Social Media Management: Everything You Need to Know

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Social Media Management:

Many things have changed this year, especially those associated with social media. Starting from algorithms to AI getting its extension on social media, witnessing such social media-related updates, is just the beginning. Various experts have predicted that social media marketing is surely here to stay.

According to recent statistics by ResearchGate, where 5.45 billion people are actively using social media in 2024, it is estimated to increase to 6 billion active users, which indicates a great scope for businesses by 2027.

Even now, marketing on social media has spread like a wave, right from community building to running successful ad campaigns, it’s unstoppable!

However, a few might think of it as a cakewalk, but in reality, social media management has much more to work on and serve. Changing marketing calendars last moment due to updates in algorithms or handling serious circumstances like less engagement or CTRs is not an easy thing to decode. Truly, SMM is a scope in itself.

Below, we will discuss everything you need to know about Social media marketing, factors that play a great role in its success, and much more.

What is Social Media Management? 

 

What is Social Media Management

 

Social Media Management is a part of digital marketing that involves strategic planning and creating content to engage audiences across all social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

The whole journey of social media management includes a lot of things, right from creating content that resonates with the target audience, to maintaining the brand’s reputation and most importantly, creating a plan that can make the audience compel to engage with the brand.

Brands like Duolingo, Zomato, Burger King, National Geographic, Airbnb, and Nike, have already utilized this evergreen digital marketing opportunity and have successfully converted their social media audience into consumers.

 

Airbnb Instagram page

 

Airbnb has more than 5 million followers on Instagram. The brand has successfully made its space in the audience’s user time by following the strategy of becoming a voice to society and building a connection with the audience emotionally. Basically, they focus on ‘visual conversation’.

 

Nike Instagram Page

 

Nike has been enjoying a vast amount of user gathering on their Instagram. Currently, it has 304 million followers. Looking forward to their social media strategy, they advertise their product and tell a story mirroring athletes. 

 

Burger King’s X handle

 

Stills from Burger King’s X handle (1.9 million followers)

Burger King is not only the culinary king but also the king of creativity and social media management. Their idea is to let the audience crave the meals, experience the crunch and enter them into their sales funnel naturally. 

Bonus Read: 

Mixing Social Media Management and Social Media Marketing as one thing? Bad idea! 

There is a difference between these terms: Where Social Media Marketing focuses on generating leads and driving business growth through paid campaigns and targeted strategies. Social Media Management is a way to build healthy and consistent relationships with the brand to maintain the brand’s voice and engagement. It includes:

  • Developing a Social Media Strategy
  • Posting the content
  • Engaging through comments and messages
  • Managing campaigns and collaborating with influencers
  • Tracking performance and creating reports

Why Is Social Media Management Important?

“Social Media isn’t just a platform to campaign, 

it’s a commitment to build credibility and trust.”

As said, today social media is not limited to forwarding memes and texting with friends, it’s much more. Right from blending promotions into storytelling to investing in paid marketing campaigns, for a lot of businesses, it has become a testament to their business excellence: ‘a virtual showroom’. Take a look at its importance:

  • Building Brand Awareness:

By continuously engaging and posting value on social media platforms, you can witness your brand getting recognized on a wider scale. For Example, Nish Hair is a brand that gained recognition through storytelling and social media management.

  • Inviting Desired Traffic:

Effective social media management leads followers to your website via strategically positioned links and irresistible content, helping to improve site visits and potential conversions.

  • Constructing Communities:

Social media management also allows you to build a sense of belonging among your followers by interacting with them and igniting discussions, which strengthens your brand and enhances customer loyalty. For example: Apple has a dedicated fan base of users that connects through virtual forums, social media groups, and even in-person events

 

Apple Support Communities

 

Image Source: Apple Support Communities

  • Celebrating Customer Loyalty:

Today, take a product’s name and you can get its multiple substitutes, but through Social Media Management you can build meaningful interactions with your audience, leading to repeat customers and long-term brand loyalty.

Key Components of Social Media Management

Just like every meal you love, needs all of the required ingredients to end up getting served at the table, Social Media Management also requires certain key components to serve the brands up to their expectations. Below are the crucial key components, every social media manager must be aware of:

1. Content Creation

The first brick to building a successful Social Media Management is to build content that sparks value and consists of brevity and bit-sized information, in simple words content digestible to all, without compromising on quality. With time, the consumption habits of social media users have changed. They are now more comfortable with short-span visual content like reels, carousels, etc., hence the brands must take notes.

