You are not really approaching social media without a plan or having any social media management type in place…right?
Not judging, but I am a little concerned.
Why am I concerned?
Social media is extremely volatile, and landscapes tend to shift quickly. There is very little room for your emotions as a business, and understanding that people on social media have no filter will be your first lesson to understand how most social platforms behave.
If you don't already know, you will be amazed at how brave one can be behind a keyboard.\
And sometimes, being too close to platforms that always have so much going on may distract you from your mission.
That's where having Social Media Management comes into play.
Social media is truly its own entity, and to have someone who can handle the day-to-day is comparable to taking a boulder off your back.
But before you decide if you need Social Media Management or not.
I put together some basic knowledge you will need to know and benefits you have never heard of before.
What is Social Media Management?
Social Media Management is the operation of creating and managing content across social platforms, including promotion and publishing.
But social media management goes beyond creating content and posting updates; it includes engaging with your audience and extending your brand and visibility.
How do I recognize what social media platform is good for my target audience?
Before you begin using any social platform to communicate your message and influence a market, you need to first figure out what platform the audience I am trying to connect with resides in.
Where do they like to hang out?
You might not have realized that social media has done a lot of audiences segmenting for you.
How people choose to digest or consume content can tell you a lot about who they are and even their daily habits.
Facebook has an advantage that most other social platforms do not. It is its diversity and the emergence of groups, which you can establish your own rules and run that group to a benefit that ultimately serves you. Facebook is great for local advertisement and, because of its large quantity in numbers, can be excellent for businesses looking to branch out to a new audience.
LinkedIn is Business first with a tad of humor, but don't get carried away.
And because YouTube doesn't require an email or login page, Google has the ability to crawl YouTube's' content and properly index its content. In other words, your success on YouTube can help your website on google and vice versa.
Video content rains supreme on YouTube, and having the ability to post unlimited videos can help you grow your brand.
What are the benefits of having Social Media Management?
You have probably been using social media for a while now, and it's been pretty easy to understand.
It's just you doing your thing.
But when you have a business to manage, and then you choose to put that business on a vibrant and honest platform and discuss what you offer and your value to the market, it's best you have someone or something in place for the journey ahead.
Let's go over the benefits of Social Media Management.
The Social Landscape Is Always Changing
If you have Social Media Management in place, they can track trends and how the algorithm responds to the content you publish or your competitors' content.
Social media management can report on what is happening and then take the information back to content creators and change your content and business direction.
You Need a Social Media Strategy
Throwing mud at the wall.
That is exactly what it looks like when you're approaching social media for business purposes without having a strategy for how you will accomplish your goals.
That is why before you decide to dive into the social media space, you need to make sure you have a dedicated person that can be on the ball for any changes to the environment. You also need to ask yourself if your business is ready to be on a social media platform.
You can't forget about it once you make an account.
Well, you can, but it would be a poor investment, and you wouldn't get anything out of it and it's a bit of a long game when you're building a brand, but it can all fall apart in a day if you decide to stop engaging with your audience and followers.
This is why having social media management is vital. After all, they will be honest about your position in the space because they have emerged themselves in the platform and know what works for engagement and what doesn't.
Do you have a content calendar?
Having a content calendar is another benefit of social media management.
Ensuring a consistent presence on whatever platform you are using to extend your influence is essential.
And a content calendar will help you accomplish that, sometimes setting up post weeks in advance. You will always have content ready to drop directly paired with your blog and other content you post on different platforms.
The purpose is also so you can stay at the top of mind of your audience.
There is a lot of information hitting the minds of your target audience, and it would serve you well to consistently inform them of what you're doing and how you're impacting the market.
Tips on how to run social media ads
Social media management can take care myriad of aspects that is related to your social ads like:
Whoever is running your social media management could take care of all these things and leave you to focus on your business.
Create specific content that would work for each platform
Remember when I told you earlier that each social media platform has its own style, its own delivery.
And the platforms, whether they know it or not, have done a lot of segmenting your audience for you.
Your social media manager will understand this and tailor make-post and content just for that social platform. What you post on Instagram is the same post you should have for LinkedIn; what you post on LinkedIn may not vibe with your Facebook audience.
Engage with messages and comments
When you want my investment, money, and time, I am not a fan of being left on seen/read.
What do I mean by "left on seen/read"?
If you have an iPhone or you use messenger on Facebook, you can see when somebody has read your message.
But what pisses you off is that they choose not to engage.
