SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT: THE DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE(2020)

Social media management is often described as the process of managing your online contents and interactions across various social media channels.

While, this is a good explanation of what social media management entails, it doesn’t fully cover the scope of social media management

I’ll Properly define Social Media Management as the process of creating, scheduling, publishing, analyzing and engaging with contents posted on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Social media managers are experts that handles social media contents, respond to the audiences comment and in turn develop strategies that aids achieveing marketing goals.

In this article, I’ll be thoroughly explaining;

• How to get started with social media management
• Benefits of social media management
• Best social media tools and services
• Cost of starting social media management
• Developing a working social media management strategy.

GETTING STARTED 

If you’re new to the world of Social media management, it is necessary that you understand the following concepts ;

Audience: Audience on Social media refers to the people you aim to get their attention so they’ll consume your content, and maybe buy your goods or pay for your services

Now, before you start putting out any content or so, you must first define your audience(the type of people you aim to reach as you set out on your social media journey)

Then you must also engage with your audience, following them back as the case may be, replying their comments, asking for their opinions e.t.c

Content/Context: Content refers to everything you put out be it story post, a picture on your feed, a new video editorial, a podcast you share, All Of these are contents.

After clearly defining your audience, you need to start creating quality and unique contents(pictures, videos, podcasts e.t.c)

As Gary Vee would say, “content is king, but context is god”

If you create, curate good contents without respect to context, you have only wasted your time and resources 

For instance, Instagram is a highly visual Sm network, Twitter is a mini blog, Pinterest deals mostly with high quality pictures and so on

When. You’re creating your contents, put the context of that Sm network into consideration.

BENEFITS

One is the main benefits of social media management is the fact that it saves time,

I mean, the whole point of having to schedule your post, analyze your data and all of that is to basically save time and increase profit/roi

Another benefit of social media management is that it helps you understand your audience, 

as a social media manager, after engaging on your audience’s posts and vice versa, analyzing your audience data using analytics, you get to understand the kind of posts your audience wants to see, where they live, when they’re mostly active e.t.c

After you’ve mastered Social media management to an extent and you have enough follower base and engagement, you sort of start commanding authority in whatever niche you are in.

BEST TOOLS AND SERVICES

Most Social Media Management tools are DIY(Do-It-Yourself) tools , they are quite easy to use . Some examples of DIY tools include;

Buffer: Buffer is a Social media content scheduling and Publishing app.

with buffer you are able to schedule future posts using the application and publishing it directly to twitter or getting a reminder to publish it manually on Instagram as the case may be.

Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a social media data anylzing application.

Hootsuite allows you to see a comprehensive data report/ analysis of your social media accounts.

Most of these applications have free trials

Before having to subscribe for them, it doesn’t hurt to try them out.

Other examples of DIY tools;

Quicksprout

Hubspot  e.t.c

Social media management services on the other end are the goto if you want to be more professional as a social media manager

SMM services are more costly compared to DIY tools but they are definitely worth every penny spent as they generate more results(sales, website clicks, leads or engagement) as the case may be. 

Examples of Social media management services include;

• Sociallyln
• Lyfe Marketing  e.t.c

COST

The cost of starting social media management is not a really big deal depending on what you’re planning to do, maybe you’re planning to be an individual social media manager or you’re going big as a social media management agency 

Most times the cost of management tools are determined based on the number of accounts you’re managing and the number of posts to be posted.

Social media management services on the other end are costed using the size of the social media account, posting frequency, platforms on which you’re posting and the analytics.

So whichever one you’re going for, social media management is definitely something you should consider as a brand owner if you’re considering have an online presence.

CREATING A STRATEGY.

Having all the the social media management tools and services are cool, having quality contents is nice, understanding your audience is great.

But without having a Proper Social Media Strategy, all your efforts as a social media manager will go to waste.

Social media management strategy is basically the series of things you put in place to make sure your journey as a social media manager when managing an account is well accountedfor/documented

I won’t go into social media management strategies in detail, that’s for another day. 

But right now, I’ll highlight how to create a social media strategy that works, let’s dive into it;

• Choose the right platform
• Creating a social media schedule/calender
• Creating and posting contents to social profile
• Responding to followers under the comment sections, DMs etc
• Engaging with similar brand owners on social media platforms 

CONCLUSION

So this is a descriptive blog as to what social media management entails,

Is there something you were expecting me to mention and I didn’t?

Are you going to employ the services of a  social media manager?

Or you’re going to Do It Yourself with DIY tools?

Tell me in the comment section and Let me know whatever you decide . 

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