Every business knows that social media is one of the most powerful promotional tools available to them. When used to your advantage, it’s an essential aspect of any strong online presence – whether you’re a public figure, established brand or fresh-faced start-up. But getting it right when it comes to setting up and running social platforms for your business isn’t so easy – and there are plenty of pitfalls which can quickly throw you off-course. This is where many brands get stuck with slow growth, dwindling followers and low engagement, all of which prevent them from experiencing the true value of social media.
For beginners just starting their journey, the mountain that is social media can seem impossible to climb. But with some basic knowledge and understanding and the cultivation of a few simple skills, you can start to more effectively manage and grow your social platforms.
In this simple beginner’s guide, we set out the key elements of any successful social media manager’s playbook. Whether you’re just starting out or need to give your socials a serious refresh, this insightful overview provides plenty of tips and tricks to inform and inspire you.
Understanding social media basics
Before we dive in, there are a few foundational aspects of social we need to cover first. Getting to grips with the basics before you go more in-depth on social strategy is essential, because it ensures that you understand relevant platforms sufficiently so that you can use them to your advantage. It’s tempting to jump head-first into posting and learning as you go, but whilst this approach can have its advantages it’s best to spend some time getting acquainted with these fundamental elements first.
Start by learning about the different social media platforms and their unique features. It’s crucial to understand the similarities and differences between these networks as this will help you to decide which ones are worth spending time and money on. In short, you only need to cover platforms where your target audience is going to be. Within the B2C sector there are now many different networks to choose from – but pay special attention to the ones which are popular with your key demographics and customers. If you know competitors or other brands with very similar audiences, auditing their socials can be an interesting place to start.
Typically B2C brands focus on at least two or more platforms – and contrary to popular belief, it’s better to focus on and master just one or two and then expand your social presence than to try and hit them all at once right at the beginning. Popular social channels for B2C brands include Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Pinterest and YouTube – so it’s likely you’ll be focusing on one of these or a blend of several depending on your key demographics. Spend some time getting to know each network before you make a decision – making a note of the most important insights including audience data. For example, companies focusing on an audience aged 50+ may focus on Facebook and YouTube first, whereas a brand aimed at 18-25 year olds would more likely start with Tik Tok and Instagram.
Once you’ve decided which networks will work best for your brand, it’s time to set up your profiles. At this stage ideally you should enlist professional support from your branding team or an agency who can create an expertly crafted bio, eye-catching visuals and an initial launch strategy to enable you to hit the ground running. At this point it may be worth considering how responsibilities will be split moving forward – and whether you’ll be managing things independently in-house or collaborating with a team of professionals.
Crafting compelling content
Content should be a priority for businesses looking to leverage the promotional power of social media – but it can be tricky to produce high-quality, engaging creative collateral, and without professional support, many companies fall short.
Your content can make or break your social presence. Ultimately, it’s not only what initially attracts someone to choose to interact with you, but it’s also the key deciding factor when it comes to them opting to follow your account and whether they decide to continue to maintain a connection with your brand.
Successful companies secure lucrative followings through consistently sharing high-quality, relevant content which encourages interaction and engagement. Your content has to fulfil various criteria to ensure that it is maximising the connection you have with your audience. Is it relevant – does it speak to your ideal customer and address their needs, emotions or concerns? Is it well-executed – are your graphics properly designed and images the correct resolution, and in the right format? Does your content feel polished and professional enough (or raw and real enough) to make a meaningful and positive connection with your audience? One piece of content may perform better than others or go viral, but in general it’s best to see all your pieces of content as a team that works together to draw your customers closer to you.
Content can also come in many different formats – from written copy and visual media to soundbites, infographics and videos. Each one can have a different impact depending on how and where it is used – so you’ll need to spend time giving this some thought as you begin to plan out your content schedule.
Previously, a schedule was often created by teams working on elements independently then presenting them with mood boards and storyboards to ensure everything matched up seamlessly across all touchpoints. But now there are many digital tools and platforms which can help you with both content planning and creation. These include Canva, Cap Cut, Later and even Chat GPT. To use these to your advantage you’ll still need to develop a strong brand identity and creative vision first.
We’re not lingering too long on content creation here because we’ve covered it in depth in this fab mini-series.
Building a content calendar
Although the carefully-curated social feeds of successful brands may look and feel organic, every single piece of content will have been meticulously planned, prepared and even posted in advance. This is the cheat code to maintaining the quality and consistency needed to make a splash on socials. Without the time and headspace to generate inspiring creative content on a continuous basis, many brands are stuck with a sporadic, ad-hoc posting schedule which doesn’t serve them or their audiences.
The secret of many social media managers’ successes (and one of the reasons they’re able to simultaneously manage multiple accounts) is the content calendar. A content calendar is the starting point for any social network, setting out exactly what you’ll share in advance. These are usually created several months ahead of time, but smaller companies may work from monthly calendars.
As mentioned above, there are numerous benefits tied to planning content in advance. It also allows you to post strategically, ensuring you can maximise key dates and never miss an opportunity to increase visibility for your brand. Tips for scheduling posts strategically include researching key dates which are relevant to your audience and your brand and ensuring you plan and create dedicated content for them. This covers the basics such as international holidays and cultural celebrations – but you should also look up events that are of specific interest to your audience or can be directly linked to your brand values – such as World Mental Health Week and Earth Day. Lesser-known ones like Bean Day or Jazz Appreciation Month may be more niche, but because of this they can present more interesting opportunities. Identifying which events to focus on without overdoing it can be tricky – but whilst the list will vary from business to business depending on your audience and what sector you are in, there are some key dates that every B2C organisation should have circled
If you’re wondering where to start, there are now various tools you can use to organise and manage your content calendar. These include Hootsuite and Planoly – but many social media managers simply use a basic calendar template in Word or Pages.
