Love it or hate it, social media is tricky to manage. Decision makers usually understand that they should be doing social media, but with varying levels of enthusiasm for it amongst staff it often becomes disjointed and inexact.
Be social
A common approach is to post certain campaigns and respond to complaints and messages as a matter of customer service. This reactive position is still better than no social media presence at all, but only just. With the clue in the name, social media should be social. Engaging with customers and posting things which they can interact with should be the main goal on these systems. Of course, this leads to other desirable goals like customer satisfaction and more sales from referrals, but that’s as a by-product.
Don’t be weird
An important aspect of social media is behaviour. For the most part, your company should behave like another person on social media. A normal person that is. That guy you went to school with who only ever posts the health products in the pyramid scheme he’s involved with; do you like his posts? Do you engage with them often? If you ask yourself “are we being weird or annoying?” and the answer is ever “yes” – then you should do it differently.
Which platforms
Every social media platform has its own unique benefits and uses. We focus on the biggest and most valuable platforms with the intention of getting relevant users engaging with you. We concentrate on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn as the main platforms to cover most industries. Other platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok have good engagement among younger generations and have their uses in certain industries, and we’ll consider this and promote using the best platforms for your business.
Posts
As with all other promotion, the richer the content, the more likely users will be to engage and convert. While good quality images and video should be the target, it’s actually more important to post consistently rather than the occasional high-res professional shoot. There’s a balance to strike with post-frequency, it will vary based on platform, industry and style. There really is no one-size-fits-all for social posting, it takes time and research to figure out what you and your users are comfortable with.
How Magellan can help
As part of our consultancy, we provide a full social media strategy which delves deeper into the above areas and adds many more tips, tricks and best practices. Coupled with a bespoke social media management calendar we can help ensure all of your platforms are optimised and producing high-quality consistent posts which perform well, help you promote products and achieve your goals.