Do you send out your social media posts to multiple channels? What are the steps you usually take when planning and optimizing your brand account on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram?
In the previous article, we discussed the social media marketing foundations and noted how important creating and organizing your content is. In this write-up, let’s focus on planning how you can strategize and optimize the social media pages of your brand.
Start with a SWOT Analysis
As social media managers, we must understand if the social media page is aligned with the brand message and overall goals of the organization. You can do this by doing a SWOT analysis. Remember, the key to social media growth is reaching your customers. Your posts must reflect your customers’ needs.
In SWOT, identify the strengths of your page. How many posts do you publish on a daily or weekly basis? Does your tone manifest your brand? I am fortunate enough to manage the social media page of one of the leading professional choirs in Canada. They are based in Edmonton and have existed for 40 years. When I joined them last year, I noticed that the tone was completely different from the previous pages I managed (I am coming from an IT/Saas standpoint from Australia and a soccer academy in the Philippines). The tone and sentence structure for the choir are more relaxed and formal yet should be interesting enough to captivate its audience. The tone and message have to be aligned with the overall brand positioning that is displayed through their concerts, website, email newsletters, posters, and more. Note that the audience of this type of music and performances is niche, thus, the choice of content produced must also be planned and built accordingly.
Other factors in SWOT are your company’s weaknesses. What are the areas that need to be improved? When you do the weakness analysis, try to reflect on the brand from an inside perspective. Do you have enough resources to manage your social media pages? Are your staff skilled enough to manage and produce content according to the needs of your brand?
Opportunities and Threats are the areas that must be viewed outside the organization. Are there other choir groups offering lower ticket sales? What are the types of content they produce? Do they perform the same quality music as your group?
Integrate your platform with other channels
Once you have a clear understanding of your brand, identify the channels or platforms where you can leverage your content. Do you need to utilize Meta’s paid ads? Do you need to promote on LinkedIn? How about Instagram stories?
If you go to Meta Business Suite, you can link your brand’s Instagram account and post simultaneously the content you want to publish. Of course, you have to consider if the suggested time of Meta is optimal for your brand. A 6:00 AM scheduled post on Facebook might not have a wide reach for your Instagram followers. As a social media manager, adjust what you think is the best time to publish your content. Know the engagement pattern of your followers per channel.
Join Facebook Groups and maximize your networks. Industry associations such as Choral Canada and Choir Alberta are a great way to expand the choir organization’s reach. Check their website and know if you can post content and promote events on their website or social media channels.
A great way to tap new audience is by collaborating with brand ambassadors, stakeholders, and influencers. Aside from leveraging your content, it helps build credibility for your brand. You must establish your contacts in the industry.
Livestream is one great option to achieve greater algorithms. Once you go live, your account could show up instantly on the feed of your followers and non-followers. In my previous job, we tried LinkedIn Live to communicate the latest releases of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Make sure to prepare the assets ahead of time and you can use the LinkedIn Live URL to invite your contacts. LinkedIn also allows social media managers to generate a registration form where you can export the registration details. You can also add a subscriber opt-in tick box so that you can add those who opted-in to your CRM.
Use Social Media Management Tools
When you have multiple accounts to manage, it is best to use a social media management tool such as Buffer, Hootsuite, or Zoho Social. A social media marketing campaign can be implemented effectively and efficiently through these platforms. You can optimize, schedule, and automate your posting which will smoothen the entire process. You can also reschedule posts according to your needs. Here is a list of the top five best social media management tools for 2023.
Test, monitor, and analyze
As mentioned in my previous article, you can never improve what you didn’t measure. As a general rule in marketing, it is always best to test. Our customers’ needs continuously evolve and in this age of digital marketing and AI, campaign monitoring can be handy. Monitor the keywords, engagements, and sentiments for your brand. There are several platforms available to do this. Meta provides insights into the posts you publish. This is a good start in tracking the results and identifying which content is most effective. Below is an example of an ad I run with the choir organization.
Figure 6 A sample Meta ad results
As you can see, more than 200 and 50 link clicks were generated for the two posts. To be honest, I am not satisfied with these results. However, if you look at the reach and followers’ growth in that week, it increased by about 3%. The ads also helped in increasing our ticket sales.
Conclusion
These are just some of the ways to strategize and optimize your social media pages. It is always important to align your goals, brand positioning, and messaging with the organization. Understand the trends and content types that apply to your customers. Utilize social media management tools for efficiency and best results. Lastly, test, monitor, and measure the performance of your page.
Before moving to another blog, I’m sharing some social media courses again that you can use.
- LinkedIn Learning: Strategic Social Media – Grow Your Business
- LinkedIn Learning: Introduction to Social Media Strategy
- HubSpot Lesson: Creating a Social Media Content Strategy
References:
Guinness, H. (2022, November 7). The 5 best social media management tools in 2023. Retrieved from Zapier: https://zapier.com/blog/best-social-media-management-tools/
Waxman, M. (2022, September 26). Social Media Marketing: Strategy and Optimization. Retrieved from LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning-login/share?account=2109516&forceAccount=false&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Flearning%2Fsocial-media-marketing-strategy-and-optimization-17002666%3Ftrk%3Dshare_ent_url%26shareId%3Dh9A2VmHwRDmvmSJutcA7VA%253D%2