What Every Social Media Manager Should Be Able to Do to Grow Branding & Revenue

Some businesses have given up on trying to understand or realize the power of social media and instead, have just resigned themselves to delegating it to a staff person or intern who can just  "post stuff" when they have time, as one of our clients once described it.

Each social medium (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, etc) has a distinct "language" and if understood and used properly, can be one of the most cost-effective and easy marketing vehicles a business has to grow business.  And triply so in the wedding and special event business where so much of what we do is visually-oriented and the very culture of clients and colleagues begs dialogue and inspiration.

The top five reasons we see business social media not working is generally tied to one of the following:

1. Not minding social media at all - leaving it blank and unattended
2. Not engaging with fans/followers
3. Presuming social media is just writing status updates and posting or worse- every post is about "selling" your product or services.  
4. Not knowing how to BLOG properly- hint: it's more than just writing a pretty article and uploading photos.
5. Using one platform to post all at once to all social media handles- hint: all tags and handle names read differently in each medium, so a "one size fits all" software that posts for you may not, in fact, be reaching all your audience as effectively as it could.

Social media is about building a community. Building a community fosters trust and people buy from brands and products whom they trust.  But building a community doesn't happen over night.   In summary, your social media manager should actually be monitoring , responding to and engaging with followers and fans almost 24/7 in as "real time" as possible.  If one wants to grow their business and get increasing exposure, here are the minimum skills that the business social media manager should be able to have and be able to do for Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Blogging (we're saving the incredibly powerful Instagram for another BLOG post).

Pinterest

•  The phone app is best and easiest for managing Pinterest
• Must understand the concept of how Pinterest works in driving traffic to your photos (and to your brand) through "pinning"
• Must be able to create and also  upload pins to the various photo albums already created (as well as create new albums as necessary) and know which album is most appropriate for the photo being uploaded
• Must also know how to hashtag and tag properly each and every photo on Pinterest so it generates general search results to  draw attention to the company's brand

Twitter

• Must know how be able to increase followers by using Twitter's unique limitations and language , as well as Twitter etiquette.  Not knowing Twitter etiquette can cost one followers (potential business).
• Must keep 24/7 eye out and engage as necessary 
•  Must know how to use “bit.ly” to shorten URLs when posting BLOG /article links. Unlike Facebook and Pinterest where proper hashtags help, on Twitter, they are essential.   So is tagging appropriate persons/other businesses.  This all has to be done with a limit to how many characters can be typed  in the “Tweet”
•  “Immediate” responses to those who tag your business are essential
•  Must know the difference between “Favoriting”, “Re-Tweeting” and “Replying to” another Tweet as well as private messaging feature.

Facebook

• Posts must include diverse content and the goal is always as a sales tool to support the brand or business.  The general rule is : 80/20 (80% engaging content, 20% “selling”).  Selling too much through overt, traditional sales pitches will turn off consumers, who are more savvy than ever.  "Selling" has taken a less-traditional approach, with building community and engaging being the "sales pitch".

• The  “tone” of all business social media is casual but always professional (proper grammar, spelling, never negative, politically and religiously neutral, etc). 

• The Admin of Facebook must know proper hashtagging and tagging (note: these are two distinct actions) and use them as often as possible to tie them into content, knowing that this is a key factor for increasing an audience and potential customers and brand awareness.

• Constantly check Facebook for comments and posts that could be slanderous to the brand and remove them.

• Constantly check and respond to Facebook private messages

• Constantly check and respond to Visitor posts on the business "wall" (this is different from those responding to status posts) and engage or share.

• Constantly check and respond to Facebook reviews

•  Constantly check Facebook for comments on posts from followers so that they can be responded to in as real time as possible. This involves almost a 24/7 presence on Facebook 

• Foster a dialogue and sense of “energy” with those communicating on Facebook, and by doing so, give a sense of life to the page that encourages followers to return and see what will happen next, keeping potential customers enticed and ready to buy.

•  Actively support the sales department and company brand mission of generating more revenue by sharing specials, packages, special events, etc as they arise.

• Actively be aware of other community news/updates on brands that may be of interest to your community and share , tag, and hashtag the link to the news.

•  Must constantly alternate content and re-post items that are pertinent as well as constantly remind followers of other social mediums that belong to the business (cross-promote interest on your other social mediums)

• Remembers that new followers are always joining and that not everyone sees every post, so re-posting items is not only encouraged but essential.

• Must know how to “Schedule” posts when necessary

• Must know how to "backdate" posts , if necessary

• Must know how to “Edit” all posts, if necessary

• Must have full working knowledge of good grammar and spelling

•  Must know how to properly tag businesses when applicable when posting to increase the post’s reach and the business's exposure.

• Must know how and when to "Boost" a post and what this does

• Of extra benefit, but not essential:   being media-savvy and able to make/produce mini ‘commercials’/slideshows to highlight the value and marketability of the business

BLOGGING

The BLOG  is perhaps the most essential nucleus to social media and marketing. It is on this platform  that so much can be shared and then abbreviated when shared on the other social mediums.  Blogging also needs to happen often.  The more you blog and the more you use keywords and tag, the more your business receives traffic.  The Administrator for BLOGGING must:

• Be able to write professional articles on a variety of subject matters pertinent to the business and brand and its industry.

• Be familiar with the BLOG platform technologically (WordPress and Blogger are among the most user-friendly)  and how it works, especially the dashboard and controls, not just for formatting the written text, but how to control how the BLOG is seen and picked up

• Be able to generate a New BLOG post

•  Be able to do a page break so the entire article does not appear in the feed, but rather readers have to click “read more” .  It makes it polished and streamlined in the feed

•  Be able to categorize the blog by clicking on one of the content choices

•  Be able to tag with words that will maximize SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and know where to tag those words in the BLOG platform.

•  Be able to build in hyper links to the businesses Websites that one is talking about in the middle of the content

•  Know proper English and grammar for a decent article that will support the company's brand

•  Know how to use key words throughout the article that support SEO (this is different from tagging)

• Know how to Save, Edit, Preview, Publish and Update changes.

• Must know how to upload photos (if in the wedding or special event industry: create photo collages- often times in another app that facilitates that), and upload to WordPress/Blogger (or platform), format them, insert them and make sure they are in alignment with Website perimeters/layout.

•  Share any blogs on all social media – using bit.ly as a tool when necessary to shorten the link to make more user-friendly on various social mediums (and knowing which social mediums are more ideal for use of a shortened URL).

Whether you want Engaging Inspiration to take over all of these duties to support your growth and development, or whether you would like a workshop /training for us to train your designated social media manager, we are here for you.  You can reach us here.

______________________________________________________________

Engaging Inspiration provides sparkling marketing, training and PR solutions to the wedding, events and hospitality industry, designed to engage and inspire.