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1. Introduction to the Design Process | Theory

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Combining art and technology, graphic designers use various design elements to create distinctive visuals for clients and companies. A graphic designer can work with print or digital media, and they can create their designs by hand or using computer software. Staying on top of cutting-edge technology and design trends makes working in this evolving industry an exciting and challenging career choice.

What does a graphic designer do?

Using various technologies, a graphic designer creates useful, meaningful, and functional visuals. The work depends mainly on a client or company's needs, but general designer responsibilities may include:

Developing visual assets to support a marketing campaign

Designing a graphic overlay for social media posts

Formalising a print ad layout and retouching photos for digital signage

What is graphic design?

Graphic design is a form of communication that uses colours, shapes, images, and words to create visual content that surrounds us in many forms-namely, print and digital media. Effective designs communicate information that inspires and informs consumers, making it critical for any business' success.

Graphic designers create images and layouts for some of the following:

Company brand identity (logos, typography, and colour palettes)

User interfaces on apps and websites

Books, magazines, newspapers, and other publications

Product packaging

Advertisements and commercials

Signage for stores, transportation, stadiums, and event spaces

Video games

Where do graphic designers work?

Graphic designers can work in many settings. You may work in-house at a company or agency or home as a freelancer. Graphic designers often work in:

Skills needed to become a graphic designer: A to Z

If you're naturally creative and have a good eye for visually compelling design, a career in graphic design may suit you well. Nurture your talent as a graphic designer by spending time building a few key skills.

Why pursue a career in graphic design?

When you pursue a career in graphic design, you get to flex your creative skills and put them to use while learning and implementing new technologies in your work. If you want a critical hand in shaping how a company, brand, or product comes across to the world, it's worth pursuing a career in graphic design.

How much do graphic designers make?

The average graphic designer's salary in India is ₹3,05,905 per year as of October 2023 [ 1]. Many variables can make a difference in earnings, including your experience level. For example, the average salary for a graphic designer with less than one year of experience is ₹2,41,343, while the average salary for a late-career graphic designer with 20 or more years of experience is ₹4,69,843 [ 1].

Job outlook for graphic designers

The global graphic design market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.5 per cent through 2029, and India should be no exception [ 2]. Demand can depend on locations. Larger cities, such as Bangalore, may have more need for graphic artists.

How to become a graphic designer?

While everyone's path to becoming a graphic designer may vary, below is a common and straightforward way to get into this exciting career.

Educational background

Many graphic designers need a bachelor's degree in graphic design or a related field to work at a top company. Earning a degree helps you build foundational skills for a career and gives you opportunities to begin building a portfolio of work to show potential employers.

Freelance graphic designers can benefit from a strong portfolio to show to potential clients. Certificate programmes in graphic design can also boost your credentials.

Some public colleges offer graphic design programmes, however, private schools offer most programmes.

Make the most of a graphic design education

Though enrolled in a design programme, there are some things you can do to make yourself more competitive when you're job-hunting for a graphic design position.

Join a design organisation. Membership often comes with access to networking and professional development opportunities. For example, you can join the Association of Designers of India (ADI) as a student, professional, or affiliate.

Career paths in graphic design

Being a graphic designer can open doors to numerous careers and industries. You can advance into managerial positions within a company's design department, like a creative director or project manager. Many graphic designers have expanded into new and exciting fields, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), where visuals make up interactive experiences.

Get started with Coursera

Choosing a graphic design career empowers you to use your creativity to help companies communicate their messages to customers. Get started in the creative world of graphic design with the Graphic Design Specialisation from the California Institute of the Arts. Complete a Guided Project to enhance your professional portfolio in less than two hours.

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What Does a Graphic Designer Do? And How Do I Become One?

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A graphic designer creates visuals for various projects, from websites to print ads and more. In this article, you will learn about skills, salary, requirements, and why you should consider a career in this field in India.

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The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process 

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The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process 

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Design thinking is a methodology which provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It's extremely useful when used to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown-because it serves to understand the human needs involved, reframe the problem in human-centric ways, create numerous ideas in brainstorming sessions and adopt a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing. Learning about the five stages of design thinking will empower you and allow you to apply the methodology to your work and solve complex problems that occur in our companies, our countries, and across the world.
Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that can have anywhere from three to seven phases, depending on whom you talk to. We focus on the five-stage design thinking model proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school) because they are world-renowned for the way they teach and apply design thinking.

What are the 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process

The five stages of design thinking, according to the d.school, are:

Let's dive into each stage of the design thinking process.

Stage 1: Empathize-Research Your Users' Needs

Empathize: the first phase of design thinking, where you gain real insight into users and their needs.

The first stage of the design thinking process focuses on user-centric research. You want to gain an empathic understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. Consult experts to find out more about the area of concern and conduct observations to engage and empathize with your users. You may also want to immerse yourself in your users' physical environment to gain a deeper, personal understanding of the issues involved-as well as their experiences and motivations. Empathy is crucial to problem solving and a human-centered design process as it allows design thinkers to set aside their own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their needs.

Depending on time constraints, you will gather a substantial amount of information to use during the next stage. The main aim of the Empathize stage is to develop the best possible understanding of your users, their needs and the problems that underlie the development of the product or service you want to create.

Stage 2: Define-State Your Users' Needs and Problems

Define: the second phase of design thinking, where you define the problem statement in a human-centered manner.

In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the Empathize stage. You'll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your team have identified up to this point. Defining the problem and problem statement must be done in a human-centered manner.

For example, you should not define the problem as your own wish or need of the company: "We need to increase our food-product market share among young teenage girls by 5%."

You should pitch the problem statement from your perception of the users' needs: "Teenage girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow."

The Define stage will help the design team collect great ideas to establish features, functions and other elements to solve the problem at hand-or, at the very least, allow real users to resolve issues themselves with minimal difficulty. In this stage, you will start to progress to the third stage, the ideation phase, where you ask questions to help you look for solutions: " How might we encourage teenage girls to perform an action that benefits them and also involves your company's food-related product or service?" for instance.

Stage 3: Ideate-Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Ideate: the third phase of design thinking, where you identify innovative solutions to the problem statement you've created.

During the third stage of the design thinking process, designers are ready to generate ideas. You've grown to understand your users and their needs in the Empathize stage, and you've analyzed your observations in the Define stage to create a user centric problem statement. With this solid background, you and your team members can start to look at the problem from different perspectives and ideate innovative solutions to your problem statement.

There are hundreds of ideation techniques you can use-such as Brainstorm, Brainwrite, Worst Possible Idea and SCAMPER. Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea techniques are typically used at the start of the ideation stage to stimulate free thinking and expand the problem space. This allows you to generate as many ideas as possible at the start of ideation. You should pick other ideation techniques towards the end of this stage to help you investigate and test your ideas, and choose the best ones to move forward with-either because they seem to solve the problem or provide the elements required to circumvent it.

Stage 4: Prototype-Start to Create Solutions

Prototype: the fourth phase of design thinking, where you identify the best possible solution.

The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions generated in the ideation phase. These prototypes can be shared and tested within the team itself, in other departments or on a small group of people outside the design team.

This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the problems identified during the first three stages. The solutions are implemented within the prototypes and, one by one, they are investigated and then accepted, improved or rejected based on the users' experiences.

By the end of the Prototype stage, the design team will have a better idea of the product's limitations and the problems it faces. They'll also have a clearer view of how real users would behave, think and feel when they interact with the end product.

Stage 5: Test-Try Your Solutions Out

Test: the fifth and final phase of the design thinking process, where you test solutions to derive a deep understanding of the product and its users.

Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best solutions identified in the Prototype stage. This is the final stage of the five-stage model; however, in an iterative process such as design thinking, the results generated are often used to redefine one or more further problems. This increased level of understanding may help you investigate the conditions of use and how people think, behave and feel towards the product, and even lead you to loop back to a previous stage in the design thinking process. You can then proceed with further iterations and make alterations and refinements to rule out alternative solutions. The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and its users as possible.

Did You Know Design Thinking is a Non-Linear Process?

We've outlined a direct and linear design thinking process here, in which one stage seemingly leads to the next with a logical conclusion at user testing. However, in practice, the process is carried out in a more flexible and non-linear fashion. For example, different groups within the design team may conduct more than one stage concurrently, or designers may collect information and prototype throughout each stage of the project to bring their ideas to life and visualize the problem solutions as they go. What's more, results from the Test stage may reveal new insights about users which lead to another brainstorming session (Ideate) or the development of new prototypes (Prototype).

It is important to note the five stages of design thinking are not always sequential. They do not have to follow a specific order, and they can often occur in parallel or be repeated iteratively. The stages should be understood as different modes which contribute to the entire design project, rather than sequential steps.

The design thinking process should not be seen as a concrete and inflexible approach to design; the component stages identified should serve as a guide to the activities you carry out. The stages might be switched, conducted concurrently or repeated several times to gain the most informative insights about your users, expand the solution space and hone in on innovative solutions.

This is one of the main benefits of the five-stage model. Knowledge acquired in the latter stages of the process can inform repeats of earlier stages. Information is continually used to inform the understanding of the problem and solution spaces, and to redefine the problem itself. This creates a perpetual loop, in which the designers continue to gain new insights, develop new ways to view the product (or service) and its possible uses and develop a far more profound understanding of their real users and the problems they face.

The Take Away

Design thinking is an iterative, non-linear process which focuses on a collaboration between designers and users. It brings innovative solutions to life based on how real users think, feel and behave.

This human-centered design process consists of five core stages Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

It's important to note that these stages are a guide. The iterative, non-linear nature of design thinking means you and your design team can carry these stages out simultaneously, repeat them and even circle back to previous stages at any point in the design thinking process.

References & Where to Learn More

Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial (3rd Edition), 1996.

d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE, 2010.

Gerd Waloszek, Introduction to Design Thinking, 2012.

Images

Hero Image: © Daniel Skrok and the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

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The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

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The Design Thinking process is a human-centered, iterative methodology that designers use to solve problems. It has 5 steps-Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

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What is design process?

If you've tried to learn about Design Process, it might seem mysterious or complex, but in truth it should be neither.

Design Process is often described as a problem solving process, but this is one reason it might seem confusing. If you have seen a list of steps for the design process, the first step was probably "define the problem".

However, many designers don't have a problem to solve, so the very first step they see isn't useful.

Not all designs are focused purely around problems. Instead of problems to solve, often designers have a goal to meet (like selling a product) or are asked to create a specific deliverable (like a logo or web design).

Design process is a way of figuring out what you need to do, then doing it. Along the way you might solve one or more problems, try to achieve a goal, and/or create something specific.

The first critical step to understanding the design process is that it's not about working the "right way" or "wrong way". The design process is a method you use to be more creative, productive, and accurate. The process should conform to you, rather than the other way around. It's not a rigid list of steps to follow, but a tool you use to do better work.

The goal of this guide is to teach you how to use the design process to tackle real world scenarios.

Why design process is important

Some creative professionals try to rely upon inspiration and their elusive creativity to find their best ideas. The result is that some days, when not feeling inspired, they just aren't productive.

However even when you do feel inspired, sometimes, creativity leads you in the wrong direction, and you create a solution that doesn't work out, even though you're excited about it.

Design process is the cure to both of these problems:

Design process helps designers to be reliable and creative without depending upon inspiration.

Design process provides checks to ensure creative concepts don't steer off course.

Design Process Steps

Plan

The first step of the design process is critical for gathering information, requirements, and other data you need in order to make informed decisions later.

