Social media marketing is a bit like a runaway train if you don’t have a plan to manage it. It has no sense of time, either. Facebook doesn’t care if you have five meetings this morning or if you have not taken a lunch break in the last five years. Don’t let social media be the boss of you—instead, consider some tips and tricks for taming that beast.
What’s in Your Social Media Toolbox?
If you are still logging into each platform separately to post, then you need to find some better tools. Try an app that helps you manage all your social media marketing in one place. Here are some suggestions:
- VerticalResponse is an online system that work works well for most projects. They have a free plan just for Facebook and Twitter or paid programs if you want to expand to cover more networks. There are scalable pricing options, too. You can pre-schedule your posts and free up some time.
- HootSuite lets you see everything that is going on at once and provides an analytics tool to give you better monitoring. It works with the mainstream social networking sites, too.
- SproutSocial is a good choice for agencies that juggle multiple brands and projects. You set up keywords and track how well each one is doing from one location.
Make Good Connections
You want relationships that are productive, not time-consuming. If you waste clients’ time, they will be more than happy to waste yours, so it starts with good content. Manage writers that are able to develop engaging and informative content for your clients.
Take the time to interact with important contacts on social media, too. Stay away from boilerplate responses and annoying blurbs that don’t offer anything useful. Make a commitment to providing thought-provoking and interesting posts.
Make It Personal
Use the time you do commit to social media wisely. Social, by definition, means putting it out there and thinking beyond your little agency world. Take the time to interact with others by reading their blogs and making comments or discussing industry news. They are sure to reciprocate and do some of your marketing for you.
Keep It Real
A new social media network pops up daily, so be practical. Pick a few sites and put them to work. If you try to manage too many at once, you could overload the space-time continuum—or worse, end up with dozens of inactive social media channels. If you are feeling the strain, try dropping the site that is providing the fewest leads or conversions.
Pencil It In
Schedule your day to allow for both lunch and social media. If you set aside a block of time daily just to manage your networking commitments, you can stop trying to do it all day long.
Social media is the glue that holds most marketing campaigns together, but you do have to let it know who is the boss. That’s you, just in case you lost track.
Darla F is open-minded about writing topics, but her goal is to pick up work she finds compelling. She is interested in art, art history, news, health, fitness and programming.
