If you’re running your own business and you use social media to build it and gain more customers, then you are effectively conducting a type of social media management. However, there’s a difference between good social media management and mediocre social media management! Perhaps you’re wondering if you need to employ a social media management team? Or just a social media manager whether full-time or as a freelance contract? As social media is so important for all businesses these days, understanding what social media management entails is imperative for you to be successful, both in social media terms and in business.
1394ta is a social media company that operates on a global scale and mainly focusses on Instagram. We help Instagram business accounts (and personal accounts) buy followers – Instagram and buy Instagram views, increase their likes and as a result, improve their visibility on the popular social media platform. Let us help you understand what social media management is and give you tips on how to really do your social media well.
Social Media Management in a Nutshell
Social media management relates to managing your online presence using social networks. It covers all of the platforms, for example, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok and every other possible social media network. It encompasses the content that you put on these social media networks and analysing the engagement. It also involves developing and executing a social media strategy to optimize your use of social media, particularly for business purposes. Additionally, effective social media management involves interacting with your followers and creating a good customer service channel.
For small businesses, there are various tools available online, some of these are free and some must be paid for. Medium sized businesses and large businesses would usually have one person conducting social media management, or a team of specialist social media marketers to do the job for the business in question. The person in charge of social media management is usually called a social media manager. Often, a business will employ a social media manager in-house or may employ a freelance or a consultant social media manager. Their goal is to grow your presence online and increase your business revenue by finding valuable leads through social media that convert into sales.
The Importance of Social Media Management in Business
Every business needs to use social media and it has many great advantages as follows:
- While it’s free to join social media platforms, to maximize your opportunity to grow your business, you need a professional to run them properly, it’s a large job and often, it’s impossible for a business owner to manage his or her own social media in addition to other business tasks.
- Quality social media management helps you to reach more potential customers and connects you on a global scale. You can even reach niche audiences. It is far more effective than traditional marketing methods or old-fashioned, offline advertising.
- It gives you a great insight into your audience and you can tailor your offering to your exact audience while getting your message in front of the people you want to buy your products or use your service. 75% of social media users make their decisions based on the content that they see online
- It’s very measurable and there are a wealth of insight programs online that give you metrics and data so you can see how well your social media is performing – whenever you want!
What Platforms Does Social Media Management Involve?
It’s cross-platform. An experienced social media manager should be able to operate across every single social media platform. Some more junior level social media managers may only be specialists in just one or two. For example, we specialize in Instagram and how to buy followers for Instagram, but most social media managers can work cross-platform.
The Biggest Social Media Platforms
The biggest social media platforms are Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp but there are so many more and different platforms are better for different industries. For example, Facebook is good for visuals and words, but it’s mainly used by Millennials and some Baby Boomers too. Instagram is predominantly Millennials although some GenZ also favor this platform. LinkedIn is essential for business-to-business leads, TikTok is excellent for GenZ, and YouTube is good for all because not only does it highlight general video and music, but most people also turn to it for instruction and how to guidance. Pinterest is home for Baby Boomers and females users dominate this social media network, with up to 80% of its uses being women. There’s something for everyone and good social media management means pinpointing the best social media networks for your audience.
The Best Social Media Management Tools
If you’re not quite ready to hire a social media manager, then you might want to consider employing some social media management tools instead. Some of them are free to use (even better right!) and others have to be paid for to access the premium features. Here’s our list of the best social media management tools:
- Buffer. This is a paid social media management tool that allows you to manage all of your social media accounts in one place, schedule your posting and build your post schedule too. To make it even easier, Buffer is a mobile app (as well as computer based) so you can manage your social media on the go. That’s always useful especially if you spend much of your time away from your office.
- Hootsuite. This is one of the biggest and best-known social media management tools and for a small fee, you can manage all of your social media platforms in one, handy place. You can reply to users, monitor your post performance, download analytics and more. Access Hootsuite here: www.hootsuite.com.
- CoSchedule. This is a paid social media management tool that manages all of your social media but also allows you to schedule your social media content, create a social media calendar and even publish your own blog posts.
Social Media Management Tasks
Your social media management team will be expected to do the following important daily tasks (or you, if you’re doing it on your own):
- Developing a social media management strategy
- Researching your target audience and understanding who they are
- Deciding on the right social media platforms for your business
- Creating your social media profiles and optimizing them
- Designing your social media advertising
- Replying to your customers and followers
- Increasing your online presence through social media
- Organizing cross-platform promotions
- Monitoring your social media performance
How Much Does Social Media Cost?
Without doubt, social media management is a job in itself so if you don’t have time to focus on growing your online presence or you are too busy working on other important aspects of your business, it might be worth your while to look at hiring a social media manager or using a social media management company that specializes in the area.
So what should you be spending on your social media management? Medium to large sized companies normally spend around $3000+ a month on social media management depending on the job involved and the experience level of the team. This cost should cover everything to do with your social media including your online marketing and advertising, building your online presence, and maintaining positive feedback from your consumers and followers. Of course, this amount is purely for guidance, and you may have one or two platforms that need managing or multiple social media platforms, this could make a difference to the overall cost. It’s worth investigating the different social media management companies available and comparing the costs and services of two or three before making your decision.
Why Social Media Management is Worth The Investment For Your Business
It is worth the investment though because quality social media management can help to grow your brand and business’ presence online. It’s harder to do this if you are not a specialist in the area. Although you can teach yourself how to do it, it’s always best to invest in someone who has the relevant experience. It’s also time saving – because teaching yourself to do social media management takes time to master. You could hire an individual on a freelance basis or use a reputable social media agency to do it all for you. Alternatively, you can hire a social media manager on a consultancy basis. Whatever you decide to do, social media management is essential for business success so if you’re unsure what to do and how to do it well, start with the online tools available. They should help to increase engagement and grow your online presence but to really take your social media to another level, your best bet is to employ a reputable social media manager or social media agency to take the headache away from you.