Depending on the kind of design work you do, the kinds of work you do during the planning stage could vary, however all designers will do some variation of these:

Define task, problem, or goal

Research audience/users

Gather requirements: research competitors, tech specs, features, etc

Gather constraints: impose intentional creative limits

Write, edit, and develop content and text

Preliminary sketching & brainstorming: explore & evaluate data to ensure you have what you need

Mock Up

Creating a mock up is the step of the design process most people recognize-it's the most visual part of the process. The type of work varies with the medium for the design, but always includes:

In-depth sketching and brainstorming

Design a final, polished solution using design software (Photoshop, Sketch, etc)

Revise the solution repeatedly

Create rough prototypes to evaluate the solution privately

Build

Many designers believe their work is done after they've created a mockup. However, designers are also responsible for making sure their designs are implemented and used correctly. Because of that, there are two additional steps in the design process.

The next step is to build the design:

Implement the solution (often with the help of other professionals like programmers, printers, or manufacturers)

Revise the solution as technical issues arise or new aspects are discovered that you had not addressed

Note that often the design needs revision as it is implemented. While a detailed design process seeks to gather all critical information so the designer doesn't miss anything, sometimes new details arise during production, and that's unavoidable simply because the production effort is often a complex process in itself (for example, programming work).

Because of that, designers need to partner with the people implementing their designs and address any new issues that pop up during production. Bridging the gap between design concerns and technical concerns creates a better product, so you should never skip this step.

Measure

The final step is to measure how successful the design is after it's put into use. Again, while good planning allows designers to make informed decisions, no design is flawless and sometimes the environment changes. Because of that, especially in digital design, designers are involved with measuring the design's performance.

Launch the design and evaluate how well it performs

Gather analytics, testing data, user interviews, sales data, etc.

Find any problems with the design, and start a mini design process to address each

How to use the design process

A common misconception is believing that if you follow each step in the design process, when you reach the last one, your work is done.

The design process isn't linear; rather than following the steps in order, for a single project you often repeat the whole process multiple times (for example, once for each feature in a software interface) or even jump back and forth between the steps out of order.

For example, you might finish planning a project and move on to creating a mockup. As you work on your mock up, you could find a new area that you need more data about. So you stop work on the mockup and return to the planning step where you do additional research.

While the design process isn't linear, it always starts in the same place: every design project begins with planning.

When you feel you have sufficient information at each step, you proceed to the next, but when you hit difficulties or struggle to advance, you return to previous steps to revaluate earlier decisions or get more information.

So, rather than following all the steps in order every time, you step forward and backward repeatedly.

How to adapt the design process to your needs

While all designers use similar steps, the design process is malleable. Every designer should modify their process to suit their own skills, tastes, and purposes.

You can and should adapt the process to fit your situation better by spending more or less time at various steps or by adding or removing them completely. Here are some examples.

Graphic Design Process

Inside the design profession, the term "graphic design" usually refers print work, such as creating print ads, magazines, newspapers, business cards, etc. So, in graphic design, the steps of the design process stretch and shrink because of the work at hand.

A graphic design process includes a normal planning step where you gather content, text, images, requirements, printing specs, etc.

The mock up step is the longest, as it encompasses most of the work. You create layouts, visual styles, and graphics.

In graphic design, the build step tends to be shorter than in other types of design work. The build step might require prepping design assets for printing by adding bleeds, converting images to CMYK, getting print proofs, etc. But generally this is a smaller amount of work than the mock up.

The measure step is also brief in graphic design because once an item is printed, changing it is obviously impossible unless it will be reprinted again later. Further, measurement itself is usually difficult. With a printed design, there's no digital data about how the design is used unless it's supposed to cause some secondary event (such as a direct mail piece persuading customers to call a phone number and schedule an appointment at the business, which can be measured).

UX Design Process

In UX or "user experience" design, essentially you have a much longer planning phase with additional tasks. UX researchers do additional things such as user research, interviewing, writing personas and job stories, etc. All of these tasks are essentially planning and research that are later used when a mock up is created. (In some agencies and other large teams, UX Designers do not create mockups at all, and a different person, such as a "Visual Designer" creates it.)

The design industry puts a lot of emphasis on UX methods, and rightfully so. These methods result in design work that is more successful because it is based upon data rather than assumptions.

Web Design Process

In web design, the process expands during the build phase. Whereas in other media a designer might not be involved after the concept is finalized, in web design (or similar areas like mobile apps, software design, and other interactive design), projects tend to be large and complex, so these designers stay involved as the concept is built.

Many web and digital designers even participate in building the concept directly by writing code themselves. While not all designers do this, those that do claim this gives unparalleled control over the final details. (Whether designers should write code is a topic of much debate in the design industry.)

Other Types of Design Processes

Other professions use the same design process, for example: engineers, architects, and computer scientists. While the specific tasks that happen during each phase are vastly different (a web designer might create a mock up in Photoshop while a computer scientist might use programming tools) the phases are very similar.

Because every designer tends to adapt the design process and expand/shrink aspects of it to fit their own skills and situation, you might see different names for the phases, or some phases might be expanded and broken down into several separate phases.

For example, a UX Design specialist might split "Research", "Planning", and "Testing" into separate phases, where above I grouped them all under "Planning", and a UX specialist might never be involved during a "Mock Up" or "Build" phase.

Using the design process in your own work

The design process might sound restrictive and limiting, but its purpose is to help you be more creative in the long run.

Many designers like to skip the planning step because it's not as enjoyable to them, but doing this can cause headaches later when they create designs that don't meet requirements, for example.

So, by following the design process, you can avoid a lot of frustration-even if it's not quite as exciting to begin your projects with planning.

However if you do follow the process, you'll find that when you reach the more creative steps, you'll have better ideas and you'll waste less time digging through bad concepts. You'll also find that you have ideas more consistently and can better estimate how long projects will take you to complete.

Using the process has numerous benefits, and the great thing about process is that if it doesn't work for you, you can change it. There's no right or wrong process. All that matters is that your design process helps you create better design. So don't be afraid to change it! (As long as you don't skip the planning step!)

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Design Process - Design Guides - Proximity School of Design

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If you've tried to learn about Design Process, it might seem mysterious or complex, but in truth it should be neither. Design Process is often described as a problem solving process, but this is one reason it might seem confusing. If you have seen a list of steps for the design process, the first step was probably "define the problem".

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Social Media Graphics: The Ultimate Step by Step Guide 

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Social Media Graphics: The Ultimate Step by Step Guide 

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Social Media Graphics: Ultimate Step by Step Guide (2024)

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With over 4 billion people using social media worldwide, having a cohesive and thought out social media strategy, brand and voice is critical for success. Visuals are a critical part of that strategy.

Venngage surveyed over 200 content marketers to learn about how they incorporate visual content into their marketing strategy. They found that social media was a major use case for visual content, with 49% of marketers using them for Facebook, 47% for Instagram, 42% for LinkedIn and 33% using them for Twitter.

The Impact of Social Media Graphics: A Look at the Statistics

Statistics provide a clear picture of the impact and importance of social media graphics. Let's delve into some key statistics that underline their effectiveness.

The Power of Visual Content

Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.

Infographics are liked and shared on social media 3 times more than any other type of content.

Visual content, including social media graphics, has a significant impact on audience engagement. It's more likely to be shared and liked on social media, enhancing the reach and visibility of your posts.
Social Media Graphics and Brand Recognition

Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%.

Brands that consistently present themselves are 3 to 4 times more likely to experience brand visibility.

Social media graphics play a crucial role in brand recognition. Consistent use of brand colors and design elements in your graphics can significantly enhance brand visibility and recognition.
Social Media Graphics and Conversion Rates

Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images.

Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without images.

Social media graphics can significantly enhance conversion rates. Posts with relevant images or graphics attract more views and engagement, leading to higher conversion rates.
Essential Tips for Creating Social Media Graphics
In the realm of social media graphics design, certain advanced techniques can significantly enhance the visual appeal and effectiveness of your content. This section delves into these techniques, providing insights into image composition, branding, text placement, balance, and innovative design techniques.
Image Quality and Composition

Use high-resolution images from reliable sources or hire a professional photographer.

Apply the rule of thirds to achieve attractive asymmetry in your images.

Ensure your images are the correct size for the platform you're posting to.

High-resolution images with good composition are essential for creating engaging social media graphics. The rule of thirds can be used to enhance the visual appeal of your images.
Branding and Fonts

Implement your brand's colors in your graphics subtly to establish brand identity.

Choose fonts that match your message and brand. Fonts should be easy to read and not contradict your message.

Branding and font choice are key elements in social media graphic design. Your brand's colors should be subtly implemented in your graphics, and the fonts you choose should match your message and brand.
Text and Background

Balance your image and text. If you have light text, use a dark background image and vice versa.

Don't cover important points with text and avoid placing text over faces.

Use strong fonts and short phrases for text over design backgrounds.

Balancing text and background is crucial in social media graphic design. The color of the text should contrast with the background for readability, and important points should not be covered by text.
Focal Point and Balance

Establish a focal point in your image and only incorporate necessary elements.

Balance your image to avoid visual rejection. Taking a break and looking away from your image can help you achieve better balance.

Establishing a focal point and maintaining balance in your image are essential for creating effective social media graphics. Unnecessary clutter should be avoided, and taking a break can help you achieve better balance.
Design Techniques

Adjust the opacity of your elements to create visual effects.

Use the collage technique to add shapes and illustrations to your image.

Use shapes as frames for your text and separate sections with lines.

Various design techniques can be used to enhance the visual appeal of your social media graphics. These include adjusting opacity, using the collage technique, and using shapes as frames for text.
Step-by-Step Guide to Designing a Social Media Graphic

Designing a social media graphic is a process that requires careful planning, creativity, and an understanding of your audience and platform. Here's a detailed step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Define Your Objective

Understand the purpose of your graphic. Is it to inform, promote, engage, or entertain?

Align your design with your objective. For example, promotional graphics might feature a product, while informational graphics might use charts or infographics.

Defining the objective of your social media graphic is the first step in the design process. The objective could be to inform, promote, engage, or entertain, and it should guide the design elements you choose.
Step 2: Know Your Audience

Research your target demographic. What are their interests, preferences, and social media habits?

Tailor your design to appeal to this audience. Use colors, fonts, and imagery that resonate with them.

Knowing your audience is crucial in social media graphic design. Understanding their interests, preferences, and social media habits allows you to tailor your design to resonate with them.
Step 3: Choose the Right Platform

Understand the design specifications and audience expectations for each social media platform.

For example, Instagram favors high-quality images and has a square format, while Twitter is more text-focused and uses a rectangular format.

Choosing the right platform is essential in social media graphic design. Each platform has its own design specifications and audience expectations, which should guide your design process.
Step 4: Start with a Template or From Scratch

Templates can save time and provide inspiration, but they may not be unique.

Custom designs allow for more creativity and brand consistency, but they require more time and design skills.

Starting with a template can save time and provide inspiration, but custom designs allow for more creativity and brand consistency. The choice depends on your resources and objectives.
Step 5: Incorporate Your Brand Elements

Use your brand's colors, fonts, and logos in your design to maintain brand consistency.

Ensure these elements are used effectively and not just for the sake of inclusion.

Incorporating your brand elements, such as colors, fonts, and logos, in your design enhances brand consistency. However, these elements should be used effectively and purposefully.
Step 6: Use High-Quality Images and Graphics

High-quality images and graphics enhance the visual appeal of your design.

Use royalty-free images or create your own graphics to avoid copyright issues.

Using high-quality images and graphics enhances the visual appeal of your social media graphic. It's important to use royalty-free images or create your own graphics to avoid copyright issues.
Step 7: Optimize Your Text

Use clear and concise text that complements your images and graphics.

