Social media management and why you need it

A top question about managing a social media account with current and potential clients social media companies here is what is a social media management, what do you do, why do I need one, and what doesn't it do. The conversations then always turn to how can having another company help my business grow and how much control do I still have in my own company's destiny if someone else is running my online social media campaigns? Today we are going to delve into these common social media questions and answer them for you. Whether you are in Northwest Alabama, Tucson Arizona, or in Dallas Texas the management of a social media accounts at the high-level is the same.

A social media plan is where you outsource part or all your social media to a company to promote your business in a manner that you would if you hired a full-time person and doing this in-house. The benefits are that you will most often be gaining more than one person by outsourcing to help promote your company brand. By having multiple people posting and monitoring your brand reputation you can work on the key aspects of your business.

Social media management will allow you to focus on your customers. Customer service is crucial for any business to grow and succeed. Without it you will fail. Your social media will be maintained and monitored by individuals that specialize in social media.

The largest and biggest misconception about any social media manager is that the only thing that they do is post content on your social media walls and then just "play" on social media the rest of the time waiting for some emergency to happen. Posting content is a crucial part to any social media management job. That isn't all there is when it comes to managing your businesses online reputation. Other core items a social media manager does (but not limited to) are:

• Analytics – See who is coming to your social media pages, what times they are coming, locations, and devices they are using to connect. Tying this information with other business metrics as well as with your company website.
• Reputation Management – When someone posts something negative this information needs to stopped as quickly as possible, possibly removed if it is possible, and to make certain it does not go viral.
• Engagement – Responding to your fans and engaging with them.
• Advertising – If you have any paid ads they are looked at, monitored, and adjusted as needed.
• Events – Scheduling of events, promoting events, and making certain the proper level of engagement is happening.
• Content Calendars – Calendars for content, posting schedules, holidays, etc. are done weeks, even months, in advance.
• Website Updates – Your website may not be social but that doesn't mean it should be forgotten. The two should be tied and working collaboratively together (this could be two separate companies as well).
• Education - They are constantly looking for ways to entertain, educate, and excite your audience.
• Training – Social media managers are reading and adjusting their skillset daily.

The first and often most critical aspect is developing a strategy for your social media and marketing. During this "interview" process your social media company will get to know who you are as a business. A social media manager will learn about your brand and how it operates, learn about current marketing initiatives, and about all your products and services. The history of your business will be more deeply learned along with hours of operation for regular and holiday hours. Beyond that they will talk about your visions both near and long term. This interview process can be scripted but is often not asked in a scripted way. Expect that you will do the majority of the talking. The reason for this is that the company is trying to learn about you and not you learn about them. They will keep track of the core information they want but a script is often not, or should not, be followed as when you go through a script the interview process becomes an interrogation. Most people or companies do not like to be interrogated.

With the information about your business and who your ideal customer is together a complete digital marketing plan that covers the content to post, types of articles to post, content and videos to create, competitors to watch, and make certain that everything done comes across in a voice that represents your company brand.

Each month a monthly reevaluation should be happening. Look at what is currently working, what appears to be working on sites related to your industry, as well as what is not working. Many times, what is not working can provide more insight than what is working. Demographic is starting to shift. By being agile you can make appropriate changes in your digital marketing strategy to meet the goals of the business. Your digital marketing strategy should also tie into your other marketing strategies as well. During each reevaluation, we also check and verify that the businesses expectations are being met and align with any internal business metrics being used.

In the entire social media management process upper management and specific individuals should have access to all aspects of each and every social media site. There should be a list maintained and consistently monitored and checked that only authorized individuals are allowed to post on your account.

When you are ready to look for a company to help you grow (that is the point of having a manager) the team at JM2 from Cullman Alabama is ready to assist you with our plans that will help you maintain your social media and your website in a cost-effective manner. JM2 can be reached at @BUSINESSPHONETOLLFREE@, email at @BUSINESSEMAILADDRESS@, or through our online contact form here.