Feel as if you’re forgetting something? Not sure how to make the most out of your day as a social media manager — or where to even start?
A daily checklist of tasks will help you stay focused and productive when managing your brand’s social media pages. With a daily checklist, you’ll keep track of what you need to accomplish, from publishing content to replying to messages and more. Check out our suggestions and tips for handling your day below.
First, check each platform’s notifications, messages, and mentions that have popped up since your last login. A software tool that collects these messages all in one place can save time. Time is a big factor in maintaining customer loyalty for your brand. Wait too long to respond to an angry review or an urgent question, and you may lose your customers’ trust. 42% of customers expect a response within an hour.
It might help to read through all your inbound messages and comments first to see which need responses ASAP. Then you can go back and reply to other messages, mentions, and comments. Thank anyone who mentions you favorably, answer the questions you can, or let the user know you will research the answer they need and get back to them. For any serious issues, offer to connect with the user via direct message, email, or other private channel.
Your brand should already have scheduled content in the queue — no one likes to rush a piece of content just to have something new to post! Make sure that your scheduled content is ready to go, especially if any details or information in it have changed since it was written.
Need new content last minute? Consider social media content syndication, or repurposing an existing piece of your content across different channels. For example, you could repurpose a lengthy blog post about a social media manager’s daily tasks into short Facebook posts, Instagram stories, or tweets.
Another simple idea is to curate content from trustworthy sources. You should follow leaders and influencers in your industry, along with relevant hashtags. When you see useful content that these users have recently posted, repost it for your followers and add your own comments.
Here are some key ideas to keep in mind when planning and producing social media content:
After you’ve published content and brainstormed new content ideas, it’s time to scope out the competition.
A good social media manager knows their target audience. That means they also know their audience’s environment and habits. Who else do they follow or engage with online, besides your brand?
Knowing what your competition is doing is important. A competitive analysis can tell you what type of social media is working in your market, where your brand can improve, and what you may want to implement in your social media strategy going forward.
We’re not suggesting that you jump on the bandwagon and copy everything your competition is doing. Part of what makes a brand stand out from those competitors is brand integrity: knowing what makes you different and valuable to your audience. Being aware of your industry and others in it can help you understand how to serve your community — in your own unique way.
Social media management is all about engagement: having conversations with your brand’s audience. Remember that conversations aren’t one-sided; or at least, they shouldn’t be!
Reply to your followers, then keep the conversation going. Ask questions. Respond to those answers, too. Use relevant hashtags and participate in appropriate challenges. Chime in on important or trendy topics. Engage with other profiles and social media users.
The more often you engage with your community, the more often you’ll show up in your followers’ feeds or explore pages. Engagement not only builds your brand, it makes your brand more visible online.
When you take the time to listen and talk to your audience, you’re building trust and instilling loyalty. You’re building a community. That’ll pay off for your brand when you see a higher follower count, more leads, and boosted sales.
You know that social media management is a crucial part of a brand’s business. Done well, social media content and engagement can amplify your brand. If your time as a social media manager is limited, your brand’s online presence doesn’t need to suffer.
ThumbStopper’s automated, turnkey solutions create custom, curated feeds for your content. It syndicates your content directly to your local retailers’ feeds, putting your brand in front of relevant audiences. Want to learn more about how ThumbStopper can help your brand? Contact us today.