week.
They call it batch cooking. I admire these people.
Seriously, I really do.
This is the closest I get to batch cooking:
Point is, you can apply the same principle of batch cooking to content.
Schedule all your content at once, so you don't have to keep going back into the content kitchen, slicing, dicing, prepping, stressing, about what creative you will serve next.
Being a successful social media manager doesn’t mean spending your workday posting content. If your strategy centers on publishing posts daily or when they come to mind, you are probably wasting tons of time.
A content calendar and a scheduling strategy can save you time and stress.
Creating a content calendar can also help your team keep their eyes on the prize: your social media goals.
Here's a step-by-step suggestion for how you can organise your next batch content production run:
Pencil in major campaigns and seasonal promotions, allowing plenty of time to tease content before the actual event.
Add in links to content your team wants to promote, such as new blog posts.
Get the calendar draft approved by your marketing manager to ensure you’ve covered all the bases.
Develop creative assets, including photos, graphics, and videos.
Decide which social channels to publish on and create unique copy for each.
Don't go tag crazy. Keep key tags in your post copy and make sure you use the right handles for each channel.
Upload posts for a week at a time, or schedule a month in advance.
So, in conclusion:
No matter how strong you think your social media strategy is, you’ll need data to prove your case. Check social media reports regularly. Monitor analytics and look for trends. Then use your insight to understand your audience. Then you'll know your audience, what they like, what they don't like and how to enagage them.
Go beyond vanity metrics, and monitor the KPIs that truly matter.
Also, use your analysis to adjust how, what, and when you publish. By monitoring and adjusting weekly, monthly, or quarterly, you can take a smarter approach to social media management. Tools like Hootsuite allow you to post over 300 posts in advance!
Whether you want to build brand awareness or drive sales, regular monitoring and reporting can help to continually improve your growth strategy.
Anyway, hope this all helps. Obviously there's plenty more where that came from. Feel free to contact me. Always happy to talk about growth marketing experiences with anyone.
:P