Choose fonts that are easy to read and colors that contrast with the background.

Optimizing your text involves using clear and concise language, choosing readable fonts, and ensuring the text color contrasts with the background for readability.
Step 8: Add a Call-to-Action (if applicable)

A call-to-action (CTA) prompts your audience to take a desired action.

Make your CTA clear, compelling, and easy to find.

Adding a call-to-action (CTA) in your design can prompt your audience to take a desired action. The CTA should be clear, compelling, and easy to find.
Step 9: Review and Adjust

Check your design for readability, visual appeal, and alignment with your objectives.

-Adjust elements as needed and ensure the design looks good on different devices and screen sizes.
Reviewing and adjusting your design involves checking for readability, visual appeal, and alignment with your objectives. It's important to ensure the design looks good on different devices and screen sizes.
Step 10: Test and Iterate

Share your design with a small group for feedback before posting it publicly.

Use their feedback to make improvements, and don't be afraid to test different designs to see what works best.

Testing and iterating your design involves sharing it with a small group for feedback, making improvements based on this feedback, and testing different designs to identify what works best.
Crafting a Social Media Design Brief

When outsourcing your social media graphic design to a freelancer or a graphic design service, it's crucial to provide a comprehensive design brief. This document communicates your vision, objectives, and expectations, ensuring the designer can deliver graphics that align with your brand and goals.

Understanding the Purpose of a Design Brief

A design brief serves as a roadmap for your designer. It outlines your project's objectives, target audience, design preferences, and any specific requirements. It's a vital tool for effective communication between you and your designer.
The purpose of a design brief is to provide a roadmap for the designer, outlining the project's objectives, target audience, design preferences, and specific requirements.
Key Components of a Social Media Design Brief

Project Overview Provide a summary of the project, including the purpose of the graphics, the platforms they will be used on, and any specific campaign they are part of.

Objectives Clearly state what you want to achieve with the graphics. This could be increasing brand awareness, promoting a product, or driving engagement.

Target Audience Describe your target audience, including their demographics, interests, and social media habits. This information will guide the designer in creating graphics that resonate with your audience.

Brand Guidelines Provide your brand guidelines, including your brand colors, fonts, and tone of voice. If you have specific imagery or style preferences, include them here.

Budget and Timeline Specify your budget for the project and the timeline for when you need the graphics.

Examples Provide examples of social media graphics you like, whether from your own brand or others. This gives the designer a sense of your aesthetic preferences.
The key components of a social media design brief include a project overview, objectives, target audience description, brand guidelines, budget and timeline, and examples of preferred graphics.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Social Media Graphic Design

While creating social media graphics, it's easy to fall into certain traps that can hinder the effectiveness of your designs. Let's delve into some common mistakes and how to avoid them.

1. Overcrowding Your Design

Avoid cramming too many elements into your design. This can make your graphic look cluttered and confusing.

Leave some white space in your design to make it look clean and easy to understand.

Overcrowding your design is a common mistake in social media graphic design. It's important to avoid cramming too many elements into your design and to leave some white space for a clean and comprehensible look.
2. Using Too Many Fonts

Using too many different fonts can make your design look inconsistent and unprofessional.

Stick to one or two fonts that align with your brand identity.

Using too many fonts is another common mistake in social media graphic design. It's advisable to stick to one or two fonts that align with your brand identity for a consistent and professional look.
3. Ignoring Platform Specifications

Each social media platform has specific image size and format requirements. Ignoring these can lead to your graphics being displayed incorrectly.

Always check the latest image specifications for the platform you're designing for.

Ignoring platform specifications is a common mistake in social media graphic design. It's crucial to check the latest image specifications for the platform you're designing for to ensure your graphics are displayed correctly.
4. Neglecting Mobile Optimization

Many social media users access platforms via mobile devices. If your graphics aren't optimized for mobile, they may not display correctly.

Test your designs on different devices to ensure they look good on all screens.

Neglecting mobile optimization is a common mistake in social media graphic design. It's important to test your designs on different devices to ensure they are optimized for mobile viewing.
5. Inconsistent Branding

Consistency in your branding across all your social media graphics helps build brand recognition.

Use consistent colors, fonts, and styles that align with your brand identity.

Inconsistent branding is a common mistake in social media graphic design. Using consistent colors, fonts, and styles that align with your brand identity across all your graphics can help build brand recognition.
Avoiding these common mistakes can significantly enhance the effectiveness and visual appeal of your social media graphics. It can also improve your brand recognition and audience engagement.

4 Tools for Creating Your Own Social Graphics

How do people make cool Instagram graphics?

By having kickass internal designers

Outsourcing their designs to companies like Superside

Or using software that enables them to do it easily and quickly

You know what feeds we're talking about- everything seems to fit together perfectly with touches of their brand throughout. Well, this too can be your company's grid!
Below are some of the best online tools to create your own social content.
Canva is the ultimate editing app that makes it easy for people without graphic design skills to create professional-level images. With easy-to-use drag and drop features, Canva is a versatile graphic design app that helps you create things like Instagram stories, videos, logos, posters, and much more.

Perfect for: Marketers who are on a budget and need to create a wide range of designs.

Venngage is a graphic design software that enables people to create posters, reports, infographics, and presentations. Similar to Canva, Venngage offers easy-to-use drag and drop features. They also have thousands of templates at your disposal, making it easy to get started on any visual.

Perfect for: Marketers looking to create engaging infographics with little-to-no design skills.

Adobe Spark enables you to easily create stunning social graphics, web pages, and short videos. If you're asking yourself, how can I make a social media template? With Adobe Spark, users can access free and exclusive professionally designed templates, filters, fonts, shapes, and icons from the Adobe Spark web and mobile apps.

Perfect for: Marketers with little-to-no design abilities who are looking to create engaging web pages. Also, great for marketing teams with access to the Adobe Creative Suite (because then it's free).

Visme is a content creation tool that enables people to translate data into engaging visuals. Work individually or as a team to collaborate on presentations, infographics and other visual formats.

Perfect for: Marketers with little-to-no design abilities who are looking to create engaging diagrams and common design assets.

Moral of the story? You don't have to be a designer to create great marketing designs for social media. Any of the above tools will be able to help speed along the creation of your social media assets, and likely level up those designs too.

And remember, being a bit "clickbait-y" isn't a bad thing either.

Conclusion
It's clear how important compelling graphics are to any social media strategy. Even when it comes to YouTube, there's so many elements that require smart design. But, before you go about creating your next set of designs, remember the tips mentioned earlier: AND make your posts stand out with great social media design

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Social Media Graphics: Ultimate Step by Step Guide (2024)

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Dive into our 2024 guide on social media graphics. Learn how to create captivating visuals that boost engagement and elevate your brand's online presence

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So you've been tasked with quantifying the relationships, influence, and engagement of your organization but don't know where to begin. Here's a social media analytics starter kit to get you started.

Don't believe the notion that you will struggle with analytics reports because "journalists don't do math." A stats report is so much more than numbers in a spreadsheet... you just have to change the way you look at it. Those numbers, when viewed from a different perspective, represent a visual display of success and also room for growth. And it's an essential aspect of social media because it validates what you do.
TIP: Don't get overwhelmed by the amount of data that's available. Focus your attention toward the metrics that mean the most for your organization and its goals.
Before getting started, it's important to realize that success is arbitrary. As an institution, our goals and measurements of success are very different from an organization that is selling a product. Meet with your team and discover what defines your success. You could begin by asking yourself this: Why does [ insert organization] do social media? For Colorado State, we do social media to tell the University's story. So our measures of success revolve around discovering the answers to questions such as these:

Is our content resonating with our audience?

Which content themes generate the most interaction?

To what extent are people engaging with our posts?

When you've developed what drives your purpose, start recording and evaluating the data with these steps.

1. Get Familiar With Existing Analytics Tools

Each platform has at least something that you can measure, but some have built-in stats tools that are much more sophisticated than others. Facebook Pages have an " Insights" feature that offers detailed information on each post you make (impressions, post clicks, engagement, etc.). Twitter's new analytics feature automatically keeps track of which tweets reach the largest amount of people each month, along with other useful measurements (e.g., profile visits, average monthly retweets). At CSU, we also use third-party services to track data on platforms that don't yet have built-in features. We use Iconosquare for Instagram and Sprout Social to gather extra data on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Many more services exist, so take some time examining your need and your budget to figure out which fits best in your strategy.

2. Make Use Of A Spreadsheet

Our team uses an Excel document that is shared on a common drive. Within this document, each social platform has its own tab. Different forms of measurement are recorded for each platform, but here's a general list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you ought to be measuring.

Growth. Jot down the number of followers you have for each platform each month. This gives you a grasp on which platforms are growing fastest and which are fizzling out. This helps prioritize your time and energy.

Post Type. Facebook posts can be a regular status, a link, a photo, or a video. We compare the average reach for these post types in order to evaluate which type of media work best.

Number of Posts. Did you post twice as many photos on Instagram this month compared to last? If so, compare the average number of likes and comments per photo for these months to determine which post rate generates the best response from your audience. It's possible that you're saturating your audience with too much content, resulting in less engagement.

Reach & Impressions. First, let's talk about the difference between these two metrics.

Reach: the number of unique users who received impressions of a Facebook Page post. Reach will likely be less than impressions since one person can see multiple impressions.

Impressions: the number of times a post from your Page is displayed, whether the post is clicked or not. People may see multiple impressions of the same post. For example, someone might see a Page update in News Feed once, and then a second time if their friend shares it. (via Facebook Help Center)

These stats are crucial for examining the amplification of your messages. When a post's reach exceeds the number of users who are "fans" of your page, you know for certain that your message is reaching individuals outside your immediate network. Recording the average reach for each post type (provided by Facebook Insights) gives you a solid basis for analyzing a post's level of success. For example, we know that our recent post about Fort Collins being named the #3 Best College Town to Live in Forever performed well above average for a link-based post, reaching 435,000+ people compared to the average link post reach of 37,548 (month of May 2015).

3. Make The Most Of Your Time

Analytics is no quick task, so find ways to save time wherever you're able. In comparing our audience growth with similar universities, I find it useful to have each university's Facebook and Twitter page bookmarked for easy access (see photo). One click on "Open All in Tabs" and boom - you're ready to input data.

Save, save, and save again. What's worse than staring at your screen plugging numbers into a spreadsheet for several hours? Doing it twice. Don't make the mistake of risking the loss of such an important file - one that contains data from months or years ago. Save a backup copy in a protected location every. single. month. It's worth it.

Check back next month for a deeper look at compiling visual analytics reports.

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Social Analytics: The Starter Kit - #CSUSocial

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So you've been tasked with quantifying the relationships, influence, and engagement of your organization but don't know where to begin. Here's a social media analytics starter kit to get you started.

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Misinformation and Fake News Case Studies 

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Misinformation and Fake News Case Studies 

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The Claim: Walt Disney Company was seeking a resort exemption to lower the drinking age to 18 years old, in Disney World, Florida.
To find the truth about this story, we will use Michael Caufield's Four Moves and a Habit.

1. Check for previous work: For this case, we looked up this claim on Snopes (fact checking resource). They published an article on the story and labeled it as fake news satire. It was also aired on ABC 10 News, on their fact or fiction segment, where it was determined to be fiction. The news segment can be viewed here.

2. Go upstream to the source: The TikTok video originally came from an article published by the same TikTok user, @mousetrapnews. They have their own webpage dedicated to news stories about disneyland parks. The original article claimed that Disney was battling Florida in the courts over the minimum drinking age, but no evidence such as sources or court filings are mentioned.

