Posting on social media isn’t something that can be done without any thought. It takes planning and a strategy to make your social media presence work for your business. If you need some guidance on how to have the best social media presence, follow this checklist. For each task, we’ve also included a tool that can help you complete it!
Table of Contents
Figure Out Your Goals
Before you create a profile or post a thing, figure out what your goals are and make sure you’re on the same page as anyone who will be making decisions about your social media presence. A goal can be something like “Gain 500 new followers this quarter.” Do this first, and discuss it because your supervisors may have different goals in mind, like making posts shoppable.
Best tool: Trello is a project management SaaS (software as a service) that allows you to send messages to anyone you work with about any topic, including social media goals. Make sure they respond, or ask to discuss in person.
Spend Time on the Right Platforms
Don’t waste your time building campaigns for platforms that won’t ultimately reach current or potential customers. For example, if you sell hearing aids, most of your clients will be older, so Facebook is a good platform. They’re probably not on TikTok, however. So it wouldn’t make sense to focus your time and efforts on TikTok.
Best tool: The Pew Research Center publishes a yearly report tracking social media use by various demographics. We recommend signing up for their weekly newsletters. They’re always publishing interesting studies that you can use to inform which platforms you should be posting on.
Start or Complete Your Profiles on All Social Platforms
If you haven’t started a business profile for your company, start one now. It’s easy but be sure to fill in all of the areas such as your hours of operation and location. You should also develop a tagline and make sure your logo is consistent across all platforms.
Best tool: Canva offers easy-to-use templates for logos that anyone can customize. You can also work with an agency like SEO Design Chicago to create a logo and develop a tagline that best represents your business.
Use Content Templates
Using and saving templates for your social media posts reduces the amount of time you need to spend every week. You can use the same templates over and over again with just slight tweaks, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time.
Best tool: With Canva, you have access to templates that you can reuse again and again. They’re already pre-sized for various platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Develop a color scheme for your business, perhaps using the same colors in your logo, and use those colors in each template to make them more cohesive.
Collect a List of Hashtags
Hashtags are one of the most important ways to get new eyes on your social media posts. People often search social media using hashtags, so they may find your business if they use relevant ones. Take a close look at your competitors and what hashtags they are using the most. Paste them all into a document that you can easily access and use at least one or two with every post.
Best tool: The Semrush Social Tracker helps you find the best hashtags by following trends in your industry.
Stay Organized with a Content Calendar
In order for social media to pay off, you need to post regularly. It can be hard to remember to do it every day, especially if you’re not in the mood. By creating a content calendar, you’ll have a plan in place that will ensure that you stay consistent. You can also use tools to schedule your posts days, weeks, and even months in advance so you don’t ever forget.
Best tool: Hootsuite allows you to schedule posts in advance so you can focus on other day-to-day tasks.
Experiment With New Content Types
If you’re stuck in a social media rut and you’re doing the same things over and over, you’ll probably notice a dip in impressions and engagement. So, don’t be afraid to try something new when this happens. For example, if you normally only post videos on Instagram, consider experimenting with images or vice versa.
Best tool: Pixabay offers royalty-free photos, videos, and illustrations that you can use in your social media posts.
Post When Your Audience Is Active
The best way to get the most engagement on social media is to post when your users are most active. Since the platforms prioritize content that performs well in the first few minutes or hours of posting, this engagement is really important. Luckily, there are a number of tools available to help you track which times you should be posting!
Best tool: Social Media Poster gives you data on the best times to post to your platforms based on what industry your business is in.
Repurpose Your Best Content Across Platforms
While this isn’t always the case, it is possible that the content that performs well on one platform could perform really well on another, as well. Take your own popular content and adapt it slightly before posting it on other platforms. For example, you can take a popular Instagram post, resize the image, change the caption, and post it to your Facebook page.
Best tool: Hootsuite shows you what content is getting the most clicks, shares, and views.
Boost Your Best Posts
Boosting your posts, either organically by sharing across all of your social networks or through a paid ad campaign, can bring in new followers. You can pay to boost ads on all the major platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. This puts your content in front of new eyes that may have not seen your posts otherwise.
Best tool: You don’t even need a separate tool for this! You can pay to boost your posts directly on each platform.
Monitor Your Brand Mentions
The best way to get ahead of customer reviews, complaints, concerns, and questions is to keep close tabs on how people are mentioning you across social media. They might not mention you directly like using your username. They could simply refer to you in their caption. Even though these don’t take someone directly to your page, monitoring these mentions is extremely important!
Best tool: Brand24 allows you to track mentions of your company on all the major social media platforms. You can use it to find positive posts and mentions and use them in your own social media posts in the future as well as find negative posts and respond to them accordingly.
Discuss Hot and Trending Topics
Stay in touch with what is happening in your industry. Check hashtags on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn to see what topics are starting conversations. Find a way to take these trending topics and use them to subtly promote your own brand. This can help establish your company as a thought leader in what industry you operate in.
Best tool: You can check Google Trends and trending hashtags on each platform. Remember that some topics can be controversial and cause intense reactions. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t chime in, but make sure you think about it wisely before you post.
Social Media Content Creation From SEO Design Chicago
If you simply can’t add social media posting to your daily to-do list, that’s okay! That’s why companies like us exist. We can take the responsibility of creating content and posting off of your hands, so you can spend your time doing what you’re best at. Our team keeps up to date on all the latest platform updates and trends so that we can create the best content for your business. Get in touch with us to learn more!
FAQ:
- What is an example of a social media goal?
- Why does the time you post on social media matter?
- What’s a good tool for managing a content calendar?
- How do I boost social media posts?
- Is it okay to reuse content on multiple social media platforms?
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