And when you have a business established on a social platform, and you put out a product or have a new announcement, and your audience is posting on feed and platform, and you don't respond back.
That's like leaving them on seen/read, and what makes this worse is that you begin to develop a reputation for bad customer service and lack of engagement.
Having social media management in place will take off this by always staying active with the audience and answering any questions.
Using your social media as a customer service hub has also become a popular trend in modern business.
What Perspective – Inside & Out
You will have different advantages working with an in-house social media manager and someone you have outsourced.
Outsourced option benefits
In house option benefits
What Are The Benefits of Social Media for Brand Building
Branding is not talked about a lot for businesses just starting off, but people are watching and judging, and it's important to be aware of that.
But there are benefits when using social media to grow your business's brand.
Brand awareness rising
Half the world's population hit social platforms monthly, if not more. So have the opportunity to build your brand has a pretty good chance of working if done correctly.
And just because many of these brands are new doesn't mean that they don't find consumers every day.
It is reported that 60 percent of Instagram users find new products on the platform. This number will only rise across all social platforms as we become more infused with the internet and social media.
Make your brand relatable
Aren't you noticing more and more videos being shot in the real world with a phone or in the backyard or at a shopping mall or with kids and pets in the background playing?
That's for a reason.
If you didn't already know people like doing business with people, they could relate with content that resonates with the reader.
Modern marketing is about the individual and using similarities to target an audience. What businesses are starting to realize is that they are not so different from the people they want to attract.
And by being transparent and honest, you get people who support your place in the market and what you stand for.
Establish your brand as a leader in the Industry
If you want to be an expert in your industry, social media is a great place to start.
LinkedIn recently conducted a study that showed that 80% of buyers believe that leadership builds trust with the consumer.
Whatever business you are in, building on a social platform where most of your audience is, has proven to be a great resource to build thought leadership on a topic or concept.
Never let them forget you
When you scroll through social media, there is a lot of content to go through, and if your business, you would benefit from posting regularly.
And having the ability to directly communicate with people who are likely to buy your product or service.
So keep your content fun, and informative will make your followers happy they are a part of your network.
Benefits of social media for growth
Social media is a great way to grow, but I wouldn't just build my main hub on social media; using it as a satellite office where you can extract from the market and bring them back to your home is where the true gold is
Increase website traffic
Using links in your social media post and ads that lead back to your website is an excellent way to get more traffic, and more traffic indicates to google that you have authority in your Industry.
Effectively partnering your website strategy with your social media strategy will give you a pipeline that will overflow with potential customers.
Generate leads
In particular, Facebook is cracking the code to lead generation using messenger as its own email box.
You can pair messenger up with chatbot apps that can help take your audience on a content journey that eventually guides them to your solution.
Partner with influencers
This strategy can put you on a whole new level if the right people like what you're doing and enjoy your brand.
In particular, a smaller influencer with followers who have engagement is the influencers you want to target; smaller influencers tend to be a bit more authentic. Anything they recommend or support, their followers will flock to that product or service.
This is called micro influencing.
Benefits of social media for content creation and distribution
This benefit is basically a lake that will never go dry.
Let me explain.
Source content
Every piece of content you publish should come directly from what your audience is asking or discussing.
Making content based on your social listening ability is a gold mine; as I said before, people are brave behind a keyboard and tell you exactly how they feel.
And that is your opportunity to make content that speaks to their emotions, what there going, or an answer to a question that continues to elude them.
Never forget that you are serving people as a business.
Promote content
Having a content marketing plan is important to get the maxed success out of social media. Promoting content that doesn't have a place in the buyer's journey is a waste of time.
Research supporting your claims is great to combine the emotional pull and logic to help your target audience take action.
Benefits of social media for communication
Direct communication with your customers and prospects is great to inform what is going on as it's happening; whether it's bad or good, you want to transparent.
Reputation management
People will have good and negative things to say about you.
Just because someone loves your product, another could hate it, it's your job to capture the positive comments and engagement and lift your brand up with those powerful testimonials, as well as addressing some of the negative comments to see what you could do better.
Crisis communication
When something goes wrong.
And something will go wrong. How quick are you to the stage to address the situation and apologize to the public?
It's one thing to make a mistake, but it is a whole other thing to ignore the mistake or not even be aware. It shows an awareness, and not being aware in 2021 will have you on the outside looking in.
