How effective social media management can boost brand visibility and customer engagement.
At Cross Origin we like to give it to you straight. No sugar coating. So here goes: if you’re serious about growth, you need to invest in a social media strategist. Why? Because social media management is NOT about making your grid look on-point.
Want to drive our social media expert crazy? Casually suggest that anyone can post pretty pictures on Instagram. How hard can it be?
Turns out, pretty fricking hard. A full-time job in fact. And (we can hear her yelling this from here), posting is the easiest part. The rest of the process looks something like this:
Strategise, strategise, strategise.
Before you post a single thing, you need to know where you’re starting from. Look at your customers, your brand (more on both below), your tone of voice and your content strategy. Identify where you want to go and how you’re going to get there, and remember you’ll need to revisit this for every campaign.
Identify and get to know your ideal customer.
Who are they? Where they hang out online? What do they read? What’s on their mind? What do they want from a brand like yours – and what’s holding them back from buying? This research doesn’t happen once. It evolves with your audience. The goal? Deep, data-informed empathy and understanding.
Make sure your brand is pulling its weight.
Branding isn’t your social media manager’s job but it shapes everything they do. It’s vital that everyone working for your business has a clear handle on your brand and your place in the market. If you can’t quickly and clearly communicate who you are, what you stand for and how you help, then your brand isn’t working hard enough for you.
Stay curious. Social media moves fast.
Every social media platform has its own ecosystem and little quirks. Keeping on top of new tools, obsolete features (bye bye Notes, we hardly knew ye), high (and low) performing content, hashtags, keywords…the list goes on.
No posting and ghosting.
Gone are the days when you could post a few times on Facebook and watch the follower numbers grow. Today? It’s unlikely that a local trade account will have thousands of followers (psst – they don’t need them! You only need 10 of the right people to contact you). Vanity metrics? So 2015. Users simply don’t consume content that way any more!
What works now? That leads us to.
Being social on social media.
And guess what? Being human, present and useful takes time, research and skill. Answer DMs, respond to comments on your posts – yes. But that’s just scratching the surface. To really get momentum you need to become the go-to in your niche. That local trade account? Join the right Facebook groups. Be the one answering questions with no sales pitch. Just show up, be helpful – and when someone needs their roof replaced? You’ll be the name they remember.
Social listening.
If you really want to make an impact – let’s say you’re launching a new product to market – you should be using social listening tools (we like Agorapulse and Brandwatch) to listen to what your audience is already saying. Social listening allows you to effectively ‘eavesdrop’ on your customers’ conversations. You’ll learn what your audience cares about, what frustrates them and how they speak, so you can build content that connects.
Copywriting + consumer psychology = sales.
Every piece of social media content should be intentional. Analyse where your business is in its lifecycle. Are you an established market leader? New start up? Changing direction or launching a new product?
That should inform and shape your marketing and content strategy. Consider whether you’re trying to generate leads, build brand awareness or drive sales. Every campaign needs a clear path from visibility to conversion, and your content needs to lead the way.
That’s why we keep coming back to strategy. Because when it comes to success on social media, guess what? It’s never just about the grid.
Ready to get strategic?
A clear strategy is essential to stay ahead of your competitors and relevant to your customers. If you don’t? There’s plenty of other brands who’ll swoop in and do just that. And as we’ve described in this article, that’s a full-time job.
At Cross Origin we cut through the noise and get straight to what matters. Partner with us and you’ll get confident straightforward advice, and innovative strategies to help transform your business.
Not quite ready to commit? Get started with our Social Media Insights Diagnostic. We’ll show you exactly where to focus, and what to let go. And if you choose to partner with us on a full social media management project, we’ll refund the cost.
