Why you need a social media manager
The benefits of social media for your brand cannot be overstated. The avenue offers access to over 3.5 billion active monthly users, which significantly dwarfs the outlay of any other traditional sources. No radio, TV or print source can claim to have even a significant fraction of the reach of the biggest social media platforms, such as Facebook. It could explain why marketers are evolving their strategies for use on social media rather than for traditional avenues. Just last year alone, the marketing outlay on Facebook advertising alone trumped that pumped into newspaper advertising in a 10:1 ratio.
Aside from the increased global visibility and better reach on offer, social media is also very easy to use. It may be competitive, but features a sufficient interest in brands online. Up to 80% of users on certain platforms will follow and interact with a least one brand. Conservative estimates place interest in brands across some demographics as high as99%, which suggests that you could stand to attract your followers easily.
But social media can be just as risky as it can be beneficial for you. Many brands have faced damaged reputations by failing to ensure a high standard for their social media activity. The lack of a social media strategy and the tendency to copy other brand’s strategies has also proven detrimental for some brands online. In order to avoid harming your brand, you should consider hiring a social media manager and team.
What does a social media manager do?
A social media manager is in charge of your social team. Their role includes informing team members of the contents of your social media policy, as well as making sure they receive sufficient information and training to help them present your brand as expected online. While they may engage in some of the social activity themselves, they are required to play an overview role and help to monitor other aspects of performance by your brand on social media.
Their managerial duties includes overseeing the efforts of a social media team, collaborating efforts across different social media platforms and assessing analytic results to understand how the team is working towards your brand goals. They will need to coordinate with a social media team to achieve the best possible impact for your brand on social media.
What are the benefits of having a social media manager and team?
A social media manager and team will increase your capacity to handle activity on the avenue. If you join social media, you should be able to monitor and respond to activity by your followers. You also need to develop and share content, as well as engage in other activities that will grow your presence. Without a team, you may be constrained n your ability to achieve all these effectively. They will enable you focus on other factors to develop your brand, which could lead to more comprehensive overall growth.
A social media policy, working within the expectations of your social policy, will represent your brand in interactions with clients. The increased user engagement levels that social media provides will place heavy staffing demands on your brand, with a team facilitating this need. They will also offer solutions to problems and requests for information, which may affect your followers’ interest in your brand.
A social media team and manager could be the first line of defence for your brand. When you are developing content for social media, you should test it out by using a sample group. Before it can even be put to the group, your team will offer insight into different aspects of your new campaign. This will help address any potential issues quickly; improving your efficiency and saving you the time it would take to source and host a sample group.
Your team and manager are creative and can develop appropriate content. If your policy demands it, you can have your team develop content well in advance. You will be prepared for weeks in advance, which can improve the quality and output of your posts. A team could also help improve creativity since there are so many sources of ideas available to you. By delegating these functions, you could have sufficient variety, which will increase your ability to develop attractive content.
Are there other ways to improve your social media efforts?
Having a social media team and manager alone will not help you achieve success on social media. If left unchecked, your team could even increase the element of risk to your brand presence. If they operate without clear guidelines, your team will affect the consistency of your posts and could engage in ineffective posting at low traffic hours. They may also fail to develop content that suits the needs of your clients, as well as being limited in their range. Their personal social activity may even be translated as being representative of your own brand’s views, which may work to push away potential clients. You need to develop a social media policy that details out all these aspects, which will eliminate the risk to your brand’s reputation. You may also consider these social media practices to improve your brand presence online.
You should make posts regularly to ensure cnsistency. These can be carried out at high traffic hours, which refer to the time frames when most of your followers will likely be online. You can schedule your posts with a content scheduler to avoid missing out on the slightest opportunity for growth. Your posts should not be too focused on advertising. Paid ads may represent better value, and could be more suited for notorious platforms than content alone. For instance, automatic followers will generate the ideal level of interest on Instagram, which could attract even more followers.
You need to monitor clients’ comments and queries, as well as take a problem solving approach to their concerns. You will be able to display ideal brand values online by engaging with and helping out your followers. You should make sure to be inclusive of all types of commentary, including those which may be perceived as negative. You should never engage in vulgarity and negative responses. This should also guide your content policy, regardless of the success of this type of content by other brands. Any vulgar or disrespectful post or response could affect other followers’ perception and may cause them to cancel your brand. The internet does not forget. Any negative affiliation could have lasting consequences, which means you must tread carefully.