Blog

At this moment, the AFC and NFC Championship games are less than a week away. It’s time to review, revise, and (hopefully) execute a winning game plan that takes you to the Super Bowl. If the four remaining coaches in the NFL are following this plan, why not take some inspiration from them and up your social media game plan. There are some that still think this “social media” thing is temporary. They believe that if they just hold out the fad will pass, and life will return to normal.

Guess what? That just isn’t the way this game is played anymore. In total, 40% of the global population engage in social media. There are 1.37 billion people that log into Facebook every day for an average of 17 minutes. Every second there are on average 4.17 million likes and 293,000 statuses updated. These statistics contribute to the platform’s staggering $312.78 billion market cap.

Furthermore, 2017 created quite a buzz as we saw many significant stories involving social media: Facebook lured Snapchat users to Instagram, the president of the United States communicated official policy positions in 140 characters and Apple announced plans to alter the way we interact with our mobile devices.

So exactly what can social media do for your business to ensure your team takes home the prize?

• Amplified Brand Recognition by giving your brand a voice and content.
• Improved brand loyalty by connecting with your
• More Opportunities to Convert. Every post you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. When you build a following, you’ll simultaneously have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers, and you’ll be able to interact with all of them.
• Increased conversion rates because your brand now has a human factor. People do not feel like they are dealing with a company, they feel like they are interacting with real people in real time.
• Advanced Brand Authority through regular interaction with customers
• Increased Inbound Traffic for every social media profile you add. Each piece of content produced is an opportunity for a new customer.
• Reduced Marketing Costs. According to Hubspot, 84% of marketers found as little as six hours of effort per week was enough to generate increased traffic.
• Better Search Engine Rankings
• Enhanced Customer Experiences by enriching your relationship with your customers.
• More detailed and accurate Customer Insights.

Still not convinced?

It’s the last few seconds and you have the ball, but the other team is pressing hard to keep their lead. Do you give up? Do you go for it?  My guess is you go for it. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. The amount of time and money it takes to create your profiles and start posting is minimal, compared to other marketing channels. Just six hours a week or a few hundred dollars is all it takes to establish your presence. To make things even easier, here is a sample game plan to boost your confidence and ensure when that ball lands in your hands you press forward with the desire to win the game!

Step 1: Goals and Measurement.
Just like the coaches in the NFL, you need to have a set of goals before you enter the game.

Question: What are you using your social media channels for?

• Increase engagement
• A customer service tool
• increase revenue
• branding
• increase referral traffic to your site
• All of the above?

Once you define your goals, prioritize them and then identify your target audience(s). This is where knowing your demographic and interests of your target market will come in handy. If you are unsure of these key factors, Google Analytics is a great and easy way to get started. Click on “Audience” and you’ll get access to a wealth of information on who’s already visiting your website.

Step 2: Social Media Team Management.
Goals are great, but you need a team to execute and deliver. Roles and duties need to be assigned because just like the big game, running a successful social media campaign is no solo operation. You will need a team of dedicated individuals to handle a variety of aspects. Plan Your Team Structure

Before you start building your team, it’s necessary to plan your team structure. You should ultimately decide how many team members you need based on your overall purpose. Here are a few types of employees that could fit into your social media team structure:

• Content Creators: Content creators are important parts of your social team because they can use social media outlets to make quick, fun and engaging posts.
• Community Manager: It’s important to have a community manager intertwined with certain social media roles because they can keep calm in even the most hostile situations. Twitter trolls are everywhere, and you need to have someone who has the patience for them. Your company should do what it can to resolve issues and through social media, you have the opportunity to make customers feel like their voices are heard.
• Public Relations: You should consistently look for ways to expand your brand and social media is a great tool to do so. Use your PR talent to reach out to those on social media to build relationships with not only customers but other businesses as well.

Once you start putting the puzzle pieces together, your team will have more of a backbone. Try to organize these sections based on business and education as well as marketing and communication management.

Determine Roles & Duties

Not only should your team understand team structure, but also the duties that will be assigned to each role. Planning out team responsibilities can be tricky no matter how large your social media team. Ultimately, you should ensure each social media team member is well versed in these areas:

• Product experts: When social media team members know everything about your products, they can easily answer or send questions to the right people. Your team should know how to answer questions quickly or be able to find someone who can.
• How the internal business operates: While it’s important to know where to send questions, it’s also essential to know all the ins and outs of the company. This can include collaboration with your marketing, sales or even human resources team.
• Updated on social trends and news: Your social media manager should be abreast of all the newest platforms, tools, news and trends going on in the industry or else he or she could be behind the times. Each year the industry changes and your team should be one step ahead on how to implement something new into the process.
• Customer service enthusiasts: As social media becomes more widely used as a customer service tool, you have to be ready to answer questions and have the drive to help customers. Make sure your team is ready to tackle any customer support issue and that they feel confident posting any content to world on social media. Team members have to have a balance of being witty and what’s appropriate for the company.
• Brand advocates: Your social team should be full of brand advocates that want to fully represent the company. When you hire those who want to be a face for the company, you’ll get social media team members that take the time to know the ins and outs of the company as well as the social space.
• Data-driven thinkers: Every social media team needs members that can go through the numbers and the statistics to measure ROI and performance.

Step 3: Where Will You Post?
Now that you know what qualities and characteristics to look for when building a social media team, you should also figure out where you’re going to post content. There are several social media networks out there, but you need to find the channels that will work best for you.

More than likely, you’ll have multiple networks and possibly numerous profiles on each social media channel. Even though it might seem like having more members of the team would a better idea to manage multiple accounts, you still run into problems like message approval, collaboration tasks and maintaining your brand voice through each channel.

Wrapping it up

Don’t miss your chance to play in the big game. Make sure you’re always looking for ways to improve the team, whether it’s through data-driven decisions or social listening strategies.

Successful social media teams are those who have a pulse to the industry and always have an ear to the ground. When the team can stay ahead with helpful reports, you’ll be able to see each area you could improve and the spots where you’re excelling. Successful teams should always be thinking together, which ultimately will lead to better content production.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be taking a look at social media marketing trends deemed hot for 2018. By following along, and adding some of these tips and trends to your social media strategy, we hope you too can up your game, and come out a victor at the end.