To be successful in social media management, you must have a wide range of skills. You must juggle multiple plates and wear multiple hats, from content creation to video production—in short, you have a lot on your plate.
Here are 16 social media management tips to keep you organized and productive:
1. Choose the best platforms for your brand.
There are numerous social media platforms to choose from, ranging from long-standing favorites like Instagram and YouTube to newer apps like TikTok and BeReal. With monthly updates and new features, it can be tempting to try everything, but you must select the appropriate social media channels for your business.
Consider your brand's goals, resources, current content types, audience, competitors, and industry. Use this data to develop a strategy and identify the best platforms for your brand.
Keep researching until you find the platform that works best for you. If your company uses Instagram, for example, look for platform-specific advice by searching "social media management tips for Instagram."
2. Set your social media objectives.
Set measurable social media goals that are in line with your brand's overall business objectives.
You can use the SMART goal-setting framework to help you. The abbreviation stands for:
Specific: Your goal should be clear and defined. State what you will accomplish specifically.
Measurable: You need to track any social goal with numbers. This is where metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) come into play. Metrics are just numbers, but KPIs bring context and meaning to your data.
Achievable: Do you have the necessary resources (time, budget, creatives, etc.) to achieve your goals?
Realistic: Dream big, but within reason. Avoid promising results you can’t produce (think quadrupling conversions in one week).
Time sensitive: Give yourself a timeframe (monthly, quarterly or annually) to reach your goals.
After you've established your goals, decide on the key performance indicators (KPIs) you'll use to gauge your progress. Your KPIs are dependent on each goal, so select those metrics after you've confirmed your goals. Likes, comments, shares, and mentions, for example, could be potential KPIs if you wanted to increase brand engagement.
3. Make a schedule for your day or week.
Routines keep the world turning. Make a productivity routine to help you organize your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. A traditional to-do list is always effective, whether it's created with a physical planner or an iOS app. Set aside time on your calendar for specific tasks or projects. Experiment with productivity tools such as Asana, Todoist, or Hive—there are many to choose from, so don't be afraid to try something new until you find what works best for you.
4. Batch similar tasks
Consider which tasks are similar so that you can cross everything off your to-do list. For example, if you need to write social copy for multiple posts across multiple platforms, do it all at once. You can do the same thing for almost anything, from making social graphics to scheduling content.
5. Make use of a content calendar to help you visualize your efforts.
A content calendar can help you save time and avoid social media burnout by serving as a visual reminder of what you need to do to achieve your goals.
Plan out your content type, as well as where and when you want to post it, using the calendar. A content calendar, like a personal or business calendar, visualizes your efforts.
6. Use tools to upload and schedule social media posts.
With social media scheduling tools, you can work smarter, not harder. A social media scheduling tool is software that can help you schedule posts across multiple accounts and platforms. You save time because you can upload content and set a publishing date instead of doing everything within the app.
7. Determine the best times to post.
When you post is more important than what you post. The best times to post on social media differ depending on the network, the type of content, and the audience and industry of your brand. To determine the best timing trends, conduct extensive research and review your brand's social media data and analytics.
For instance, if you notice that your audience engages with your LinkedIn content more in the afternoon than in the morning, from noon to 4 p.m. This could be a good time to post.
8. Rethink your social media content strategy.
To keep your audience engaged and grow your social presence, you need a variety of content. Consider changing your content mix depending on your objectives, resources, budget, or brand identity.
9. Create a genuine brand experience for your target audience.
Because human connection is at the heart of social media, it's no surprise that audiences are looking for brand authenticity. According to the Sprout Social Index, 34% of consumers prefer to see less-produced videos from brands on social media.
By studying and listening to your target audience, your brand can create a genuine brand experience. What are they concerned about? What are their favorite posts? What are they talking about on the internet? With the content you share, answer these questions.
10. Include user-generated content in your social media content strategy.
Amplifying user-generated content is an excellent way to highlight your customers while also assisting your social media content strategy. UGC can be used to advocate for a business, and you can also include content that relates to the values of your brand or the lifestyle of your target audience.
ESPN, for example, is well-known for its coverage of college and professional sports, but you don't have to be an athlete to have your video reposted on their TikTok page. They highlight a variety of user-generated content, ranging from intramural sports to heartwarming moments.
11. Don't be afraid to strategically recycle content.
Rather than constantly coming up with new, relevant ideas for each post, consider how you can repurpose your best content. You save time and energy by repurposing your best-performing content. If you reuse content that you know works, it may perform well on another network as well. Reshare a Reel on your story, make a carousel, or cut YouTube videos into TikTok-friendly snippets.
12. Keep up with emerging trends by using social listening.
Social media managers are used to getting inside the heads of their target audience.
You can become a fly on the wall and gain insights into your content by using social listening. Social listening allows you to discover brand-related conversations, stay up to date on industry trends, and learn more about your target audience in general.
13. To save even more time, set up social media automation.
Other social media automation features, such as scheduling and chatbots, save you time, which is one of the most important keys to productivity and organization.
Instead of manually posting or responding to every message in real time, you can rely on automation to do some of the heavy lifting for you.
14. Automate social media analytics and reports
You can also save time by automating your social media analytics. Set a reporting schedule to auto-populate your metrics of choice at a specific time period instead of starting from scratch every time you want to pull a report.
You can automate a variety of social media reports to make managing social media for your brand easier.
15. Monitor, Adapt, Track, Repeat
Get used to regularly monitoring your social platforms, tracking performance, making necessary adjustments, and repeating the cycle. Because social media is constantly evolving, so will your content and strategy.
16. Learn to say no and delegate tasks
Burnout is something that social media managers are all too familiar with. They juggle many responsibilities while dealing with nuanced brand issues, including complex issues that may have an impact on their mental health. If you need to express your concerns about burnout, speak with your manager. When you're feeling overwhelmed or needing help from your team, practice communicating your priorities.
Don't be afraid to say "no" or seek assistance. Consider delegating your workload to be a component of managing your mental health.
We've covered 16 social media management tips to help you stay organized and productive. See our guide on how to build your social media marketing strategy for more information.