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Whether the person running your social media is an employee, an outsourced expert like yours truly, or simply you yourself, our top tips for working with your social media manager will help you get better results with less stress. 

Social media has become a cornerstone marketing activity for businesses of every scale, and in any market—and that’s not just me (a social media manager), saying it! 

The February 2021 CMO Survey found businesses are budgeting anywhere from just under 12% (for finance and B2B products) to over 28% (for B2C services), of their overall marketing spending on social media activities. 

That means even the smallest organizations (under 20 employees) are dedicating an average of $5K-$10K/year on growing awareness, trust and sales through social media. Not chump change.

Many business owners start by running their social media platforms themselves, posting on slower days, and skipping on busy ones—and handing it off to an assistant as soon as they can. 

While this isn’t necessarily a disaster, it’s also not the way to get the best from your investment (whether that’s actual cash for posts, graphics and/or boosts and ads, or simply people’s time).

Start smart when working with your social media manager

Just like building anything you hope will last, setting your social media manager up for success starts with establishing a clear vision for what you want to create, ensuring they have the right supplies, and then freeing them to do the consistent work to make it happen.

First, lay a good foundation:
  • Set clear goals and objectives for how social media will support your business goals: Name recognition and page or group followers? Comments on and shares of your posts? Click-thrus and calls or purchases? 
  • Be specific about the audience you want to reach: reaching individuals starts with knowing who your ideal customers are, and where to find them online.
  • Decide how frequently you want to appear: any given post might only be seen by about 1 in 10 of your followers, that’s why frequency matters. (At a minimum we recommend 2-3x/week, with 1 in every 3-5 items being a sales message.) 
Next, gather your “supplies”
  • Frontload your marketing calendar with all your important dates: speaking engagements, events, webinars, sponsorships, product/service launches, seasonal promotions…
  • Gather copies of your content into a resource library in one location (e.g., a Google Drive folder or Dropbox): think about those product photos, facility/team/branding pictures, brand graphics and logos, articles and blogs you want to highlight, video and podcasts you’ve created or where you’ve guested.
  • Feed new details to your social media manager regularly: set a weekly reminder to pass along any updates, images, news, press releases etc. If you have a regular team meeting, this is a great time to pull ideas together.
Free your social media manager to help you shine!

With those clear goals and a starter set of resources and major dates, your manager has a critical springboard to launch your company’s social program. Now they build rapport!

Because social media is, first and foremost, about being social—creating interactions. While it’s often looked at as a free ad vehicle, only a fraction of its value comes from people seeing your idea, news or meme. The benefits go far beyond, to include:

  • Getting to know the people behind the company: posts will engage them in your stories, philosophy, and motivations; bring to life who you are people, with the hobbies, activities, and ups and downs of your business journey.
  • Helping people feel like their “in”: by getting news and scoop before the general public.
  • Booking, ordering and connecting THEIR way: whether that’s 3 a.m. while scrolling on Facebook, or tapping a shopping icon in Instagram while waiting on the checkout line, make it simple for them to connect when and where they like.
  • Being able to interact directly with your audience, and for them to interact directly with you: Quick response is key! You have 100 to-do’s on your plate; but your social media manager(s) live in the platforms during business hours—and that means fast response which never leaves your follower hanging.

There are many more ways to build your social media program, of course. But no matter what size or stage your business is in, defining a clear plan and process for more effectively working with a social media manager (even if, for now, that manager is you!), will help boost your business results. 

And if it’s time to talk to a pro, I hope you’ll contact us to see if we’d be a good match. There’s nothing we love more than helping our clients reach the top!

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