3. Read laterally: Upon further exploration of the site itself, their About page actually bluntly admits that they only write fake stories about Disney Parks (see picture below).

4. Circle back: If we go back to the main article explaining the story, it reads in the description an explanation of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act passed by congress and signed into law by President Reagan. The article then asks the reader a question "Didn't think you would get a history lesson from us, did you?" and "Now that we have set up the act, we have some Disney news to go with it.", these playful comments already makes the story a little suspicious. We can also check another form of social media the user has. They also had an Instagram account, where they state "Real Disney News That is 100% Fake" and "The Onion Of Disney News".

Interestingly enough, many of the Mouse Trap News fake news stories have been featured on different news websites and shows, such as The Associated Press, USA Today, and on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
The Conclusion: The Walt Disney Company did not seek a resort exemption to lower the drinking age to 18 years old, in Disney World, Florida.

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LibGuides: Misinformation & Fake News: Case Studies & Examples

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A guide to discerning fake news sources, including articles, videos, and links to other resources.

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What is Graphic Design? Graphic design is a craft where professionals create visual content to communicate messages. By applying visual hierarchy and page layout techniques, designers...

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A Guide to Creating a Social Media Calendar

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A Guide to Creating a Social Media Calendar

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Social media practitioners and managers know it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of managing multiple social media accounts, especially with a constant flow of new content, news and ideas. That's why utilizing a well-planned, organized social media calendar template to help you schedule your social media posts is so essential.

In this article, we'll break down the basics of using a social media calendar, along with key benefits and strategies to help manage your social content.

What is a social media calendar?

A social media calendar is a strategic, hyper-detailed plan of upcoming posts for all of your social channels organized by publish date and time. Along with the publish date and time for posts, your social media calendar can also include links, tags, @-mentions, copy and media, such as images and video.

You can use a digital calendar, spreadsheet or a social media management platform like Sprout that offers an interactive dashboard and the ability to schedule posts.

Benefits of using a social media calendar

A content calendar is the key to a successful social media plan because there are so many benefits to using one from saving time to streamlining collaboration.

Here are a few:

1: Saves time and widens team bandwidth

A social media calendar saves time by staying organized, especially when managing multiple accounts. As a social media manager, planning out a social calendar months in advance saves you from scouring trending topics and news stories every day looking for ideas. It will also give you more bandwidth to track and test different strategies to see what resonates most with your audience. Your team will also have more time to focus on creating high-quality content.

2: Maintain a consistent posting schedule

Of course, there's no hard rule for how much you should post, but it's important to post frequently to maintain an active presence. A social media content calendar allows teams to prioritize quality, not quantity. Plus, planning will also build greater consistency in terms of your brand voice and style, rather than posting in a reactive or unplanned way.

3: Quality assurance and brand safety

Proactive scheduling allows social teams to check their work and protect their brand's reputation. It's easier to catch a typo or prevent a potential public relations crisis when you aren't rushing and a workflow approval process is in place. Using a social media calendar will help catch these mistakes sooner rather than later.

4: Streamline cross-functional collaboration

A well-crafted social media calendar improves visibility because it provides an overview of all upcoming content. A content calendar streamlines communication and cross-functional collaboration because everyone can look at the calendar and know what lies ahead. It also promotes alignment for department or organizational-wide initiatives because it provides a set posting schedule. Having a posting schedule is important because your social media should support your overall organizational marketing efforts.

For example, your team can ensure social posts sync up with larger campaigns. Stakeholders in the campaign can easily view what you have planned and provide feedback, if necessary.

How to create a social media content calendar

1. Conduct a social media audit

Before creating your social media content calendar, you need to conduct a social media audit of past content to evaluate your current online presence.

Consider the following during your audit:

Important metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for each account by platform to define success

Your brand's goals for each account by platform

Your target audience

Highest and lowest performing posts and campaigns

Opportunities for improvement or experimenting

Publishing frequency

Pull together native analytics from sources like Twitter Analytics or Facebook Insights. If you're using Sprout Social, you will find metrics across multiple social networks in one place: Sprout's Report Builder.

Pay attention to your brand's analytics to pin down what could be contributing to your highest and lowest performing posts. If you want even more ideas for your calendar, consider doing a competitive analysis during your audit. Auditing a competitor in your industry can help you identify gaps.

Completing an audit will help you identify how to curate posts for your social media calendar template and what content you should create for your audience. The goal is to give you a strategy to fill each day of your content calendar. If you're able to identify what's going well and opportunities for improvement, you'll be better positioned to meet your brand's goals.

2. Use a social media calendar template

Create a social media content calendar template to stay organized, streamline workflows, improve collaboration and track metrics. Your social media calendar template should include the following:

Social media networks and accounts

Date and time

Social copy including hashtags and links

Media (GIFs, images, video, etc.)

Approval steps

Space for collaboration and feedback notes

KPIs

Key (a color-coordinated key with labels to organize your content)

Level up your social media content calendar template with these advanced additions:

Published post links

UTM tracking links

Geo-tag

Network-specific format (Story, feed post, short-form video like Reels or TikTok, etc.)

Associated campaigns, like a new product launch

Approval status

Paid or organic post (include budget details for paid posts)

These additions provide more context, especially if you want to dig deeper into tracking performance. For example, UTM tracking links enable you to measure traffic from a platform, traffic type (referral, paid or organic) and the specific campaign that brought the traffic in.

Use a digital calendar or spreadsheet for your template, or automate your calendar building with tool like Sprout's social media calendar to lower the lift on your end.

3. Select your social media channels and content types

Now that you've completed an audit and created a social media content calendar template, you're ready choose the channels and type of content you want to post.

Which channels does your audience engage with the most? And what types of content resonate with them? Lean on your analytics while brainstorming your social media post ideas and identify themes and/or categories to determine the type of content your will schedule in the content calendar.

Once you have a few basic topics in mind, go deeper with a research tool like social listening to learn more about what your audience wants to see. By using listening for competitive research, you'll see a comprehensive view of the hashtags, keywords, brands and topics that engage with your audience across different social channels. Use this information to plan posts that are highly relevant to your audience and expand your reach to others who may be interested in your content.

Overall, make sure that the majority of the content you work into your social media calendar is intended to help your audience. While the exact mix will vary depending on your brand, niche and the types of content your audience responds to the most, a good rule of thumb is to make two-thirds of the content informational and one-third or less promotional.

While promotional content tends to be sales-focused, a constant stream can alienate followers, making it essential to prioritize engagement over selling in your social media calendar. For example, on Instagram we feature Sprouters talking about their favorite emojis:

4. Define a social media calendar posting schedule

Once you have an idea of the types of content you're going to post, you'll need to create a posting schedule to help keep track of ideal times for publishing.

You should aim for a sweet spot based on your audience's preference, because social moves fast-posting too much, too little or too late can result in dropped engagement. Posting frequently is important, but don't emphasize quantity over quality. Be wary of sharing content that is irrelevant or redundant for the sake of meeting a posting quota.

Consider the patterns that arose from your audit and competitive analysis. Take a look at publish dates and times for each platform and make a note of any specific themes. This information will help you organize and plan your posts to get the most visibility.

There's a lot of competing information on publishing cadences. Some professionals recommend posting as regularly as possible to stay top of mind. Others suggest only posting if you have high quality and valuable information to add to the conversation.

There are also best practices around the best times to post on social media, on each platform, broken down by specific industries and niches. Check out our guide on how often to post on social media per channel to learn more. Sprout's data science team analyzed posting frequencies for more than 30,000 Sprout Social customers to determine the industry average for some of the most popular social media networks.

Sprout also takes the guesswork out of posting cadences by analyzing the best times for you. Using a tool like Sprout's ViralPost® feature helps you target posting times based on your individual audience data. ViralPost reviews this data and suggests Optimal Send Times for each platform you use.

5. Track and analyze your social media content calendar

Your social media calendar isn't just a planning tool. It's also a way to track and measure metrics across every platform you use. Analyze the information you collect from your social media campaigns and continue to optimize your social media calendar.

If you tag posts to specific campaigns, you can keep track of content that may need to be optimized or repurposed. When content performs well, save it or make a note to reintroduce it again in the future when it's time to reevaluate your strategy again or brainstorm more upcoming posts.

For example, Sprout's Asset Library lets you store videos, text and images in an easy-to-access library so you can re-incorporate high-performers into your social media strategy. Storing everything in a pre-approved library also ensures that all creative assets are on point in terms of quality and brand style guidelines.

Account for specific campaigns across different social platforms. Different social media platforms serve different purposes, so you should plan strategically when looking to increase the reach of a given post on other platforms. It's important to remember that just because a post is popular on one platform, doesn't mean it will perform well on others.

6. Improve your social media calendar by sharing across teams

You probably work frequently with other teams within your organization since social is a key pillar for many brands' marketing strategies. Social media collaboration can strengthen your content and help your brand reach organizational goals. Seek feedback from your team and marketing stakeholders to improve your social media calendar. The goal here is to iterate your social media calendar as your marketing strategy and business evolves.

Including teams outside marketing will give you fresh ideas for things to post, while also supporting priorities across the organization. The product team can let you know when new features, services or products will be launching. Human resources and public relations can remind you of important dates and company milestones worth posting about.

Modern social teams work with a variety of teams and stakeholders, so you need an easy and reliable way to make sure that everyone involved can access the right tools, accounts and organize their deliverables. When your calendar is integrated into a social media management platform like Sprout Social, you increase the visibility of what needs to be created and approved across contributors.

Sprout's content calendar include tools like approval workflows that emphasize collaboration so you can grant people in different departments access to relevant parts of the social media calendar.

Social media calendar apps

There are many social media management tools and social media scheduling tools out there to choose from. Here's a quick overview of our top three favorite tools:

Google Calendar/Sheets

Google Calendar and Sheets are free and fairly intuitive to use. There are a bounty of social media calendar templates you can use from Google Sheets and Calendar. Both apps can be used to allow users to easily view upcoming posts and add comments for feedback and other collaboration.

Notion

Notion is a powerful note taking app, but it's also a tool for marketers. The app has a database feature that can be used to create templates, including social media calendars. Notion is highly customizable and collaborative so users can easily view the status of content and give feedback via comments all within one platform.

Sprout Social

Okay, so yes, we're definitely tooting our own horn here, but Sprout's tools will truly help your social media team.

Our interactive content calendar's publishing and scheduling tools are designed to increase visibility, improve team efficiency and boost customer loyalty, so social teams have more bandwidth for creative efforts, like participating in relevant trends. For instance, you can follow up on your scheduled posts by establishing a process for responding and engaging with your audience.

With Sprout, you can assign replies to different members of the team, which ensures that your followers always get a timely response when they tag you or comment on a post. Sprout's Asset Library can also be used to create Auto-Responses and Saved Replies to frequently asked questions on social media. If your company handles support through a separate social media team your marketing team can always control the messaging, no matter who is posting.

Essentially, Sprout's interactive content calendar allows you to manage the social experience, end to end.

Level up with a social media calendar

Your time is too valuable to spend deciding what to post every single day. A well-planned social media content calendar lets you use your time to plan for the future and focus on other aspects of your marketing strategy. Take your content planning to the next level with Sprout's social media calendar features.

Jamia Kenan

Jamia Kenan is a Content Specialist for Sprout Social based in Atlanta, GA. When she's not writing, you'll find her talking about the Internet from the latest TikTok trends to NFTs and the metaverse. She also enjoys trying new restaurants, hiking and watching movies.

Read all articles by Jamia Kenan

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A complete guide to creating a social media calendar

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A social media calendar is a must for your strategy. Learn how to create one and intermediate to advanced-level strategies to manage your content.

