How can your company benefit from social media management? We’ll tell you all the benefits of social media management in this article. You will learn all about what social media management is, why you should practice it, the best tools for social media management, and what you can expect to gain from social media management services. Any business, from coffee shops to large corporations, can benefit from a well-executed social media marketing campaign.
Table of Contents
What is Social Media Management?
Social media management is the strategy of scheduling, creating, managing, and analyzing content for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It also includes growing and engaging with your audience on these platforms.
There are a variety of tools, services, and agencies available to help you with your social media management. No matter how you decide to go about your social media management, it’s important to know all you can about social media management in order to execute a successful strategy.
What are the Benefits of Social Media Management?
There are several reasons why you should practice social media management. Let’s discuss the benefits of social media management:
Cost
Social media is a cost-effective strategy to help grow your business, no matter what your budget is or how big or small your business is. To simply join social media networks is free. Anyone can make a profile on these platforms, post content, engage with other users, and more. Oftentimes, even advertising on social media is within the budget of small businesses and can help you build brand awareness.
Reach
Social media allows you to engage with anyone, from those in your neighborhood to anyone across the world. You can utilize social media to reach your potential customers, no matter your niche. Whether you use LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or even TikTok, you can reach various demographics. Traditional marketing and advertising can’t beat the price or reach of social media. While trying to reach your audience via search engines is an excellent tactic, you are missing out if you don’t also participate in social media marketing.
Users
Utilizing social media in tandem with your marketing strategy allows you to reach more users where they shop. Did you know that social networks influence 74% of shoppers for purchasing decisions? Even more get advice about a purchase beforehand on social media.
Performance
On social media, businesses can build their brand awareness and also hopefully generate leads and complete sales. Both marketers and business owners agree on the many performance benefits of social media marketing. B2B businesses especially have luck finding clients through Facebook and other social media platforms.
Branding
Social media allows you to take control of your brand online. If your business has experienced negative feedback on the internet, social media management allows you to respond and control the narrative. Part of social media management involves social listening. This is the practice of seeing what is being said online, so you can see where your brand need help.
What Platforms are Included in Social Media Management?
As we all know, these days there are a variety of social media platforms available. So, you might be wondering which platforms are typically included in social media management.
The answer is – you will want to focus on the platforms that will be the most helpful for your business. You will want to find out on which networks your target audience spends most of their time, and focus your time and attention on those. Let’s discuss the various social media platforms:
The latest statistics show that Facebook has almost 1.82 billion daily active users. Facebook is currently the largest social media platform in the world. It allows you to reach various demographics. Everyone from senior citizens to teenagers, men and women alike, use Facebook. Facebook is beneficial for building relationships and brand loyalty with your target audience. One of the main benefits of using Facebook as part of your marketing strategy is that it offers several different choices for ad formats.
Twitter doesn’t have quite the same reach as Facebook, but it does allow you to reach people who utilize Twitter and interact with brands on a daily basis. Fewer than 25 percent of American adults use Twitter. It is mostly used for news and journalism purposes. Depending on your goals and target audience, Twitter might be the right platform for you. For example, most Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 29, so if you are trying to reach this group, then Twitter is an excellent option. It is also a great option if you are hoping to interact with your target audience, because Twitter is all about two-way conversations.
Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) has more than one billion active users each month. Its focus is on images and videos, so if you want to utilize this platform, you will need some professional photography and videography. More than half of American between 18 and 29 use Instagram, and many others do between the ages of 30 and 49. It is a helpful platform for establishing a relationship with your target audience. Instagram is used mainly by the retail, entertainment, and beauty businesses. One way to utilize Instagram is by finding influencers who have followers in your target market.
LinkedIn is the largest social media network for professionals. It is a popular platform among college graduates and is useful for sharing company-related news and job postings. It also helps you network with other companies and can help build brand awareness. Many marketers say that LinkedIn is the most helpful platform for their business. Especially if you are looking for B2B leads, LinkedIn might be the right platform for you.
YouTube
YouTube is increasingly becoming a more important marketing tool. Similarly to Facebook, YouTube allows you to reach several different demographics. Everyone between the ages of 18 and 65 – and even older – use YouTube. Many marketers recommend that businesses use YouTube to give users informational and helpful content. For example, you could try producing some how-to and explainer videos related to your specific products, services, and industry. These help build brand awareness for your business, and can help lead to brand loyalty and sales.
If you are looking to engage women, Pinterest is the right platform for you. Pinterest has an audience consisting mainly of women between the ages of 18 and 49. Many women use Pinterest to plan their weddings or dream homes, i.e. plan their future purchases. It is the perfect platform if your business is aesthetically appealing, like florists, clothing retailers, and home design companies. Pinterest is ideal for showcasing your product in a promotional manner.
Best Tools for Social Media Management
Ready to get started with your social media marketing strategy? Make it easier on yourself by using these tools that can assist you with scheduling your content, engaging with other users, monitoring your engagement, and more.
Here are a few options for social media management tools:
HootSuite
Hootsuite is an extremely popular paid social media management tool. It allows you to manage all of your social media platforms, reply to users’ comments across all platforms, and monitor your analytics.
Buffer
Buffer is another tool that lets you manage your accounts, schedule your posts, and more. It also has a mobile app available!
CoSchedule
Another option for a social media management tool is CoSchedule. CoSchedule helps you schedule your posts, manage a content calendar, publish blogs, and more.
