Managing your Social Media with Intention

Do you manage your own Social Media? If you do, do you treat it like any other important task within your business? Or do you post on the fly, scroll mindlessly and have absolutely no direction when it comes to that part of your marketing?

Here at Social Media Tribe, we are all about managing your Social Media with a strategy and intention. We’re also here to help, so we have gathered some tips and tricks to help you learn the ins and outs, helping you get the most out of the time you spend on your Social Media Marketing.

How long to stay online and what tasks to focus on?

It’s important to plan ahead! You really don’t need a lot of time, 1.5 to 2 hours per week is more than enough for your social media marketing if that’s all you have!

Start with your business goals and turn them into your social media goals e.g. Brand awareness, social proof, credibility, personal touch, education on services, lead generation – your focus can change from time to time as your business changes. The start of the new year is always a good time to reflect on the goals you have set the previous year and perhaps set some new ones!

Remember: when on social, you are ALWAYS representing your brand, even when scrolling through your personal feed! So, keep that in mind when liking and commenting as everything will end up reflecting on your brand.

Be intentional!

Before you log on, ask yourself: Is this social or business? Book a designated Social Media time in your calendar during your business hours to keep business separate from social time. Start your timer and log out once time’s up. Many people use social scrolling as downtime later on in the day, you deserve that down time too! Start your timer and log out once time’s up.

Turn off notifications or only select the ones you need to see in real-time and unfollow profiles/people that don’t inspire you or bring your energy down.

Build credibility

Remember what we said about allocating time in your calendar? Don’t fall into the trap of only posting when you have time. Book 30 minutes in your calendar once a week to create and schedule your posts in advance. When you’re intending to post every couple of days and it doesn’t happen, before you know it has been weeks with no activity on your page!

Aim to create 2-3 posts per week minimum that build connection and trust with your audience and have a compelling call to action and initial offer. Rotate through different types of posts: personal touch, social proof, education or services, value add/inspiration and call to action. Don’t forget to add 1 or 2 stories and a fortnightly reel/video for added visibility.

Community management: Reach out and network

This is one of the most important steps, but is also one of the most overlooked. The truth is that active profiles grow faster! Book 10 minutes in your calendar each day during your business hours to do the following:

• Check comments and messages and reply to them.
• Find 5-10 profiles to follow or connect per week – profiles that are complementary (not competing) to your services that your ideal audience already follows.
• Engage with 2-3 posts posted by these newly followed profiles by liking or writing a genuine and fun comment.

Reach even more people: Build brand awareness and generate leads

Run a weekly boosted post or a highly targeted advertising campaign (get an agency to do this unless you are really techy or love learning!)

Share your posts to relevant Facebook groups especially when you have a cool offer or have something that adds value to the group members once a week or fortnight – be mindful of the group rules or specific days for promotions!

Help others succeed: Create a Social Goodwill bank account

The most powerful social media strategy is creating goodwill by helping others!

This works online & off-line and whatever time you invest, it will be returned to you thousand times! Build your goodwill bank balance by doing the following:

• Follow other business profiles
• Like their posts
• Comment on their posts
• Share their posts and promotions
• Recommend others and refer business to them
• Join to celebrate their success

One important question to ask yourself is – what is your purpose on social media? If you can answer that, from there you can set your marketing goals and start marketing with intention.

If your brand or business is lacking in social media strategy or direction it might be time to book a 15-minute strategy session with us to find out how we can support your business growth.