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The Step By Step Guide to Building A Successful Social Media Strategy 

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The Step By Step Guide to Building A Successful Social Media Strategy 

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The step by step guide to building a successful social media strategy

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How to Craft a Social Media Content Strategy

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How to Craft a Social Media Content Strategy

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The content you post on social media has the power to turn your brand into a household name and turn your followers into fans. This kind of impact only comes from having a solid social media content strategy. It's not enough to show up on every platform and sporadically update your audience when you have the time. The way to stand out on social media is to identify specific goals, create valuable posts that align with those goals, and distribute content on the right platforms. Then you can measure your results, and fine-tune your strategy over time.

There isn't one cookie-cutter social media strategy that will guarantee success. Your strategy will differ depending on your industry and audience. There are, however, specific steps you should follow to build out a plan that has longevity and helps your brand and business grow.

Identify and set goals

The first step towards a long-term social media strategy is to set your content goals. Having goals in mind will help you start planning out the type of content to create.

This process involves digging deep into your brand values as well as researching your audience.

Start by getting clear on your overall marketing goals and how you want your content marketing strategy to serve those goals. The more specific your marketing goals are, the better you will be able to tailor your social media content to meet those goals. For example, let's say that your marketing goals are to convert more sales from social media. Then your strategy should incorporate posts that move people to a landing page or another part of your marketing funnel.

Use Sprout Social to boost your content strategy
Power up your content planning with robust insights from Sprout Social's reporting.

In addition to social analytics, Sprout helps you coordinate content across team members with a full suite of collaboration features.

Start your 30-day free trial and see how much easier Sprout can make planning and posting social content.

Plan your social content

Once you're clear on your goals, it's time to conduct a social media content audit on the content you've created so far. Look at which posts performed well, which ones didn't and what you posted on each platform. If you're using a social media management platform like Sprout Social, you can look at all of your social media data and analytics in one place. You can use Sprout's Report Builder for a holistic view of how all of your social media content is performing.

Even without a social media tool, you can analyze your data by exporting each platform's analytics into a spreadsheet.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest Business and LinkedIn Business accounts let you easily export your post and page analytics directly from the platform.

What you look for in the audit should align directly with your content goals. For example, if one of your goals is to improve brand awareness, then look at your follower count on each platform and identify which posts resulted in new followers. Now you have an idea of what types of content help expose your brand to new people who want to follow you.

A content audit will help you substantiate what you think is working well with quantitative data that shows you how each post performs.

You might notice a disconnect between posts you think should do well and the actual top performers. In this case, look closely at the language and tone you're using on the underperforming content. You may have strayed away from your brand's authentic voice. Your followers may interpret those posts as inauthentic or irrelevant, causing a decrease in engagement. Irrelevant posts are the second largest reason consumers unfollow brands on social media.

Some posts serve to help you meet bigger marketing goals. But even promotional content should be on brand and true to your voice. Remember that your audience began following you for a reason.

Stick with your unique voice and style as much as possible and create content that authentically markets your brand.

Having a consistent brand voice will also help you have a better understanding of who your audience is. You can't create good social content without knowing who your followers are. During this phase, do some target audience research. Build a target persona of your audience and can compare it to who you think your target audience should be. Include things like basic demographics, acquisition channels and content preferences.

While you're doing research, also take note of which platforms your content succeeds most on. You might want to target every social platform but it's unrealistic to expect to perform well on all of them. You want to allocate your resources to the platforms that serve your brand and your audience the most.

Build a content calendar

Once you know what content performs best and you've identified your primary goals, it's time to build a social media content calendar. A calendar will let you take a big-picture approach to social media content planning. It will help you visualize your ideas and organize them in a way that makes the strategy easier to execute. Your content calendar will be a hub for everything you post.

When planning content, don't be afraid to repurpose content and schedule it across different social media platforms to get the most out of it. When deciding where to post what content, also consider what types of content perform well on that platform based on your audit. Keep in mind that there are best practices when it comes to the best times to post on each platform. If you want to make finding the right posting times easier, Sprout's ViralPost feature collects data from your followers and puts together reports that tell you when you post to achieve the most reach.

Your strategy will involve the collective knowledge of a lot of different people within your organization. A content calendar makes it easier to collaborate on social media posts with different people across your company. It's helpful to collaborate with different departments to create a more well-rounded plan.

Promote and distribute your content

Your social media strategy goes beyond what you post on your social channels. Planning and publishing your content is only a small percentage of a successful social media strategy. A good strategy involves finding ways to actively distribute your content so that as many people as possible see it. When you establish a content distribution strategy, you'll set up your posts to be shared more widely.

If you actively blog, include share buttons on your posts so your audience can distribute your content to their followers (like the ones you see at the top of this post!).

You can also encourage your audience to engage with your content by asking a question and encouraging them to share their answers, on social media or in the comments section of a blog post.

Other people sharing your content is excellent social proof as well. Your social media content strategy should include responding to or reposting people who share your content.

There are social media tools, like Sprout's scheduling feature, that make content distribution a no-brainer.

Recognizing when your audience is active and sharing posts at the right time will help you reach more people. If you're only posting on social media the minute content goes live, you're missing out on a massive opportunity for optimizing your reach.

Individual social media platforms have their own ways to help you maximize reach as well. On platforms like Twitter and Instagram, utilizing hashtags is a great way to distribute your content further. Hashtags help you reach people who not only follow you but are following a specific trend or interest. On LinkedIn and Facebook, join groups related to your industry and share content when it relates to the conversation.

Another good distribution strategy involves networking with bloggers and content creators in your niche. Other brands are more likely to share your content with their audience if you have a relationship and will return the favor. Just remember that anything you share with your audience should still be valuable to them and relate to your brand.

Measure results

The last step to an effective social media content strategy is measuring the results of all of your efforts. Proper tracking is going to be vital to creating a strategy with longevity. Keeping detailed metrics will help you tweak and optimize your plan over time. Ideally, you should analyze your content every month to keep track of what's working. When analyzing your data, take a top-level view of your content over a given period. Take a look at how each piece of content performed and what variables it had working with it. Assess how well the content contributed to the overall content goals that you set in step one. A few of the most important social media metrics to measure include:

Awareness - The number of times people saw your content as told by impressions and reach

Engagements - The number of reactions, comments, clicks and shares your content gets

ROI - Conversions and referrals from external sources

Like you did with the content audit, relate the analytics to your overall marketing goals. Using your goals as an anchor can help you accurately adjust your strategy. By measuring analytics each month, you'll just have to make small tweaks to keep optimizing your social media content strategy.

Putting it all together

Effectively planning a social media content strategy is an ongoing cycle, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Plan out your process with the ideas above and stick to these essential steps to develop content planning that puts a strategic approach first.

If you're still trying to figure out the right balance of different types of social content for your brand, our free content mix tool can help you optimize your strategy.

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How to craft an effective social media content strategy

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The content you post on social media has the power to turn your brand into a household name and turn your followers into fans. This kind of impact only comes from having a solid social media content strategy. It's not enough to show up on every platform and sporadically update your audience when you have the time.

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Local Consumer Review Survey 2024: Trends, Behaviours and Platforms Explained 

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Local Consumer Review Survey 2024: Trends, Behaviours and Platforms Explained 

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Local Consumer Review Survey 2022: Customer Reviews and Behavior

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What do consumers think of local business reviews? This annual deep dive uncovers all the facts needed to build a brilliant reputation.

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Online Reputation Management: The Complete Guide

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Online Reputation Management: The Complete Guide

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Your business's online reputation may be digital, but that won't stop it from making a serious impact IRL. A strong reputation management strategy can attract new customers and deepen existing relationships. A lax approach, on the other hand, can alienate both audiences.

Make sure the web is working for you, not against you. Use this article to learn how to establish a comprehensive online reputation management strategy.

What is online reputation management?

Online reputation management involves actively monitoring and influencing how your business is perceived online. The main goal of this process is to control the online conversation surrounding your brand using various strategies to ensure that when people search for you online, they come across information that paints a favorable picture.

Why does online reputation management matter?

Your online reputation management impacts more than just your marketing team. Do it well, and teams across your org chart will feel the benefits in the following key areas.

Brand image

When people search for information on your business, everything they find works together to paint a picture of what it might be like to be a customer. Strong brand reputation management practices ensure that the picture is a good one.

This work is important everywhere but especially online, where good and bad customer experiences live on in perpetuity through social media posts and reviews. With online reputation management, you can bolster praise and account for feedback, giving you more control over your business's brand image

Risk mitigation

Managing your online reputation requires you to be proactive. That proactivity plays a major role in crisis prevention and risk mitigation-two must-haves for growing businesses.

Continuous reputation monitoring allows businesses to detect potential issues or negative trends in sentiment early on. This early detection supports intervention before a situation escalates into a crisis that might cause lasting damage to your brand and company.

Business expansion

A good reputation has a snowball effect. The better your reputation gets, the more customers you attract. In the past, this work was relegated to slow-moving offline endeavors. Today, the internet can get this process going faster than you can say "avalanche".

A steady drumbeat of positive attention online creates a strong environment for business expansion. After all, you'll likely need more space and resources to meet the needs of all your new and existing customers.

Investor relations

Your business's online reputation matters to more than just your customers-investors also use the internet to vet potential investments.

In recent years, social media platforms like Reddit, TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter) have become especially popular destinations for retail and institutional investors to discuss and analyze market trends. Without an online reputation management strategy in place, your brand could potentially miss out on business critical conversations.

Consumer insights

At the end of the day, your business's online reputation is made up of feedback-praise, ideas and concerns ranging from "inconsequential" to "absolutely vital".

A key element of online reputation management is ensuring that critical feedback gets to the people who can do something about it. When your processes bring your customer to the center of the conversation, you strengthen your business's ability to deliver on what they want and need.

What factors contribute to online reputation management?

The internet can be a bit of a double-edged sword. There are so many ways to build your business's reputation online. There are also a lot of ways for that reputation to be damaged.

An online reputation management strategy powered by routine sentiment analysis can help you make sense of the many factors that contribute to your business's reputation across the web. Those include:

Social media

Social media has brought a new level of transparency into consumer conversations. Whether they're evangelizing for a brand they love or ripping into a poor business practice, people turn to social to speak their minds.

This constant stream of commentary can work for or against your company. According to a study from GWI, over a third (43%) of consumers across all ages turn to social networks when looking for more information about brands, products or services. Social is the new search engine, making it a bedrock of your online reputation management strategy.

Luckily, managing your brand's reputation on social doesn't have to mean hours upon hours of scrolling. Brands can use social media listening to synthesize these conversations into actionable insights. For example, Cummins, a global leader in power solutions, uses Sprout's social listening tools to monitor their brand health and reputation across major social networks in real time.
Learn more about Cummin's strategy
Review sites

Your business's star rating follows your brand across the web. Reviews are easier to find than ever, especially when you consider the rise of mobile search. If someone's looking for information about your business on the go, chances are they're also going to find your average review rating at the top of those search results.

The more positive reviews you get, the more reassurance potential customers get out of all those positive experiences. In fact, it may be what pushes them to finally procure their goods or services.

A person browsing through reviews is more likely to have a higher purchase intent than an individual passively browsing the rest of the web, which is why online review management goes hand-in-hand with online reputation management.

News publications

News publications impact more than just traditional public relations initiatives. In this day and age, any reputable news outlet has a digital publication that can be found by individuals well beyond their typical publishing audience. Think about it: How often have you found yourself reading an article online, only to find out it's from a local paper miles away from where you currently reside?

Today, positive news coverage can be amplified across the web through social media and other digital channels, allowing brands to get more bang for their buck with their media relations efforts.

