How to Manage Social Media for Business in Just 18 Minutes
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s 2020, so if you don’t have a social media account, do you even exist?
It’s an industry standard for businesses and brands to have some sort of social media presence. However, one of the common problems most businesses face is managing their social channels successfully.
Social media is a great way for small businesses to connect with their customers and even find potential customers. If handled properly, it can easily increase sales, which is why businesses should start focusing on managing their social media better.
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If you’re pressed for time and can’t hire an agency to take care of your accounts, then this article will show you how you can successfully manage your social media channels in just 18 minutes.
Table of Contents
Minutes 1 – 5: Monitor
You’ll need about 5 minutes to just listen to what’s happening in the social media sphere. By monitoring conversations that people have within your niche, you get to understand their pain points and what they appreciate.
The things that you need to monitor everyday include:
- Competitors
- Mentions of your brand/product/service
- Industry news and trends
- Related hashtags and keywords
By keeping a check on these factors, you get to understand your social media profile better. Knowing what light people are mentioning about your brand helps you figure out what’s working and what isn’t.
Understanding and implementing the latest trends also helps you stay relevant. You can use hashtags and keywords to see what is currently trending, and you can use them to ensure your posts get more visibility.
If you have a brick-and-mortar store, it will help if you use a geo-search feature to filter for local conversations. It’ll help you focus on nearby customers, and you’ll know the local topics they are interested in.
Minutes 5 – 10: Plan
You need another 5 minutes to analyze the findings on your Social Media channels. This helps fine-tune the process and increases marketing effectiveness. However, keeping these aspects in mind will help you plan better.
#1) Trends
What is currently trending in your industry? Identifying them can aid in finding new niches and people to engage with. For all you know, it might inspire content for another marketing campaign.
#2) Sentiment
How do people talk about your brand? How does it compare when they talk about your competitors? If the sentiment your audience has is positive, then it’s all fine and dandy. But if it isn’t, then you need to make some changes to steer them into thinking positively about the brand.
#3. Feedback
Do customers provide any specific feedback? Have they mentioned what issues they faced? You need to find insights that can help you improve the way you conduct yourself.
If you run a restaurant and someone complained about how there’s too much salt in a dish, you would take that feedback and make sure the next dish isn’t salted too heavily. Likewise, if people say your social media posts are “edgy,” it would be better to tone it down so you can appeal to more people.
#4. Updates
If you noticed a new hashtag is trending, it’s best if you jump on that and update your content with those tags. Similarly, if a new keyword arises, by optimizing your content with that keyword in mind, you increase the chances of people coming to your page.
You need to be updated on what’s happening in the social media sphere if you want to stay ahead. If a new competitor enters the arena, you should know about them.
#5. Intent
When you monitor your social media, it doesn’t mean only listening and tracking current customer conversations. This can help you find and retain new customers too. You can track topics that potential customers are searching for and cater to them in a much better manner.
If you’re a restaurant business, looking for phrases like “best restaurants near me” or “best steak in town” can do your page wonders. You can include these phrases in your posts, so your visibility increases.
Minutes 12 – 13: Schedule
This actually takes a little longer than a few minutes, but if you have the right tools, you can get it done within a minute. Tools like Hootsuite allow you to add content, select the publishing time, and schedule the post, allowing you to post content uniformly across different social media channels at the same time.
If you post a lot and on different channels, using a tool like this can be supremely helpful. It’s also helpful if you’re busy with other work or even on vacation, as you can set up all the posts beforehand and schedule it whenever you’re busy. You can even schedule your posts weeks in advance so you can focus on other tasks.
You need to post content at times when you know your audience is online. According to research, the best time to put content on Facebook is between 11 AM and 3 PM, and the best days to post are on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Additionally, the best time to post on Instagram is 10 – 11 AM and 2 – 3 PM, and the best days are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
However, if you have an entertainment business that operates on the weekend, you can still post through the week, but to get more visibility, you need to post on the weekend as well, preferably in the morning/afternoon. The time you schedule your posts depends on what you have to offer as well as your target audience and where they’re based.
Check the analytics of your audience to see when they’re active online and where they’re from. Once you know that, you can post your content at those times, and this can greatly improve your marketing strategies.
Minutes 13 – 18: Engage
Engaging your audience makes them trust you more like a brand. By liking comments or replying to queries, you show your customers that you care about them, and you’re willing to spend time interacting with them. People are more likely to engage with a brand that’s also active.
When you ensure a positive experience for your customers, they’ll want to come back for more. They’ll even recommend your business to their friends and family if their experience was good.
70% of customers say they’re ready to support a company that has provided them good customer service in the past. To capitalize on this, you need to make sure that every time someone comes to your social media page, you leave a good, lasting impression on them.
To save time, you can create generic templates that can be used as common responses to queries. It’s best for information that needs to be repeated, like the company’s address or operating hours. However, don’t overuse templates.
People prefer authenticity, so it's good to keep it personal. It’s just easier to use a template for the menial tasks.
Conclusion
It only takes 18 minutes to manage your social media profiles. It becomes less of a hassle if you follow these steps, and even easier if you have tools to help you out. Once you monitor your social media accounts, you can focus on the areas that need work.
Make a comprehensive plan and schedule your posts at the appropriate times. Finally, engage your audience with comments, likes, and shares. Doing so can greatly improve your social media marketing strategy.
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