2. Content Scheduling

After creating captivating content, the next step is to schedule it at the best time possible. After various experts dug in to get the metrics of the best time to post on Social Media to engage with the audience. And this is what they found out:

 

Platform  Best Time To Post Best Days To Post

Facebook

9 AM to 11 AM and 1 PM to 3 PM

Thursday

YouTube

2 PM to 4 PM and 7 PM to 9 PM

Saturday and Sunday

Instagram

11 AM to 1 PM and 7 PM to 9 PM

Wednesday

X

10 AM to 11 AM and 6 PM to 7 PM

Wednesday and Thursday

LinkedIn 10 AM to 11 AM and 12 PM to 1 PM

Tuesday

 

3. Audience Engagement

You must have seen a lot of brands engaging in comments with the audience, organizing polls, seeking user’s opinions, collaborating with influencers, and much more. This is just a way to engage with the audience and let them feel that they are important to the brands. Simply, engaging with the audience is one more way to build a reputation every brand craves for.  

4. Analytics and Reporting

Performance analysis has always been a stepping stone in every marketer’s journey, as tracking the insights always helps to break the bandwagon effect improve the loopholes and work more devotedly where the potential lies. Nowadays, social media platforms allow brands to see in-depth analytics like engagement rates, click-through rates, audience demographics, new audience, and much more. This helps in informed decision-making and crafting content strategies.

Challenges in Social Media Management

Social media management is more than being a part of digital marketing, it’s a blend of dynamism and creativity. Managing both altogether is often considered a challenge due to managing obstacles like:

1. Handling Negative Feedback

Negative feedback and trolling are normalized in today’s world, but the truth is that it is one of the biggest challenges in social media management. Negative feedbacks come in the form of complaints, criticism, and sometimes insensitive comments too. Dealing with this feedback requires a careful and strategic approach to avoid escalating the situation and to maintain a positive brand reputation.

Solution:

  • Reply quickly to show you are attentive and care about the concerns being raised.
  • Take care of the tone and empathy, it should always be there.
  • Confirm that all answers align with your brand’s values and messaging to avoid mixed signals or further dissatisfaction.

2. Keeping Up with Algorithm Changes

Social Media platforms keep updating their algorithms which has a big impact on how the content should be reflected and consumed by the audience. These changes affect engagement rates, visibility, and the overall effectiveness of social media strategies.

Solution:

  • Stay informed about how algorithms work on each social media platform. Like Facebook and Instagram prioritize user engagement and relevance, while LinkedIn focuses on professional interactions.
  • Be adaptable to every sort of change be it for engagement, content type,  time for posting, or something else.
  • Employ platform analytics to track performance and understand how algorithm modifications are impacting your content reach and engagement.

3. Managing Multiple Platforms

Last but not least, handling numerous social media platforms together can be challenging, particularly when each platform has its exceptional features, audience, and content requirements. But here’s how we can tackle it:

Solution:

  • Ensure the content is tailored according to each platform.
  • Use social media management tools to organize posts and hold a consistent presence across platforms.
  • Engage with audiences on each platform according to their intention and behaviors. 

The Responsibilities of a Social Media Manager

 

Responsibilities of a Social Media Manager

 

Social Media Manager: A designation that takes responsibility for a brand’s social media presence by creating content, understanding algorithms, engaging with the audience, being aware of the best social media management tools, and most importantly thriving for uniqueness. 

Below are the top 5 responsibilities an ideal social media manager is expected to perform:

  • Developing a Social Media Strategy: Create a purposely crafted plan to achieve specific goals of the brand and engage target audiences across all the social media platforms.
  • Posting Content Across Social Media Accounts: Schedule and post content tailored to each platform to keep a consistent online presence.
  • Building a Brand Voice: Install and maintain a notable and recognizable tone that reflects the brand’s identity and values, like Zomato being known for its quirky notifications.
  • Paid Advertising and Promotions: Organize and optimize ad campaigns to encourage visibility and push targeted traffic or engagement.
  • Staying Updated with Trends: Monitor and adjust strategies according to the latest social media trends and platform updates to keep the brand relevant and competitive in the digital landscape.

Social Media Management Tools and Other Resources

As we have officially entered a generation where innovation is the prime focus and smart work is where the main focus is laid, it’s high time to associate innovation with this scalable field of social media management and bring smart tech to your desk. 

Let’s thrive in getting to know about some best social media management tools, content creation tools and much more.

Social Media Management Tools

Buffer Social Media Management is an all-rounder tool for scheduling posts and managing multiple platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The tool consists of two plans, free and premium. Where the free plan covers up to three accounts with limited post-schedule. While the premium version ($6/month per channel) opens the gate for advanced analytics and engagement features. It also includes a start page for creating mobile-friendly landing pages.