What Services Does Social Media Management Include?
If you are considering social media management services for your business, you are probably wondering what all that will encompass before you sign up. Let’s discuss exactly what a social media management company can do for you:
Audience Research
One of the first and most important parts of the social media management process is determining who your target audience is and what they want. This is so you can find them in the right places online by choosing the right social media platforms your business should have a presence on. It also helps you create content with your specific audience in mind.
Strategy Development
Before you launch your campaign, it’s important to develop your social media marketing strategy. How do you do this? By determining which platforms you want to focus on and a specific strategy for each. Your strategy will be determined based on your goals, your industry, and your brand. What do you want to accomplish on social media? Which content gaps can your company fill online? What is your brand voice? These are all important questions to answer between your business and your social media manager before you get started.
Account Design
Next, it’s important to design your social media accounts. Your branding needs to be the same across all platforms. This step might require some redesigning and updating your accounts. One crucial part might involve hiring a graphic designer to help you create logos and icons. You can use these static images as aviators across your accounts, like your Twitter header and background, your Facebook header, icon, and profile picture, and your Instagram profile picture.
Ad Creation
The next step is to work on your advertising strategy. Social media ads are an effective way of gaining more real followers and interacting with more users. Each social media platform varies in what they offer as far as advertising. They all have different ad types and goals. For example, Facebook ads allow you the option to create ads for increasing awareness, generating leads, and earning visitors to your store. You can target the demographics you would like and write an effective call-to-action. Your business and social media manager can work together to create your ads.
Build an Editorial Calendar
Another aspect of social media management services is the creation of an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar, also called a content calendar, is a reference point for you and your social media manager. You can view scheduled posts and plan out company announcements or holiday posts. This is a great way for your social media manager to show you your planned content ahead of time so you can give them approval to post it.
Create Platform-Specific Content
A social media manager does more than just plan out content for your company. They also handle all of your content creation needs. From graphic design to copywriting blog posts and captions, your social media manager or team will do it all (or at the very least, oversee it all.) A social media management company also knows how to create specific content for each of the social channels. Facebook, for example, requires different kinds of content than TikTok.
Engage with Your Followers
One of the daily tasks of social media managers is to engage and interact with your followers. These days, social media is another form of customer service. This is an important aspect of social media management because it has a major effect on how your brand is viewed. Many consumers appreciate a brand that replies on social media to their questions and concerns in a timely manner. Engaging with followers is one way you can build brand awareness and brand loyalty. Together, your company and social media manager can create a standard for replying to comments, including negative comments.
Grow Your Reach
Social media management is one way to grow the reach of your social media accounts. A social media manager has the necessary experience and connections to increase your followers. They might even reach out to influencers and other trusted organizations that can help boost your online presence. For example, if you sell windows, a local influencer could highlight your new windows in their home for their followers. Your accounts can share their posts, and this leads to a mutually beneficial relationship.
Monitor Your Analytics
The final but critical service that social media management provides is monitoring your social media performance. Your social media manager will track how your accounts perform, as well as your ads, and share this data with you. Then, you can make any necessary adjustments to your campaign together. Social media managers use a variety of analytics and reporting tools to track your accounts. If there is ever a problem, your manager will notice it right away and fix the issue. This is a huge benefit of social media management services.
Why Should I Invest in Social Media Management Services?
Perhaps you are wondering if social media management services are worth the investment for your company. Only you can make that decision! But, social media offers your company a major chance to grow your brand awareness and your business. We know that many small-to-medium sized companies don’t have the resources to devote full-time employees to social media. That’s why social media management services exist! Here are some more benefits to investing in social media management:
Save Time
Many companies think they can handle social media on their own. And some can! But a social media management company takes the job off your hands so you can focus on building your business in other ways. Your social media manager will run an expert campaign for you with the necessary professional tools. All the social media marketing efforts will be off of your hands.
Get a Social Media Expert
A professional digital agency can partner you with an expert in social media. Rather than hiring an employee full-time with benefits to manage your social media, you can hire a professional social media marketer.
Keep Up with Your Strategy and Engagement
Many people don’t realize until they get started how time-consuming social media is. It’s a lot more than just typing out a caption underneath a photo on Instagram. Oftentimes, especially for a growing up, developing relationships, communicating with other users, and evaluating analytics reports is a full-time job!
Achieve Your Goals
With the help of a social media management company, your business will be able to achieve illustrious goals and see results from your social media strategy. No matter what your goals are, a social media manager can help you achieve them. Every company that invests in social media management sees increased traffic to their website.
How Much Will Social Media Management Cost My Company?
If you want to simply hire a social media manager, the most bare bones, simple, services start at about $150 per month. However, the average amount many large companies spend on social media management per month is between $4,000 and $7,000, however. That’s because includes all the services discussed above, as well as a monthly advertising budget and subscriptions to the tools you will need. However, the cost may be lower or higher depending on the size of your business and your goals.
FAQs about Social Media Management for Businesses
- Should I hire someone to do my social media?
- Is social media management expensive?
- What do I get out of social media management?
- What tools are available to help me schedule and monitor my social media?
- Why do small businesses need social media?
Social Media Management Services at SEO Design Chicago
Are you ready to get started with social media management services? If you are having a hard time growing your social media presence, or keeping up with your competition on social media, contact SEO Design Chicago today. We offer social media management services and social media content creation.
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