Put an End to your Social Media Management Nightmares

Have you ever made a commitment to your business that you didn’t keep?

If you answered ‘no’ – I, a) salute you and, b) really want to know your secret!

If you’re like me, you’ll regularly have to compromise, shuffle around your priorities and invariably, tasks you need to perform, slip through the cracks.

For me, client work is always a priority, but that means some of my marketing plans occasionally get placed at the end of the queue.

Managing our social media channels is one area we continually look to refine. It’s about trying to be as efficient as possible at all times. We all know that social media has the power to promote your business and connect with your customers, but it can be a challenge to maintain.

How Often Should I Post?

This is a question I get asked a lot. And I’m not alone. Google returns 444,000,000 results for the search “How often should I post to Facebook.” The guidance of the gurus varies, but the blunt answer is this – probably more than you are doing currently.

Consistency is the key to social media success. Too often businesses start positively, post consistently and then fail to keep up the momentum. They set an expectation with their audience. And when those expectations aren’t met, it reflects badly on the business.

When Should I Post?

Once you’ve got the answer to the frequency question clear in your head, your thoughts will probably turn to “when should I post?”  There is no right or wrong answer, and the best advice I can give is to test and measure.

It’s good practice though to keep the timings consistent. So, for example, if you decide you’re going to post to Facebook once a day, it’s a good idea to do it at the same time.

The Manual Approach

Once you’ve got the frequency and timings of your updates clear, it’s time to think about how you’re going to manage the process. In the early days, we used Microsoft Excel to plan our social media activity. While it gave us flexibility, it ultimately became unmanageable.

Another alternative approach that works for others is to use one of the many Task Management tools that are available. We know colleagues that have used the likes of Trello and AllThings in the past to plan out their activity.

Traditional Social Media Automation Tools

Planning the activity is only one part of the social media management conundrum. To be a highly productive and effective social media manager – you need to automate as much of the process as you can.

In social media terms, this means scheduling your posts to be published automatically. Each social media platform allows you to do this on their site. If you are posting to multiple social sites, you will need to visit each one and schedule your posts individually.

Social media management tools like Hootsuite and Buffer give you the opportunity to manage your entire social media activity centrally. We’re big fans of both applications, but they can be complex and are not for everyone.

Introducing our very own Social Media Tool

As well as managing the social media activity for Positive Internet Marketing, we also manage the social media presence for some our clients. For many of these clients, we’ve now switched to a new tool. Our own one in fact!

We’ve recently partnered with a specialist social media software company. After a period of testing, we can now offer it to anyone who would like an efficient way to manage their social media. You can find out more and try it for free by visiting http://social.positiveim.co.uk/signup

Whatever approach you decide to take, please make social media marketing one business commitment that you consistently deliver on.