By: Dylan DeRubeis
As of 2023 there are around 8 billion people on the globe, and 4.9 billion of them are using social media (Demandsage). There is no longer a question whether a company should or should not spend time on social media marketing efforts. However that's said to be easier than done as most companies have a whole team working together on marketing. So how do you do it yourself? In this blog, we will explain 5 best practices to follow when doing social media marketing yourself.
1. Create a plan and goal for each social media platform
When you first start doing social media marketing for your business by yourself, you need to set a clear plan for each platform. This is very important as each platform is different when it comes to the audience and the types of content that perform well. You can perform market research to understand what works best when it comes to having engaging content.
Questions to ask yourself when planning your goals for social media marketing with your service based business
Who is my target audience?
Understanding your target audience is very important. Your goal is to know what your audience likes and dislikes so you can create content around their interests.
Why am I using this platform?
Make sure to understand what the platform has to offer and what you are using it for. For example, one way to use Instagram is to take advantage of its “Reels” feature to create short and creative video content.
What content works best on this platform?
To have content that performs well on any platform you must understand what works best on each platform. Reels and carousel posts work great on Instagram while updates about the company and what's new works awesome on Twitter and LinkedIn. Another quick tip when you are running social media yourself is to reshare content on your personal platforms to reach a broader audience!
What brand message am I trying to push?
Different apps can give off different brand messages and images. For example, if a company is using LinkedIn their post typically will be more formal and business professional where on TikTok they are more likely to be casual and laid back.
How can I make my content unique?
Try and think about ways you can push out unique content according to each platform to really stick out and allow for more engagement and traffic.
2. Be Consistent
One of the keys to early success in social media marketing is to be consistent. The best practice you can follow when trying to be consistent is by creating and following a social media calendar. These are super easy and cheap to make! You can create one by either using Canva Pro or a simple spreadsheet. In a content calendar you'll want to layout what content will be posted, what kind of content it is, what type of post, and what caption goes with it, along with any other categories you want to specify.
Regardless if you have a social media calendar or not, when creating content be conscious of keeping these aspects consistent:
Brand image: You always want to make sure you are using the same fonts, colors, and images when posting to keep everything consistent and allow people to recognize it's your brand. Make sure you request a brand kit if you have a marketing firm like us create a logo for you, as that will prove to be needed when it comes to making all your marketing materials.
Brand message: Make sure to keep your voice and values the same in every post. This is to ensure your audience doesn't get shocked if you post something out of their liking.
Hashtags: You should always add your business name as a hashtag like #MakinItMarketing so people can easily pull up your posts when they hit that hashtag. Same goes for using the same hashtags on similar types of content. When the viewer hits one of your common hashtags many of your other posts will come up allowing them to check those out too.
Another tip: if you are just getting started on social media, sometimes quality is better than quantity. Don’t stretch yourself too thin. Dedicate to posting good and engaging content on 1-2 platforms, instead of being inconsistent and rushing content across 5 platforms. Likewise, It’s okay (and recommended) to not post 7 days a week, but instead to stick to always posting on the same days.
3. Create Engaging & Interesting Content
With all the social media feeds being saturated with half the world's population, how does one stand out? There is no right answer to this - but we have a couple tips for you to consider trying. As you start to do social media by yourself look to include the following content types:
Informational
Generate content around information relevant to your brand. Share free education to your audience. Search engines like Google love to push out any content that is deemed informational as it is seen as helpful to the public. This will also help build credibility and trust around your company, while giving your SEO a boost!
Video and Images
Video and Images are an awesome way to spice up your feed. Nowadays, a lot of people don't like wordy things and prefer short form, easy to consume content. That's why pushing out content such as static images or using GIFS are excellent in attracting the audience's attention as it's more interesting to look at than just words.
Storytelling
Storytelling is an amazing way to engage the audience and develop a brand voice. It is a creative way to deliver your message without seeming like you are trying to sell a product. By telling stories, you sound more human and allow your target audience to really relate and connect more with your brand. A story we tell a lot at Makin’ It’ Marketing is how our CEO started the company herself and what that took!
Trends
Trends are critical to follow when creating interesting and engaging content as you want to follow what most people are doing. By participating in a trend you are opening yourself and company to a whole new following that might be gone in a week if you miss it. Trends allow for huge growth opportunities and are a big part of today's marketing world. By tailoring content to trends, you make your company very relatable and engaging to those following it.
Disclaimer: You should never do a trend just to do it, but only to focus on trends that they can easily relate back to your business
4. Engagement
When managing social media marketing yourself, it is very important to focus on doing social media engagement. Engaging with your followers and other users helps build a more personable and community feel. Ways you can start engaging with you audience would be:
Liking and responding to comments: This shows you are taking the time to actually read the comments and understand what they are saying. This will show your audience and connections that you actually care about the content they spend so much time creating.
Live streaming: By live streaming, the audience can hear your voice and see your face as you answer any questions they might have. This really allows them to get a sense of who you really are and they can connect that way.
Creating polls and quizzes: Creating these is a great way to have your audience engage with your content and allows you to see their results and understand your audience better.
Post content that starts conversations: Look to start a conversation with your audience. The more you can get your audience to comment and chat with you the more exposure and engagement you’ll get. Be sure to add a conversation started at the end of each post such as “let us know what you think in the comments below!”.
5. Track and Analyze Results
The last step you need to focus on when doing social media marketing yourself is taking the time to see how well things have been performing. The last thing you want to do alone is waste time, so go back and see what performed well and didn't each month so you can spend your time more wisely.
Some key things to look out for might be:
Time spent engaging
Likes and view
How well each piece of content on their respective platforms performed
Bottom Line
In today's world, there are many things that go into being a successful social media manager by yourself. From creating a strong plan, to seeing the results of it and how to best adjust, there are many ways for one to make it in the world of marketing.
Today we laid out just 5 practices we think work best when doing social media yourself yet, and we have plenty more we would love to share with you.
If you're interested in learning more about how we can provide you more information on best practices, schedule a complimentary 15 minute discovery call with us.
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