Engaging with your community
Understandably we lay so much store by what we are putting out on social media. Content is usually a company’s primary focus when it comes to managing their social platforms – so much so that they forget and overlook the importance of actively engaging with their community.
Social platforms are social – the clue is in the name. They exist so that users can share content and interact with one another – something successful brands use to their advantage. Getting this right involves so much more than just responding to comments and messages – and is often the difference between brands that excel at selling via socials and those that don’t.
Engagement has various different benefits which enhance your social presence in a number of important ways:
*Nurturing your relationship with your audience: Genuine interactions build trust and credibility and enhance authenticity, in turn helping you to forge stronger connections with your audience.
*Growing an organic following more easily: Many businesses fear the dreaded ‘algorithm’, but the winning formulas are closely-guarded secrets and beyond the various techniques you can employ to ‘beat’ or hack them, consistent and genuine engagement really is the most impactful way to manage the ups and downs which come with continuous platform updates.
*Creating a community feel: Brands that invest time and resources into building engaged followings and communities tend to see faster growth and enhanced ROI from their socials.
Managing engagement looks different for each individual company and will depend on the amount of resources you have available to respond to comments, messages, and mentions.
Establishing brand consistency
Consistency is key when it comes to your social media presence and content posting schedule – but staying consistent is deceptively simple. Many brands quickly experience burnout on socials, especially when their efforts aren’t underpinned with some solid plans and an understanding of how social media works.
The key to staying consistent on your socials is sufficient forward planning – so make sure you are ahead of the game with your content calendars and creation schedule. Brand consistency is also crucial. This needs to run across all platforms and touchpoints where you interact with your audience. Wherever mismatched or poor quality content is shared, potential customers can quickly be confused or put off, wasting valuable resources spent on whichever marketing methods you’ve used to draw them closer.
Staying consistently ‘on brand’ has a major impact on your online presence – helping your audience to develop strong and meaningful connections with your content and your business. There are various elements to your brand which must remain in-keeping with the overall impression you give. Some of the most important include:
Visual content, branding and design: A cohesive visual identity is very important – as it almost instantly builds a clear impression of what your brand is about and who it is for.
Written content and copy: Maintaining consistent tone and messaging across all copy and content is key – even when responding to messages or comments.
Approach: Although you’ll naturally change the marketing tools you use and your approach in line with a shifting social media strategy, making too many changes at the same time or a significant departure from what your audience is used to can damage your relationship with them.
Consistency also depends on who is creating and managing brand assets. Ideally you will use the same teams or individuals to work on your content and strategy, so that the approach, delivery and quality remains the same.
Leveraging social media analytics
We bang on about measurability here at Smoking Gun – because it’s essential. Having analytics tools in place which enable you to get a clear picture on how your marketing efforts are performing isn’t a ‘nice to have’ – this is stuff you need to know if you’re going to achieve anywhere near decent ROI on your socials.
Tracking performance metrics is no mean feat though – which is why most companies bury their heads in the sand and use guesswork to inform their approach, trying to get a wider impression of how things are going from likes and reach alone. Because of the sheer number of platforms (and the differences between each one) tracking performance can quickly become complex and confusing.
To break things down, each platform has their own ‘analytics’ area which presents an overview of content and ads performance, with layers of various other metrics beneath which enable you to go into more detail. These aren’t to be ignored and they’re a good place to start, but to really drill down on how your audience is responding to your promotional efforts, you’ll usually need to look deeper. This can include signing up to paid versions of platforms to access more specific data and insights and linking socials to key touchpoints for your customers such as your website (such as via Meta Pixel). We’ve shared some insights into interpreting analytics data here.
Once you have set up analytics and got to grips with how to interpret them, it’s important to implement what you’ve learned and use the data to your advantage. Strategies for optimising content based on analytics include noting low-performing content and its characteristics to avoid making the same mistakes, and using high-performing posts to create a ‘winning formula’ you can replicate across different platforms with different types of content.
Staying updated with social media trends
The dynamic nature of social media means it’s always changing – which is a huge headache for businesses. When the goalposts are always moving and there are new features and platforms to get acquainted with on a constant basis, managing socials effectively can quickly become exhausting. It’s crucial though to ensure you stay updated with social media trends, as this enables you to reach your audiences most efficiently and employ an informed approach to keep up with (or stay ahead of) the competition.
Many businesses come unstuck here, because they try to pre-empt and stay on top of every single trend for every platform. Unless you’re a social media manager, it’s likely not going to be possible for you to do this – and you don’t have to.
Signing up to subscription services which send you notifications on new developments is a simple and easy way to ensure you’re aware of upcoming trends and can respond to them in good time. These include newsletters from platforms like We Are Social and Buffer – but in some cases the platforms themselves offer this. You may have to dig around to find these, or request directions from the platform’s help team.
Staying updated in itself is important, but not enough to make a real difference to your social media success. For this you need to use what you learn and adapt your strategy based on industry trends and your own understanding of your unique audiences.
Bottom line
For a beginner in social media management there’s a lot to learn, and you can quickly feel overwhelmed once you dive in. Start with each element individually and try not to do too much at once, taking things one platform at a time.
A strong online presence is more crucial for companies now than ever before – so it’s important to prioritise getting to grips with socials, whether you choose to outsource or decide to manage them in-house. Even for businesses with an established social media presence and the confidence to self-manage socials, investing in continuous ongoing learning and implementing new methods and strategies to adapt to industry changes is key.
