It’s becoming increasingly popular for companies to hire a social media manager as part of their advertising and PR teams, but what can they actually bring to your business? The million dollar question is what do we do? Here are just 25 things that a social media manager can do to enhance your business and build your profile.
1. Create social media profiles
Without a doubt, these are probably the most important things to get up and running. It’s not just about creating them, but its about ensuring everything on your profile is optimised and up to date and making sure it’s aesthetically pleasing. Nobody likes a Facebook page with no cover or profile photo. It’s paramount to ensure all fields are filled out correctly. Everything from your ‘about us’ to your contact details. It’s also really important to pick and choose which social media platforms you want to be on, and which are going to benefit you. There’s little point in being on Instagram if you’re a financial advisor, but if you’re selling make up or clothes, you need to show these off!
2. Create pages where necessary
Where a business may have several avenues it may be worth creating separate pages. These could be anything from showcase pages or groups for their business ventures.
3. Keep your business information up to date
Obviously as your business grows and evolves, this will need to be reflected on any and all social media outlets that you’re signed up to. Your clients and audience want to know how well you’re doing. Social media gives you the platform to shout about it!
4. Start a blog
Blogging is not a passing craze, it is here to stay and millions of people around the globe have started to realise what a blog can do for a business. Typically, businesses with blogs have increased website visits, more inbound links and most of all more leads! If your social media manager one hasn’t started one for you, get on it!
5. Keep up to date with social media platforms
Lots of social media platforms regularly update their requirements for images, or change their posting formats. It’s a good idea for your social media manager to be on top of this and this will typically go hand in hand with keeping your information up to date. The trend for the ‘hottest’ social media platform will change with time, but as I said, only sign up to ones that are relevant to your business. Snapchat is hot at the moment, but is it for you? Maybe, maybe not. Remember when we were all on MySpace, then made the move to Facebook? It’s constantly changing and evolving so make sure your social media manager knows where it’s at.
6. Research industry content
In order to create engaging posts, it’s a good idea for your social media manager to research the industry for the latest news, innovations and headlines. This in turn will give you content that is valuable to your clients and readers.
7. Fact check
Before posting any of your research, make sure the information that is being used is accurate and up to date. It’s always good to check with someone within the company you’re working for, if you can. They will be able to confirm that the information is factual, ensure it is the most recent information, but they may also be able to tell you which bits of that information they feel need highlighting for their clients.
8. Get a social media editorial calendar
This can be something stuck on the wall that people within the company can add to if they have any ideas, or it can be a plugin on the blog that allows you to jot down ideas. An editorial calendar works by allowing you to set headlines for your content without having to write the body of it straight away. It also allows you to schedule ahead for any drafts that may require approval before hitting that all important publish button.
9. Drafting content
This can be a simple Facebook post or tweet on Twitter, but it can also be a full on blog article. Drafting content is key because once it’s written it gives you time to select excerpts from other articles that may be relevant, it gives you time to research relevant hashtags and keywords that can be used and it also gives you a chance to look for any research that can back up what you’re talking about. It’s a great idea to include at least one link where possible.
10. Scheduling your posts
There are a number of ways to schedule posts. Some social media managers use tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Tweetdeck which tend to encompass more than one social media platform so you can schedule your posts to go live across several platforms all at the same time. However, for some social media you’ll have to go directly through the site, like Facebook. This is particularly useful if your social media manager wants to cover more platforms in a shorter amount of time, is managing multiple channels, is collaborating with another team, or knows that they may not make the office next week. This is all well and good but they do need a keen eye to ensure they’re running smoothly and so shouldn’t be totally relied upon.
11. Creating visuals or images
Images are huge, and videos are huger! Any kind of imagery from a simple picture, to a gif, to a full on video will increase engagement on all social media platforms. Infographics are really popular at the moment so it may be a good idea to ask your social media manager to create some of these for you to send in emails, or in your newsletter, or to put in an article on the blog. Visuals are key! Most social media managers should have a basic knowledge of creating and editing images and it’s always a good idea to include at least one in any of your posts.
12. Know your network
It’s a great idea for your social media manager to follow, be friends with or like other pages or businesses within your field. They could turn out to be new clients, but could also turn into collaborators who have something to offer. These connections could also prove valuable to your own audience or client base and sharing content can often bring attention to your own page or website.
13. Make sure your business is engaging with people
Not only with your existing clients, but with potential new ones. A social media manager can respond to any communication you have through any of your social media platforms. This can be a direct message, comments on articles or questions that your clients are asking. It’s also a good idea for your business to be commenting on other relevant content on other pages as this will also boost your business profile.
14. Managing alerts and notifications
This could be anything from following up a mention on Facebook, right through to setting up alerts for certain products, services or a business/person of interest. These can be done through a variety of platforms or apps available to your social media manager.
