“We can just do it ourselves,” you say as you look at social media management offers from agencies. “How hard could it be?”
After all, it seems like nearly everyone is on social media these days, and many of us have years, if not decades, of experience posting things online.
So taking care of your company’s social media pages shouldn’t be difficult, right?
Well…
…Truth is, social media for brands is a completely different animal compared to making your personal posts to share with your friends.
In this article, we break down the different aspects that go into social media management, so you can make an informed decision on whether you’re really up for doing it yourself. (Or, so you know what value you’re getting, should you decide to hire a social media management agency.)
Exactly how complex and time-consuming each one of these aspects will be, can vary depending on the type of business, and what you already have existing.
Read on as we take you through the real work that goes into social media management. (Spoiler: it’s far more than just posting!)
Step 0: Brand Identity
Long before you even start making any posts, you need to have your brand identity in place.
Posting content without a cohesive brand style–in other words, posts that look all over the place in terms of fonts, colours, and overall visual style—can end up doing you more harm than good.
Before you even start, make sure you have the following:
- A logo, with at least one version that looks good on light backgrounds and one that looks good on dark backgrounds.
- A cohesive colour palette
- Font choices
If you don’t, a graphic designer or branding agency can provide these for you. They can create a brand style guide that will make designing social media posts and other marketing materials easier.
Sure, there are free tools available that will let you make your own, but we highly recommend going with a pro on this one. The look and feel of your brand will play a major role in the impression you make on your audience.
Speaking of which…
Identifying Your Audience
Your branding and content creation choices should always be made with your target audience in mind.
As you begin work with your designer on your brand identity, make sure you answer the question “Who are, or who most likely will be, your core client base?”
Identify their:
- Age range
- Gender.
- Location. This is important if you have a brick and mortar business from one or more locations, or ship to a limited range.
- Industry. Do you cater to a specific field or occupation (e.g., tradespeople, office workers, athletes, those in the healthcare industry, etc.)?
- Typical spending habits and lifestyle.
- Specific needs.
- Relevant interests or hobbies.
Step 1: Account Setup
With the brand style ready, and the target audience identified, it’s now time for the actual first step of social media management, which is setting up your accounts.
Choosing Your Platforms
But first—which social media platforms do you even want to be on? Facebook, Instagram, TikTok?
If you’re thinking “All of them”—please reconsider!
Not every social media platform will be right for your business. And trying to be on all of them at once, will lead to wasted time and effort that you could’ve better spent elsewhere.
Your choice of social media platform will depend on:
- what your audience typically uses;
- the topics and industries relevant to your business; and
- the kind of content you intend to make.
While there are no hard and fast rules about which platform you should use, here is a rough guide:
- Instagram caters to a wide range of age ranges and demographics. It leans towards highly visual content (with a strong preference for video in the past few years).
- TikTok is geared primarily towards the younger crowd (later millennials to Gen Z and younger), and is geared towards short form videos.
- Facebook remains valuable for targeting a wide age range, particularly older millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. It’s ideal for community engagement, running targeted ads, and sharing a mix of content types, from text posts to videos and events.
- LinkedIn is all about business networking. This is a great platform for sharing your services and products to those in relevant industries, and for starting and participating in discussions related to work culture and specific industry topics.
Your Bio
The first thing you’ll need to put on your profile once you’ve set up your accounts is your bio.
Your bio will play a big part in the first impression you make on the viewer as they visit your page.
Ideally you’ll want your bio to have:
- A clear image of your logo
- A concise introduction of your business
- Where you operate
- Your business hours, if applicable
- How best to contact you
Think about your bio as your elevator pitch. What would you want that person looking at your profile to know, if they only had 60 seconds or less to look?
Step 2: Your Content Buckets
The next step in your social media management is to think about your content buckets.
Content buckets are categories used to organise your social media content, making it easier to plan and deliver a balanced mix that keeps your audience engaged.
This is a crucial aspect of social media management; content buckets help ensure that the content is purposeful and you’re not just posting for the sake of posting.
Planning these content types ahead also helps avoid you neglecting crucial parts of your brand messaging.
Content buckets can include, but are not limited to:
- Information about specific products or services
- General information about your company and its unique selling points
- Client testimonials
- Before & afters
- Team introductions
- Behind-the-scenes/process
- Informative or educational content
- Company updates
- Advocacies
Here are examples of content buckets to illustrate:
For a company in construction or other trades:
- Services offered (bathroom renovation, painting, flooring, plumbing, etc.)
- Before and after photos and videos of renovations
- Work-in-progress photos and video of projects
- Team member introductions
- Locations where we operate
- Informative posts (e.g., what paint type for outdoor wood, which fireplace type is best, tips for saving on kitchen renovations.)
For a physiotherapy clinic:
- Services offered (manual therapy, exercise physiotherapy, sports injury rehab, etc.)
- Posts about common injuries and pain points
- Awareness posts about disabilities and diseases
- Demo videos showing exercises and stretches people can do at home
- Myth-busting: debunking misconceptions about injury and recovery
As you can see from these examples, having content buckets better allows you to create a healthy balance of posts that are designed to provide value and entertain (to incentivise people to follow your accounts), and posts that are meant to outright advertise your services.
Neglecting one or the other can lead to suboptimal results, with people being uninterested in your account, or you not getting any actual leads despite people seeing your posts.
We’ve barely just started on your social media management journey!
In Part 2, we’ll dive into the nitty gritty of actual content creation: everything from filming to editing and copywriting, as well as posting your platforms and what comes after that.
Of course, if at this point you already feel like this is too much to take on by yourself, then give us a call at 1300 168 311 or send us a message here. We’d love to have a conversation about social media management and how our team of experts can help your brand.