Influencers

In a way, influencers are like their own digital publications. After all, they create content for a specific audience they've grown over time. An endorsement from an influencer within your target market can have the same impact as positive media coverage, if not more.

Your influencer marketing strategy can do more than just improve your brand's reputation online. It can play a major role in shaping that reputation, allowing your business to expand into new audiences and markets.

For example, Dave & Buster's and TikTok influencer @CorporateNatalie seems like an unlikely pair at first thought. However, the two were able to make 9-to-5 comedy work for an arcade restaurant for this paid promotion.

Content like this can challenge existing beliefs about your brand's reputation online. For Dave & Buster's, it expanded their target audience to include working professionals who will likely have to schedule a team bonding session at one point or another.

Better online reputation management in 5 simple steps

Whether you're introducing these practices for the first time, or you have a few online reputation management processes in place, these tips will help strengthen your approach to better protect your business.

Identify the channels used by your market segment

Where is your reputation being forged online? A qualitative and quantitative approach to market research can help you zero in on where your audience is discussing your brand and industry online.

Taking both into consideration will help you account for the full spectrum of where your audience hangs out online. Analytics tools and market research can reveal some sure bets, while open-ended research methods-like customer interviews and surveys-can shine a light on more up-and-coming platforms for brand discovery and research.

This information will help ensure your strategy is focused on the channels that will make an impact on your business.

Monitor your online reputation through mentions

If we were to think about online reputation management through the lens of a Crawl, Walk, Run strategy, monitoring your online mentions would fit squarely within the "Crawl" stage.

When a user tags your brand handle in a social media post or leaves a review on a business page, they expect a response quickly. According to the 2023 Sprout Social Index™ Report, 69% of consumers expect a response within the same day. If you don't have a process for monitoring your brand mentions online, you are disappointing customers which can cause lasting damage to brand reputation.

The easiest way to safeguard your brand reputation online is to use a tool that organizes all those notifications in one, centralized platform. For example, Sprout Social consolidates inboxes across social media networks and popular review sites like Google My Business, Yelp, TripAdvisor and Glassdoor, so you never miss a mention.

Identify the topics around your business needs

Once you've got reacting to mentions down, it's time to get more proactive with your approach.

Staying on top of the conversations tangentially related to your brand will supercharge your online reputation management strategy. For example, say a competitor's highly-publicized product recall is driving a ton of discussion online. By proactively monitoring the conversations happening within your industry, you gain a clearer understanding of consumer concerns so you can craft a response strategy that enhances your competitive advantage.

These conversations can be more difficult to track than mentions alone, but the results are worth the effort. Plus, there are social listening tools that can help you uncover trends and develop actionable insights without any complex data aggregation processes. Sprout's social listening tool makes the process ultra-accessible with our user-friendly and intuitive Query Builder.

Figuring out what topics to follow will take a bit of trial and error, so we recommend starting broad and narrowing as you go. For example, if you operate within a specific geographic location, consider tracking key conversations happening at a local level and fine-tune your approach from there.

Take charge of the narrative

As you gather insights from your online reputation management processes, you'll begin to identify trends in consumer sentiment. These emerging narratives can control how people perceive your brand for better and for worse. If you want to maintain control over your brand image, you need to take charge.

Do this by using everything you've learned to inform cross-channel communications. If consumers frequently cite the quality of your product as a reason they keep coming back, give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at how it's made. If your shipping times continuously come up as an area of improvement, create content that builds transparency around what causes those delays.

By addressing the positive and negative, you take back control of your business's online reputation.

How to choose the best reputation management software for your business

The internet is a big place. If you rely on an individual or even a single team to manage your reputation online, chances are you might miss something vital. If you want to do online reputation management right, you need a tool to help get the job done.

Here are some questions you can ask to ensure your reputation management software procurement process leaves you with the best option possible:

Does the tool offer a collaborative workspace? You may be driving your online reputation management strategy, but teams across your business will need to contribute to truly get the job done. Your reputation management software should allow internal and external teams to collaborate and carry out tasks without any unnecessary overlap.

Is the tool scalable? Online reputation management means working with external platforms that can add, remove or update features at the drop of a hat. Check to see how your vendor has responded to these changes in the past. How long does it take them to add new features? Are new workflows intuitive, or do they require training? These questions will help you get an accurate read on whether or not the tool can grow alongside your organization.

What channels does the tool integrate with? Compare your list of priority channels with a list of integrated channels provided by your vendor. If there are too many gaps, then you may find yourself doing work alongside your software solution to ensure nothing is missed.

What reporting capabilities does the tool offer? If you're putting all this work into your strategy, you probably want to see the fruits of your labor. Your online reputation management tool should offer insight into how your reputation is trending over time.

Does the software offer AI and automation? Synthesizing the countless conversations that take place online calls for some seriously smart tech. Ask your vendor about the AI and automation tools they currently provide, as well as what is on their product roadmap.

Take a smarter approach to online reputation management with Sprout Social

Your time is valuable. Don't use it to sift through the countless comments and posts made about your brand on the web. Instead, leave that to Sprout Social. Our tools aggregate mentions and conversations about your brand, competitors and industry so you can focus on identifying trends and creating action items.

Put Sprout to the test today by signing up for a free 30-day trial.
Start your 30-day trial

Ronnie Gomez

Ronnie Gomez is a Content Strategist at Sprout Social where she writes to help social professionals learn and grow at every stage of their careers. When she's not writing, she's reading or looking for Chicago's next best place to get a vanilla oat milk latte.

Read all articles by Ronnie Gomez

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Everything you need to know about online reputation management

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These online reputation management strategy tips will help you protect your brand from risks online and IRL.

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Facebook Group Marketing: How to Grow Your Community

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Facebook Group Marketing: How to Grow Your Community

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Facebook Group marketing is going to grow in 2020 and beyond.

Why?

For starters, Facebook engagement is actually increasing despite rumblings about the platform's frequently changing algorithm.

And recent data from the 2019 Sprout Social Index™ highlights that 40% of marketers view private communities as a top social trend to prioritize in 2020 and beyond.

Although organic reach might be on the downturn for most businesses, Facebook Groups are a brilliant way to reach customers without being confined by the platform's algorithm.

In this guide, we break down the benefits of Facebook Group marketing and best practices for engaging your audience.

What are Facebook Groups and why do they matter so much?

To kick things off, let's talk about why Facebook Groups deserve your attention in the first place.

If you're going to get involved with Facebook Groups, consider the three big-picture benefits below.

Facebook Groups gift you more organic reach

Okay, this is the big one.

Chances are you've watched your Facebook engagement dwindle over the past year or so?

On the flip side, Group posts are what the Facebook algorithm is looking for.

According to Facebook themselves, the platform prioritizes content from Groups that users frequently engage with. So if you're consistently publishing to your Group and your audience is reacting to it or they're posting content themselves, you're feeding the algorithm exactly what it wants.

Anecdotally, you can see this for yourself by scrolling through your own Facebook feed. It doesn't take long to come across a Group post, does it?

Facebook Groups provide a direct line to your audience

Data from the Sprout Social Index also notes that nearly half of consumers join private communities so they can engage with brands directly.

Food for thought: if someone joins your Group, they want to hear from you.

They're interested in your content. They might even be willing to be sold to with a bit of nurturing.

Think of someone joining your Facebook community as a sort of opt-in. In a sense, Group members have the potential to be your most loyal customers.

Facebook Groups allow you to form meaningful customer relationships

Facebook Groups allow you to connect with your customers on a more personal level.

In many cases, people are likely to read a social post from a friend versus a brand. This makes Groups the perfect fit for building connection, since they require members and admins alike to post from personal accounts.

This allows you a unique opportunity to engage as a human first and a brand second. Through responding to your audience and asking questions, you can learn more about what your customers want and what you can do to help.

10 Tips on how to use Facebook Groups to build your community

Let's say you're all-in on Facebook Group marketing.

How do you ensure that you're making the most of your Group and opportunities to engage with your audience?

Whether you're starting a community from scratch or managing a community on behalf of a client, below are the cornerstones of a Facebook Group strategy.

1. Make your rules and expectations crystal clear

Perhaps the most important piece of creating your Facebook Group is establishing your rules.

And while this might not sound like much fun, it's crucial for keeping your Group from devolving into spam and general disorganization.

For starters, ask yourself:

What are your goals?

What do you expect members to post?

What are your guidelines for how members should interact?

Detailed rules go hand in hand with meaningful, high-quality conversations. This also cuts down on general riff-raff and questions as you can point members to your established rules. Encourage members to read others' posts or comments to see if their questions have been previously answered.

Establish your rules and enforce them. Your Group should be a safe, welcoming place for members to engage.

If nothing else, setting boundaries helps limit self-promotion and link dropping from spammers.

Facebook allows for 10 public rules for any given Group. For reference, Facebook's own suggestions for Group rules include:

Encouraging positive comments, feedback and conversations

Taking a firm stance on bullying and hate speech

Outlawing spam and irrelevant links

Respecting the privacy of fellow members

2. Prioritize discussions on a daily basis

The more you can get your members talking, the better.

This not only encourages more activity from your Facebook Group itself but also increases the likelihood that your posts will appear in your members' feeds.

Posting on a regular basis is definitely a commitment. That's why we recommend coming up with themed discussions you can use on a weekly or monthly basis.

For example, many Facebook Groups boats a "Motivation Monday" thread or a weekly post where members are encouraged to share content or stories. This does double duty of giving your visitors something to look forward to while also sticking to a consistent content calendar.

To ensure that you're getting the most eyes on your posts as possible, try to drive discussions when your members are most active.

For reference, here are the best times to post on Facebook which highlight the weekday mornings and afternoons as prime for posting something new.

3. Let your Facebook Group know that you're listening (but don't talk too much)

Keep a close eye on your notifications and replies, especially in discussion-related posts that you created yourself.

Your members will more than likely be glad to carry on the conversation, but replying shows that you're actively listening to what they have to say. This is especially important if they've tagged you for a reply.

However, don't feel a need to get involved with every conversation in your group. Sometimes it's best to give your members some breathing room and let them talk out a topic. Unless there's a question involved where you can jump in, it's totally fine to take a step back.

4. Avoid link-dropping and direct selling

Nobody joins a Group to be spammed to death with links and sales messages.

Beyond discouraging both in your Group rules, make sure to provide context to any sort of link or sales message that you post yourself.

For example, if you're promoting a blog post or product to your group, explain why you're posting the link or promotion.

Ideally, try your pitches and promos to direct messages and one-on-ones with your customers who've shown interest in what you're offering.

5. Emphasize exclusivity with a Closed Group

Notice that many Facebook Groups are "Closed." In other words, members can only join after being vetted and accepted by admins.

The popularity of Closed Groups isn't a coincidence. Groups are often treated like secret, exclusive clubs that promote "for your eyes only" content and offers.

Keeping your Group small and tight-knit keeps the quality of discussion high. This also makes life easier for your admins.

Below is a quick breakdown of what Public, Closed and Secret Groups mean for prospective members, for reference.

6. Optimize your Facebook Group and content for engagement

Much like you should pay attention to what drives Facebook Page engagement, similar rules apply to your Group.

For example, have you completely filled out your Group info to include relevant keywords that your audience might be looking for? Does your Group description include benefits and a call-to-action? What about any eye-catching cover photo?

Covering these bases makes your group more enticing and discoverable to prospective members.

As highlighted in our guide to Facebook analytics tools, it's important to understand which types of content perform well with your Facebook audience.

With Sprout, you can pull data from your Facebook Page to inspire your Group's content strategy.