Customer service and customer support
Now I talked about this a little earlier in the post, but social media is becoming a great place to establish a customer support hub.
Why?
Your customers are already there; if you understand where the majority of your ideal customers like to hang out, then maybe you should build a hub for questions and concerns to be addressed on that platform.
It's a no-brainer, right? Not to mention that people who discover your product can communicate with you directly and may help them choose you as a solution for their problem because they know they have help if it's needed.
Benefits of social media for gaining insights
Be a scout
Be noisy; it's okay; it's all public.
Keep an eye on the competition
A lot of businesses really don't like the idea of spying on their neighbors.
But if their gate is wide open, you won't be committing a crime if you took a longer than normal glance at what they got going on.
And social media, everybody's gate is open, and all you have to do is click on their profile and see everything they're posting and see who they're targeting, what their message is, and how they are promoting it.
Use the information your competitor provides to your advantage.
Stay on top of industry news
Another great source of content, paying attention to top industry news, can spark ideas for that newsletter you have been meaning to start, or your ideal well is running a little low, and you need inspiration.
Noticing shifts in the market could help with messaging and when to push the issue or recognize the room temperature and pull back a bit.
Benefits of social media for advertising
Remember, half the world's population find themselves on social media platforms every month.
Ads may be a good investment.
Targeted advertising
Not only are visitors per month in the billions.
Social media ads are relatively inexpensive, and if you have a local business, these ads can even target a local audience interested in your product and solution.
This also helps when you are putting together local events, and you need to create a buzz to attract influencers and locals to show up and show support.
Retargeting
Interesting number
70% of shopping carts are forgotten about.
These are almost ready-to-go customers. But that doesn't mean that they have to be lost forever.
It means you have to dust yourself off and try again.
Facebook pixel allows locating these individuals who had your product in their shopping cart and retarget ads to these potential customers.
Benefits of social media for proving ROI
Reporting on what your customers are doing is a great way to remain agile and move in the right direction.
Looking at the cost of a piece of content you have created and ads you have created and see if the return on those investments is paying off should be a priority.
If the goal is to make money, this should be on your list regarding business concerns.
What are the social media trend every marketer should pay attention to in 2021
The Proliferation of Memes on Social Media
The use of memes was raised by 26% in 2020 and expects to see a continued trend upward in 2021. There has been little data that says these memes are resulting in revenue.
But you may want to think about hopping on the bandwagon because users seem to use them more and more to communicate their emotions and sometimes ideas.
Start Profiting From Your Social Media Videos
Market Value for videos before the pandemic when going out in public was less taboo was at $42 billion and is said to grow 20% in the next 5 years and habits being formed as a result to people get used to staying indoors and more glued to the screen than ever this number might be on the low side.
2020 February to march alone saw Instagram take a 70 percent bump in videos viewed.
Visual content and video content are starting to show their teeth regarding how the audience prefers to consume its content.
Social Media Trends: Niche Platforms Growing in Popularity
Facebook will always be king of social media content; they are basically like Nike to every other shoe brand.
But we did see huge growth in two platforms, in particular, TikTok and Reddit.
Reddit saw a 30% increase in the number of users overall as well as seeing a bump in visitors per months, which was an increase of 53%
TikTok went absolutely bonkers with a 210% increase in 2019, and many brands are flocking to the platform to try to unlock the key to some of that market share.
Social Media Stories Are Not Going Anywhere
Don't tell me you don't like a good story.
Everybody likes a good story.
Especially when it relates to their own life. Social media has taken advantage of this concept, giving users the advantage to post clips and tell a story of a day, a month, a business trip, a celebration.
It's a pretty cool idea. Wish I would've thought of it.
Social Commerce Is the Future
Gen Z is really going to change the landscape; it's actually already happening.
55% of their fashion purchases are inspired by social media, and millennials are not far behind at 50.6%.
Influencers have a big impact on the youth, and brands are taking notice and repositioning themselves to social platforms to give their product or service authority in the market.
How do you feel about social media management now?
So I hope you appreciated the brain blast I gave you about social media management and the benefits of using social media to grow your business.
But if you find yourself saying.
"Social media is a monster," then I completely understand; I thought so too when I first started to dabble in it.
But what helped ease the struggle was help; it came in the form of performing a lot of research and quite a bit of trial and error.
And I'm going to assume you don't have that kind of time.
Lucky for you GINI does free consultations where all the questions you have can be answered by knowledgeable experts that specifically help with growing your business with Social media.
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