Gaining social media success can take time, effort and motivation, but this simple 10-step guide is designed to help you navigate your way through the complex and seemingly endless world of social media.
1. Research and know your target audience
We’ve mentioned this countless times on the 8 Ways Media blog, and that’s because it’s so important to know your audience before writing content for them. As you produce more and more social posts, you will have plenty of statistics to analyse. These stats will show you what’s working and what’s not so that you can produce even more of the content that works!
2. Create a social media strategy
Set up a social media strategy, but be sure to review it on a quarterly basis to see what needs adjusting. Over time, habits change and your audience is likely to grow and adapt, so although it’s great to have a plan in place, you may need to adjust it accordingly!
3. Choose your platforms wisely
It’s all well and good posting content onto every single social media platform out there, but this will take up so much of your free time! It’s also important to bear in mind where your target audience are spending most of their time. If they’re not using Pinterest, don’t bother setting up a Pinterest account. Likewise, if a lot of your target audience have a presence on Facebook, don’t bother setting up an account but failing to post content.
4. Understand that each platform is different
Never treat different social media platforms the same. Each has its own posting etiquette that needs to be obeyed in order to be respected by your audience and generate a following.
5. Get organised
Use a task management tool such as Wunderlist or Evernote to keep a written note of all ideas and remain organised. What’s great about these tools is that you can connect with other members of your team and share your to-do list with them.
6. Get everyone on board!
Just because you’re in charge of your company’s social media strategy, doesn’t mean you (and your social media team) are the only one that should know what’s going on! Get everyone on board and encourage every member of every department to get involved with the company’s social media marketing, whether by suggesting ideas or posting company-related photos.
7. Make time for scheduling
Uploading posts takes time and effort, so take time out each week to schedule posts in advance. This is a great time-saving strategy that can be amended in the event of a breaking news story or a post of any urgency.
8. Post relevant content
As mentioned in point 1, it’s essential that you know your audience, and this means posting relevant, meaningful content that will resonate with your readers. Tools such as Google Alerts and Google Trends keep you up-to-date on the latest news and trends, meaning you can create appropriate, important stories to your audience that you know they will love.
9. Analyse your Stats
Every month, take a look at your analytics to analyse your position from the past 28 day period. Twitter has a fantastic, in-depth analytics feature that breaks all of your tweets down into impressions, engagements and engagement rates (amongst other information), and this is valuable information that should not be ignored if you want to experience regular social media success. In fact, most platforms have a powerful, insightful analytics section revealing important information.
10. Repost old content!
Finally, note that there is no harm in reposting old content. As mentioned in point 9 above, it’s essential to analyse your statistics to see what’s worked and what’s flopped. If one of your tweets did particularly well at the beginning of last month, there is absolutely no harm in re-tweeting it to your audience.
About 8 Ways Media
8 Ways Media is a leading international digital and marketing agency based in Switzerland. Offering a wealth of services to a vast international client base of more than 280 companies worldwide, 8 Ways offer the most creative, contemporary digital marketing solutions around.
To learn more about the wealth of services on offer or to speak to a member of our team about your needs, get in touch today.
Related articles.