Meanwhile, other Facebook analytics tools like Grytics actually dig into your Group data further including comments-by-day and a breakdown of audience reactions.

7. Experiment with different posts and content formats

For the sake of figuring out what engages your audience the most, be prepared to experiment with different types of posts.

This isn't just good news for the algorithm: doing so keeps your audience on their toes and keeps your Group posts from becoming too routine. Consider posting the following:

User-generated content (think: asking members to upload photos or video)

Facebook Live and native Facebook video

Interactive content (think: Polls)

Images (gifs, memes and infographics)

8. Make sure your admins are up to the task!

As we said earlier, Facebook Group marketing is a commitment.

When appointing admins, double-check that they're up to the task. For the sake of building customer relationships, it's important to respond to questions from members as swiftly as possible. Having multiple admins means it's not the sole responsibility of one individual to moderate or post on behalf of your brand or business. It also means that your members are never left hanging when a response is needed.

Of course, also ensure that you fully trust whoever you're giving administrative privileges to.

9. Search your conversations for common themes and pain points

If you're strapped for ideas in terms of what to post in your Group, look no further than your members' discussions.

What are they worried about? What do they need help with?

Keeping an eye on frequently asked questions and concerns can be the genesis for everything from blog posts to product ideas and beyond.

10 Promote your Group beyond Facebook!

Lastly, don't expect followers to flood your Facebook Group unprompted.

If you have an email newsletter or are active on other social platforms, to invite your customers elsewhere to join your Group.

Since your customers already know and trust your brand, inviting them to join your Facebook Group is a no-brainer to grow your membership and provide even more value to your audience.

What does Facebook Group marketing mean for your brand?

Groups provide an avenue for brands to nurture communities and engage their customers one-on-one.

And it helps that they're a brilliant way to beat the Facebook algorithm!

As private communities continue to grow, mastering your Facebook Group strategy can help you maximize your community engages from the word "go."

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How to build your community with Facebook Groups

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Facebook Group marketing can bring you closer to your customers while also helping you rise in the platform's algorithm. This guide breaks down how.

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The Ultimate Guide to Community Management

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The Ultimate Guide to Community Management

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In today's highly interactive and digitally connected world, it's strange to think that it can seem like we're isolated from those who are known to us. With a large segment of people who interact online, in the backdrop, this internet-powered world can feel like it is missing the human touch. This refers to both personal relationships and connections with companies - especially between companies and clients, as well as between companies and their staff.

It also concerns the connection between the customers or audiences of a brand, i.e., peer-to-peer networks. The question is how can people connect under a brand and deliver value mutually. What's the solution for those who are feeling isolated from people and the brands they're doing business with?

An online community for a brand.

Communities offer people a sense of belonging along with an avenue to connect with other people. Members can interact based on a shared passion and forge valuable networks. And that's the reason a large number of companies today are investing in community building for clients, staff, and audiences. This strategic initiative and the underlying processes are collectively known as community management.Companies create communities - or implement community management techniques across the organization - to build genuine relationships between their clients, supporters, and audiences. If we look inward, communities also connect companies with employees, board members, suppliers, and partners.

When companies invest in communities, they elevate the brand by adding a human component - one that is truly concerned about those who love the brand, work, and connect with the brand.

In this article, we'll cover the following key topics:
‍
‍ ✓ Definition of community management
‍ ✓ Different category of Community Management
‍ ✓ Strategies for community management
‍ ✓ Best practices to manage communities
‍ ✓ Working with community managers

How to define community management?

As a term, Community Management can be summed up as the collective activity of creating an inclusive community through different forms of interaction with the consumers, staff, and partners of a company. It's how a company leverages opportunities to engage with its customers (in real-life and digital media) to build a network through which all the participants can communicate, share, and grow a sense of belongingness.

What are the objectives of community management?

Community management in the present time has become a go-to strategy for many businesses and acknowledged by all forms of brands - but still mostly vague in terms of what it entails. So how can it be unique? Why is your company expected to follow this? Let's discuss the key factors that make community management an important element for the success of your brand.

Although there numerous benefits of an online community, given below are the key reasons for building a community:

Get reviews and collect ideas through actual discussions with your community members.

Offer assistance to audience members, supporters, and clients.

Increase awareness of the brand, services, and product within your domain.

Gain insights on customers to understand what goods, services, content, and assistance they need, expect, and require.

Build a platform to facilitate valuable networks between your company and customers.

Boost customer satisfaction, lifetime value, and referrals.

Offer value of a vibrant community to your clients that amplify your product or services.

Considering that community management has different interpretations across the industry is vital - the above-mentioned benefits are the important ones that a community helps you achieve.Besides, community management encompasses various practices. Let's take a look at these practices to decide the one(s) you want to concentrate on at your company.

Community management categories

In general, community management can be divided into six categories - a couple of them take place behind a computer and require no real-life contact, and others allow group members to communicate with your company and your employees in the physical world. The SPACE Model by CMXHub is the best way to segment different forms of community management.

SPACE Model for the community management

With this model, you can gain a deeper understanding of the categories of community management and zero in on the solutions that would work for you.

‍ Note: This part of the article offers a gist of only 6 different community management styles. We've also added a few examples for each category.

‍ S: Support and customer success

‍Customer service and performance is the first category. In terms of community management, the following are a couple of easy methods to handle customer service and success - a discussion forum, FAQ section, and a community portal.

An online forum is a place for questions and answers, a discussion platform with a mutual emphasis on customer care and support. It's a perfect way to link up with your clients. Your clients can talk with peers through a website, ask different questions, give feedback, or join in a conversation about a new solution that you are offering.

Using the platform, you might add links to the FAQ section via your community, so the members can educate themselves and get fast answers to frequently asked questions. You can also see the contributions of different members, participate in conversations, and provide support if necessary. This empowers your customers for self-services and saves precious time for your team by deflecting support tickets.

With software for customer success, a branded online community can be created. You can also launch a portal for members of your community that is focused on serving your clients. Here your clients can get self-service support, help others, connect with your team members, find any materials they require (e.g., knowledge base), and give feedback.

With community software like Bettermode Platform, you can build a branded community, and maintain your company's online community, FAQs, knowledge base as well as long-form blogs. You can configure the whole platform to suit your brand guidelines, write and maintain your forum. Also, a great channel to collect feedback from the customers and brainstorm with superusers to improve your products and services.

This form of community management is suitable for businesses with an extensive set of products - similar to a technology or software firm - so that users may connect and learn best practices and discuss problems that they encounter when using the products.

At Bettermode, our online community also helps our customer service team when our customers are looking for help. They either provide a solution on their own, loop in someone from another department or even get the help delivered by an existing customer.

‍ P: Product innovation, feedback, and ideation

‍Ideation of solutions, creating novel products, and collecting feedback is both a foresighted and responsive form of community management. This allows you to build a secure online place for your clients and audience so they can post their suggestions and opinions about how your company can be innovated and improved.

You may ask members of your community to give feedback via surveys and engage in one-to-one discussions for inputs that you need. This is one of the ways for user testing where you can include the active members, audiences, and clients. You can, for example, form a focus group of actual customers to understand how they think you can offer better products and services based on their first-hand experience.

This form of community management is perfect for most businesses - asking actual clients and audiences to get inputs on where their business is lacking and how they can create novel solutions.

‍ A: Acquisition and advocacy

‍This type of community management enables you to directly engage with the members who are highly invested in your company, your representatives, and brand evangelists.

Via various methods such as word-of-mouth, affiliate programs, and social media the members of your community enable you to develop brand awareness and promote your company. The usual method to connect these key individuals and build a community is done through an MVP (Most Valuable Person) program. Let us take a look at one example.

Lululemon has created an ambassador and loyalty program at the grassroots level by identifying and recruiting local influencers. These ambassadors work with small communities formed in the stores to bolster the bond between the customer and the brand. Furthermore, they help Lululemon offer experiential retail to the customers which is a strong differentiating factor from the competitors.

If you're looking to attract your most important customers by centralizing them at the core of your community flywheel, boost customer loyalty, grow brand recognition, and create long-term connections with your fans, this style of community management is perfect.

‍This community management style includes designing your members' content and programming. You'd largely focus on your clients, audiences, or employees to create a content program that includes various member segments and drives user-generated content.

For businesses with user-generated content that is deeply ingrained in their products, business blueprint, and other properties, this is a great choice.

For instance, in the case of companies like Kickstarter the people joining their website and using their platform to launch projects and raise capital is what boosts the value of the company.

Usually, companies like this create robust teams to manage the community and make sure that the user-generated content is relevant, adheres to company standards, and match the platform's requirements.

‍ E: External engagement

‍Community management focused on external engagement gives a sense of attachment to your clients and supporters and results in a powerful link to your brand via an online channel that exists beyond your company. Social media management can be considered as a general form of outward-facing community engagement.

Look at the Twitter page of Bettermode Platform for example - it is a highly informative and engaging channel that promotes our brand while building a group of followers based on similar passion (e.g., community building). We ensure that anyone who interacts and consumes our content is treated as a human being - not simply a number.

This form of social interaction is perfect for businesses looking to boost brand recognition while building one-on-one and one-to-many interactions with all types of fans, consumers, and followers. Virtually every organization has the opportunity to build external interaction using popular social networks.

‍ I: Internal community management

‍Last but not least, there is internal community management. Today, businesses are realizing the importance of developing vibrant communities to connect their staff, partners, investors, and suppliers. Enabling and nurturing these internal connections provide a sense of attachment. This encourages employees to connect, which results in increased productivity in the business and overall satisfaction.

For instance, businesses build social intranets where employees can have casual conversations and bond socially. This is all the more important for companies that are remote-first.

Internal community management forms a stronger bond between the internal members and links them with like-minded people. With improved attachment, members are encouraged to help each other and truly consider themselves a part of the company. This empowers them to support your business better by improving product knowledge and raising their satisfaction rates.

Nearly every company will work on internal communities since it largely requires community engagement using existing collaboration software (or a solution like Bettermode) and building various employee groups.

So, you've explored key community management styles and their benefits. Now let's discuss how you can create a practical community management plan to start adding value to your company.

Developing a plan for managing the community

We covered many forms of community management that your organization can deploy. Once you zero in on the goal of your community, you would encounter various ways to implement the community strategy.

For this article, we will explore how to build a branded online community that a company owns.

‍ 1. Understand the members

‍Building a community starts with a clear understanding of the members. So you need to create a member persona and define exactly why they should join your community, their problem, how you'd help them and finally why would keep coming back to the community.

The key factor here is that the brand community is not about the member rather it is all about the members.

‍ 2. Set KPIs and business goals

‍Your online community can be a powerful tool for your company, not only for communicating with customers but for growing word of mouth marketing, creating a brand, and driving leads. As such, you must set metrics to operate within a central framework.

These metrics may be used to decide subjects for debate, monthly themes, and more. Here are a few data points that need to be considered:

Traffic: Measure the traffic to your community site and track whether it is increasing and decreasing over time. Get an understanding of the popular sections of your community?

Engagement: How many people are visiting the site versus actively engaging? Which discussions are most engaged in? This can determine potential issues, content format, and start-up discussions.

Members: How many new members do you acquire every month, and how many become inactive? Is it a consistent month over a month? If there was a sudden increment, what triggered the spike?Your community is just as valuable as your members think it is. Encourage them to network with each other so that your community becomes a place for them to meet and speak, rather than just a group created by your organization.

The more trust the group has, the more likely it is to check back, engage in debates, and remain involved. If the group is large enough, you can even encourage members to start their own Meet-Up groups or even plan a mixer, hosted by your organization, in areas where you have offices.

