If you’ve been following the news lately, you know that there is a lot of talk about how social media has impacted our lives. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are constantly changing the way we communicate with friends, family, and even people in other countries.
The power of these platforms to connect us all has never been greater. And as social media continues to grow in popularity, it becomes more important than ever for companies to get involved with this powerful tool.
If your company doesn’t have an active social media presence yet or needs help getting started, here are three ways you can start using this tool:
1) Use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule posts ahead of time
2) Determine your content plan
3) Create a strategy for measuring success.
Use A Tool Like Hootsuite To Schedule Posts Ahead Of Time
There are a number of tools that can be used for running a successful social media campaign. One tool that you could use is Hootsuite.
Hootsuite was created especially with the intent of helping people organize their social accounts and manage their presence on these platforms.
It helps keep your Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ pages organized while giving you the flexibility to post content updates as needed from one dashboard.
The best part is that Hootsuite allows you to schedule posts ahead of time so you will never have to worry about missing an update. You can even schedule updates in advance for specific days and times so everything gets posted exactly when it should.
When you schedule your posts, Hootsuite creates a calendar that shows you all of the scheduled updates – so you can always see what is coming up and make any necessary changes.
Finding the time to manage multiple social media accounts and publish interesting content for each one on a regular basis can be tough. With Hootsuite, you can schedule updates ahead of time so that your page is always active and interesting.
This will help you to attract more followers and increase your online presence – in turn, driving in more business for your company.
Determine Your Content Plan
When you decide to start using social media, you will need a content plan. A good rule of thumb is to post an update on each platform at least once per day. This may seem like a lot, but if you only have time for one post, then make it count – choose your best content and put the most effort into writing out the best post possible.
Your content plan should include the types of things that you will be posting and how often you will be posting them. If your company is hosting an event, for example, it would make sense to announce it on Facebook or Twitter and share pictures from the event afterward.
This way, people who might have missed out on attending could still follow along and see what happened. You might also want to share tweets or Facebook posts from your CEO about the event so that more people will feel connected to it.
Getting creative with your content plan can help you to boost engagement on social media. For example, if you have a blog, consider posting links to articles on Twitter instead of sharing the entire blog post – Twitter users can click on the link to read more about it.
You could also feature quotes from your company’s leaders or customer service representatives in tweets that you post every so often. Quotes are a great way to keep followers engaged and curious as to who said what, which will drive them to visit your website and glean more of your brand’s values and character.
Create A Strategy For Measuring Success
Measuring the success of your social media campaign is an important part of getting started with these platforms. You will need to determine what metrics can be used to measure your campaign’s progress so you can see how effective it has been.
A good metric to use to measure the success of your social media campaign is impressions. Impressions are a measurement of how many times users have seen or interacted with your content – which you can track by looking at the number of likes, shares, and comments that a post gets. Another great way to measure the success of your campaign is the engagement rate.
Engagement rate is measured by dividing the number of interactions by the total number of followers or fans – so if someone interacts with your content 1 time and has 100 followers, then their engagement rate would be 1%. The more engagement you can get in a certain amount of time, the better – this shows that your followers are interested and engaged with what you have to say.
A good engagement rate is anywhere between 1-2%. Try setting up analytics on all of your platforms so that you can easily track these metrics, improve upon them, and see what content works best based on how it impacts these numbers.
Last Thoughts
Managing multiple social media accounts and publishing content for each one on a regular basis can be tough. With Hootsuite, you can schedule updates ahead of time so that your page is always active and interesting. This will help you to attract more followers and increase your online presence – in turn driving in more business for your company.
The metrics that you use to measure the success of your campaign depend largely upon what type of goals you have set out when starting it up – for example, if engagement or impressions are important then consider using tools like Google Analytics which allow users to track how many times their posts were seen by others as well as how often they interact with them (likes, shares, etc).
Getting creative with different types of content plans and using your social media accounts as tools to promote these plans will also help you reach more followers and drive in more business. Once again, engagement is key – aim for a 2%+ engagement rate if possible.
Try not to spambot or create posts that are too salesy – your users will be able to spot this from miles away and it won’t look professional. Instead of salesy tactics, try to create posts that are interesting and engaging for your followers by using a unique voice (either your own or one that is representative of the company’s values).
With these key points in mind, you’ll be able to start up an effective social media campaign within no time!