Hootsuite is a comprehensive social media management platform that excels in planning, organizing posts, and driving ad campaigns across platforms. Notably, it offers powerful analytics, including industry comparisons, and features advanced AI tools for content creation. While it’s a comparatively expensive option, its comprehensive functionality and integration with tools like Zapier make it a top choice for businesses looking to leverage social media for revenue.

SocialPilot is a cost-effective alternative to the above-discussed Hootsuite. As every tool consists of different social media management packages, this one has a price range of $50/month for a small team plan. The plan includes benefits like access to two additional users and management of up to 20 accounts. It also facilitates features for post-management, analytics and team collaboration. Although its interface is simpler and lacks some advanced features like concentrated X support, and SocialPilot’s team management options, which falls as a major drawback.

Other Resources

1. Content Creation Tools

  • Google Trends- Content Research Tool
    Google Trends is a popular platform for tracking the popularity of search terms over the years. It gives you a brief about which type of content the audience finds interesting, and you can also compare the popularity between different search terms.
  • Notion- Content Planning And Scheduling
    It is a productivity and project management tool that eliminates the chaos and streamlines all the projects in one place facilitating individuals and teams to work without any confusion. The tool has a treasure of customizable templates that can bring convenience to your content creation journey without hindering your creative process.
  • WordPress- Content Management System
    Although, there are various ways to make your content go live on your website, but content management system like WordPress can be your one-stop solution for all your needs. Once, plugged into your system, you don’t have to rely on different tools, as it brings a perfect toolkit to your fingertips.
  • Grammarly- Editing
    Mistakes are natural and normal, but reflecting them to your world can damage your online reputation. Hence, to clean up all the grammatical errors and improve sentence formation, we can use this tool. Grammarly has gained popularity as it serves correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery at digital touchpoints. It is a perfect example of perfection and professionalism, blended masterfully.

2. Analytics and Reporting Tools

  • Sprout Social
    Sprout Social is one of the most recommended tools to streamline analytics and reporting. It focuses on streamlining cross-channel tracking, offering valuable and actionable insights for social media platforms. With features like audience demographics, influencer tracking, and user-friendly and customizable reports, it helps social media managers optimize social media strategies and reporting efficiently.
  • Sendible
    Meticulously crafted to give relief to the hectic schedule of agencies, the tool is well known for managing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and X. It provides in-depth analytics with 200 modules, automated reports along custom branding and traffic sources dashboard.Apart from analytics, Sendible offers features for content customization, image modification, scheduling, client collaboration, and audience engagement. Its white-label capability is ideal for agencies wanting to use the tool under their brand.
  • Keyhole
    Keyhole is a real-time social media analysis tool for X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok. It tracks mentions, competitor movement and behavior, influencer activity, and trends, merging the analytics of multiple profiles in a single platform. Keyhole helps users monitor performance over time to refine social media strategies and is suitable for agencies, B2C brands, nonprofits, and various industries.
  • IZEA
    IZEA is an analytics platform designed for influencer marketing, offering key metrics like reach, engagement, and pricing. Its flexible software provides detailed data on influencer audience demographics, campaign performance, and conversion rates. With IZEA, brands can effectively track and evaluate influencer partnerships to optimize campaign ROI.

Need a Social Media Management Agency?

Social Media Management Agency: A social media marketing agency is a house of experts that handles the planning, execution, and optimization of social media strategies for businesses or individual creators. These agencies manage various aspects of social media, including content creation, account management, analytics and reporting, advertising and strategy development. 

Top 3 things you must see before choosing a social media marketing agency:

  • Quality And Expertise:
    You should be aware of the experience they possess and the quality they commit. Check the testimonials and reviews on their website. And most importantly, attend a virtual meeting to share all your doubts and pain points.
  • Social Media Management Packages:
    Apart from the experience the agency holds, you must also check if their social media management pricing aligns with your budget. Taking your budget seriously is a key factor in getting desirable ROI.
  • Timeliness:
    Before entering into the paperwork, discuss their policies regarding deadlines and how many revisions they allow. Analyse do their policies match up with your expectations or not. 

Final Thoughts

In short, today when everyday news tells about social media saturation, according to various digital marketing experts there is a lot more, social media has to serve, especially for the business. 

To justify the lasting scope of social media, Social Media Management has been leveraged by a lot of businesses. Having the capability to manage the A-Z’s of social media brandings like content creation, audience engagement, tracking performance metrics, and much more, social media management has become the shining star in the digital landscape. Also, there are various tools available to enhance your journey to personal branding.

If you have not performed social media management yet for your business or need expert supervision, then let us be your digital ally and present our expertise to enhance your brand visibility, at your fingertips. Visit W3era, to get home-like guidance, because your growth is our vision.