15. Keeping up with trends, hashtags and keywords
Social media managers should be able to track these or see visible trends just by researching competitors or a more well known business or brand. What hashtags are those companies using? Who are they following? Who are they interacting with? What are they posting about? These are the kinds of things your social media manager should look out for and try to implement where possible. It’s also a good idea to create a custom hashtag for your brand or business as these are able to be tracked, but it also helps a potential customer or client find other articles you have written beforehand.
16. Grow your following and nurture the existing
People started following or liking your business/brand for a reason and you need to keep them engaged as well. You don’t want to just appeal to new clients or customers, you want to please your existing base. Having said that your social media manager will be able to increase your followers by following all other steps here. The key to an engaged and steady audience is quality content. Content is king. Hopefully in the future this will generate new leads.
17. Manage your advertisements
Most social media platforms offer some kind of sponsored, boosted or paid ads. This could be spending a few pounds on sponsoring a Facebook post, which will reach between X and Y amount of people depending on the parameters you set for the audience. Twitter have a similar thing. Alternatively your social media manager could look into something like a sidebar ad or a banner on a collaborating website. Ads are usually measurable and so can give you an idea of what the ROI (return on investment) is and whether it’s beneficial to use that specific type of advertisement. In order for this to be effective you need to have a goal.
18. Monitor your metrics
This pretty much goes hand in hand with the above. Depending on how you’re advertising you should be able to identify key indicators or have some kind of tool that measures the effectiveness of what you’re doing. This is also the same for your posts; what kind of engagement are you getting? Are people sharing the content? Are people reading it? Are the right people being reached? Is it an efficient way of hitting your goals? Set your goals the SMART way!
19. Run competitions and giveaways
I do these a lot on my blog and some people would be quick to criticise and say that it’s not the right way to generate clicks/business. I admit that yes, a lot of these kinds of contests are predominantly visited by “compers” BUT these “compers” are people too. Some of them are in it to win and will move away from your site as soon as their entry is in, but others will genuinely take the time to visit other pages on your sites, read your other articles, scroll down your Facebook page and you never know, they might find something they didn’t realise they’d been looking for! I can assure you that some of my regular compers have turned into those who I regularly engage with and comment on my other blog posts. Don’t discount them, they’re super valuable. Speak to your social media manager to find out if they have any ideas of contests they could run for you.
20. Create conversation
Whether this be on an article your business has published, or whether you want to have your say on another article, creating conversation by commenting or creating a call to action is a great way to get more engagement. It’s also a great way to get talking to potential clients and customers, other businesses in your field, the business community as a whole and with social media influencers who could potentially draw more traffic to your site. Another place you can create conversation is in forums or on pages for people who have an interest in what you have to offer.
21. Track your traffic and audience
Google Analytics is a great tool for this. It can track who your audience are, where they’re coming from, as well as lots of other cool information. It’s quite a lot to get your head round at once but this can prove invaluable when you want real figures and data. It can track what people are doing on your website too!
22. Keyword research and improving SEO
Both of these are really important if you’re looking to rank in Google. Researching the right keyword to use and ensuring your SEO is tip top helps to get your website seen. Obviously there are lots of other factors that contribute to ranking but these will most certainly help. WordPress have a great plugin you can use for this called Yoast which I would highly recommend using. I use it on my blog and I’m always determined to get that little button green. It will point you in the right direction of how you can improve your SEO on a certain page/post, but don’t take it as gospel – you don’t have to get everything green all the time.
When it comes to keywords, it’s all down to research. I always start with the basic question of “if I was going to search for X, what would I type into Google?” and go from there. Read similar articles or content within the same field or use a keyword research tool – there are a few websites that could help!
23. Analyse data
This can be used for all sorts of things and Google Analytics, again, is a good way to do this. You can use a spreadsheet to input data or you can just look at the graphs that GA has to offer. Your social media manager can then analyse this data to record what went well, identify areas that may require improvement, track return on investment and can also analyse the kind of audience you are reaching so you can tweak your campaigns. There is so much that can be done with your data – use it, don’t lose it!
24. Create a landing page
If you have any offers or campaigns that are being promoted, landing pages are a great way to direct your client/customer base toward your intended goal as it limits their options, and they are usually a standalone webpage that isn’t directly linked to your main website. For more information on this Unbounce have a great little info page.
25. Give you time to focus on your clients/customers
A social media manager does all of the above and more so that you can do what you love, and that is to speak with your clients and customers! You can focus on improving areas of your business that you want to without having to worry about running your social media pages and website as well.
This is by no means an extensive list of what each and every social media manager can do. Some can offer far more advanced services, and others will probably like to keep it very basic but effective. It’s down to you to discuss what you want from your social media manager should you choose to get one, but these are some of the options.
Wow I do do a lot of work and yep us bloggers tend to have to do it all for ourselves but yes I could do with a manager lol
I really wish I had someone to do all of that for me! x