This gives customers and community members a chance to meet face-to-face and potentially interact with someone in your organization if they can.

‍ 4. Initiate discussion

‍Group members would not, of course, speak to each other - at least not immediately. It's your job, as a community manager, to start conversations and get members to chat. To remain consistent, add discussion points to your weekly or monthly content calendar and decide what the subject of each week's discussion will be.

This helps you to plan extra tools ahead of time, such as a questionnaire or "game" for a group to do. You may also use your prep time to invite other members of your team to join in or host a conversation.

For example, the product manager in your company might post a thread to encourage the members to share their experiences and problems. As members reply to the post, the product manager should reply, engage further, and thank them for the inputs.

This adds a human touch to the brand.

‍ 5. Imbibe your brand personality

‍One of the greatest assets of an online community is the opportunity to humanize your brand and your company by adding personality to your conversation. For instance, you could share the internal happenings of your company and how your team members contribute to the fun culture.

The goal is to have fun while balancing professionalism and communicating as a brand. You must not move far from your brand in terms of narrative and find the right content to be personable.

‍ 6. Keep the community welcoming

‍A great way to ensure that there is always something to look forward to in your community is to ensure that you are offering exclusive opportunities regularly. It could be anything from interaction with the leadership team to early access to new features.

‍ 7. Narrate a genuine story

‍Ask customers to share their stories about the use of your product and their job in general. You will slowly develop a broad customer base to use for marketing assets and testimonials. Ask customers to share input from their coworkers, photos, quotations, and any other asset that demonstrates their experience.

‍ 8. Follow a process blueprint

‍A community generates a lot of material that comes from the crowd, from questions raised to shared stories. A company must be able to keep it organized so that the knowledge can be used by people (both internal employees and customers).

For example, popular community problems may point to an overlooked flaw in your service offering or a required update to your product. The more organized you are, the more the whole company gets out of the crowd, making it more important.

Best practices in community management

Based on our first-hand experience of working with top brands and community managers we have compiled a list of best practices that every company should follow.

‍ 1. Create guidelines for the brand community

‍You would always want a correct and precise portrayal of your business, your values, and your culture. This ensures that your brand is presented flawlessly to your community. Hence you need to craft a community guideline for all the stakeholders -- starting with the internal team to the members.

The way you create and implement your community guideline would change based on the community goals. That said, there are a large number of common elements that a community manager can follow:

To start, create a document that shows your ideas around how the members would connect, interact, and contribute content. This will change as your community evolves.

Using your community website you can create a specific page listing all the guidelines. Then, you need to introduce the members to the guidelines by prominently displaying them and making them a part of onboarding.

Offer your internal team a way of communication for any major problem in the community to the right people. That way issues can be resolved efficiently.

‍ 2. Stay in touch with your members

‍Regardless of the type of community, you are building, ensure that you are keeping a pulse of the community. That can be done by regularly checking in with your members.

That way you can keep your community relevant for the members and make sure that the community operations are getting executed smoothly. Especially, when the members are looking for help, they should get the right help.

‍When handling every form of culture you must instill authenticity. When your clients, supporters, followers, and leaders join your community, they should know instantly that it reflects your branding and messaging tone.

It's important to be honest and real whether you're behind a computer or community in the real world. At the end of the day, you are looking to cultivate a sense of belonging and make the members connected.

‍ 4. Capture the Voice of Customer

‍Listening is important as community management involves a great deal of constructive engagement with stakeholders. Whether it's social listening, frequent analysis of your discussion forum, or reacting to various feedback, understanding the Voice of Customer will be critical in elevating the value of the community.

Actively listening to the feedback, keeping the members updated, and closing the feedback loop shows that you truly care about the members. This makes your community trustworthy!A big part of maintaining a healthy community is showing the members gratitude. You can build trust and brand loyalty between you and your community members. It also shows that you respect their time and loyalty to the brand.

Some community members are already some of your most committed, helpful, fans, and customers.

You can use the following tactics based on the style of community you are running to ensure you are showing gratitude when necessary:

Connect with all the new members of the community as soon as they sign up. Thank them and ask them what they are expecting as well as how you can deliver a better experience.Be aware of who the main contributors to the community are. You can send them brand swags, special privileges, or give them a shout-out for being awesome.

Invite your superusers and brand ambassadors to visit your team in your office, and show them how everything works in your company.

‍ 6. Be consistent with your brand communication.

‍We already discussed the value of authenticity and the importance of actively listening to the voice of your customers in your community. This plays a major role in adding uniqueness to your community and keeps the community at the forefront of your stakeholders.Irrespective of the number of members in your community, make sure that they recognize the brand identity. This way you can build a consistent narrative in all interactions, communication, and content.

A key method to make this a smoother process is to connect your community goals back to the business goals of your organization and/or partner with different departments. It will keep your messages streamlined and encourage you to maintain your brand personality.

‍ 7. Keep the community engaged

‍You want to ensure that your audiences are active - this requires constant iteration of various content formats, engagement techniques, and clear measurement of member activity.

Often work with your team as well as superusers to find novel ways to engage your members. Keep your members updated by deploying an omnichannel community engagement strategy.

You will also involve members right after they sign up and keep learning more about your users - the motivation behind joining your community and their expectations from the community.

Now you might wonder how this community initiative can get started - how to kick off the efforts for your company's community management strategy if you haven't done any work in this domain.

A typical first step for organizations to take when initiating their community management strategy is to decide whether they would employ a community manager or not.

How community managers add value

If your company can invest in a community manager, you should consider recruiting a community manager to implement a robust strategy for building a thriving brand community.

Defining the role of the community manager

Community managers are essentially customer representatives, brand advocates, product managers, marketers, storytellers all rolled into one. Based on the business goal of the community, you will need the support of a team of managers with completely different skills.

However, in general, community managers share some common characteristics, no matter what their position is. A community manager would embody the following qualities:

‍A good community manager must be dependable, available, and reply within a fair timeframe. A member should never wait for the community manager for a large period.

‍A clear understanding of the business goal, the community goal, and how to achieve the objectives is critical for any successful community manager.

‍Every team member is occupied with different responsibilities. The same goes for a community manager as well. If something goes wrong, the community manager should accept it. If a community manager is not able to respond quickly to others, the manager should be able to reach out, apologize, and see how the member can be helped.

‍It is necessary to remain accessible to the members, maintain openness and integrity. It's about keeping people up-to-date.

‍Like anything else in life, a community manager should not simply follow the latest trends. A community manager must trust what they are doing. This is about being authentic and managing the above-mentioned key points.

This resource highlighted various facets of community management extensively - now you should have a clearer understanding of the importance of community management and the way it helps your business grow.

Create your community

Although community management is relatively new, it is can be powerful for driving businesses. By crafting a strategy for a community management strategy for your brand, you will be able to build a safe and secure space to connect with your clients, fans, staff, and supporters to provide input, connect, and learn from each other.

This will result in improved brand loyalty, boost conversions, and new client acquisition, and add a human element to your brand that they can connect to. the customers who contribute most to your success.

So start by evaluating different business goals for your company and where community management can help you achieve those goals. Once you do that you'd be in a better position to decide whether you need to hire a community manager.

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The Ultimate Guide to Community Management

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Learn how community management can help you create a humanized brand. Explore different types of community management and the best practices.

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Social Media Advertising: How It Works and Tips for Success

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Social Media Advertising: How It Works and Tips for Success

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Summary

Social media advertising is crucial for modern marketing. Paid ads are now expected by brands rather than low-priority or exceptions.

The sophistication of social media advertising allows for personalized targeting, creative formats and ads that feel authentic. This provides brands with ample opportunities to engage with their audience effectively.

Additionally, there is an opportunity for brands to leverage apps like Instagram and TikTok for product research. With increasing reliance of shoppers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, there are countless posts demonstrating products in action that are highly sought after.

What is social media advertising?

Social media advertising refers to any paid marketing campaign on social media.

These campaigns reach specific people based on their interests, demographics and behavior. Through ads, brands can send targeted promotions to prospects and past customers alike.

Chances are you consistently engage with (or at least see!) social ads on a daily basis. Below is an example that you might see scrolling through Instagram.

Advertising on social media has become more sophisticated in recent years. Gone are the days of boring, one-size-fits-all promotions that feel like random billboards.

Also, platforms like Meta have automated some of the more daunting aspects of running ads in the past. This includes targeting new customers and retargeting past ones.

We'll bite: you'd be hard-pressed to find someone that says they love seeing ads. That said, research says that consumers are now more willing to engage with relevant ads. The keyword here is " relevant."

This shows the value of creativity and thoughtful messaging when running paid campaigns.

From unboxings to interactive promotions, brands can run ads tailor-made for unique audiences. Not to mention personal and more human than a "BUY NOW!" ad.

How does social media advertising differ from organic content?

A well-crafted social ad might look exactly like an unpaid post.

Heck, sometimes you can't even tell the difference if it weren't for the "Sponsored" label."

The obvious difference between paid and organic social media is the price tag. Beyond that, also consider:

Ads aren't tied to the whims of social media algorithms. Paid targeting and bidding can be complicated. That said, there's a guarantee that at least some people will see your ads. This includes people that don't follow you. Contrast this with organic posts that could get buried by the algorithm.

Ads contain specific calls-to-actions ("try our demo" or "shop now"). They likewise lead to specific landing pages attached to your ads.

Organic social media is ongoing, ads are time-sensitive. Some brands cycle through ad campaigns on a consistent basis. Still, social media advertising is contingent on your business initiatives and budget. On the flip side, brands must keep up their organic presence whether or not they're running ads.

Benefits of social media advertising

Marketers understandably have to pick and choose their tactics carefully. This is especially true when budgets are tight or you need to prove ROI. Below are some of the key reasons why ads are worthwhile for brands.

Ads help brands squeeze more out of their organic presence

If you feel like your social posts are getting less reach lately, you're not alone.

Falling organic reach plagues most brands these days, especially on Facebook and Instagram.

Like it or not, social algorithms are giving more real estate to paid versus organic content. More brands investing in paid social means shrinking organic reach.

Brands should view this as a chance to squeeze more out of their organic social presence. What you do organically can directly impact and optimize your paid campaigns.

For example, consider using your best organic content as the basis for an ad campaign. It's easier than ever to boost top-performing posts or run influencer content as ads, too.

Build awareness with audiences you couldn't otherwise reach

A lack of organic reach makes engaging with new audiences an uphill battle.

The same even applies to past customers and people that follow you. After all, there's no guarantee that even your followers will see your organic content.

This is where ads can save the day. Modern social media advertising allows brands to hyper-target audiences based on specific parameters. This includes:

Prospects and leads who've visited your website

People who've purchased from you before

New potential customers that resemble your brand's target demographic

Quickly gather valuable information about your brand and audience

The depth of modern ad analytics can be daunting for brands.

That said, what you learn from your campaigns can be a goldmine of marketing data. Ads provide a way to measure the performance of different ad creatives, offers, CTAs and more.

Data gathered from these campaigns represent real people, not hypotheticals. Even a small-scale test can be eye-opening in terms of learning more about your customers. Think of ads as a scalable way to conduct market research.

Examples of social media advertising

Brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to the types of promotions they run.

Below are some social media advertising examples that scratch the surface of what you can do.

Static image ads

Static image ads are pretty straightforward. Single-image ads often highlight a specific product, sale or offer. Many brands make these pop with bold colors and captions that create FOMO.

Video ads

As noted early, consumers at large really want to see products in action. Video ads can balance entertainment and education when it comes to your products. Bonus points if your videos feature real-life customers or creators.

If nothing else types of ads serve as a natural hook and grab the attention of serial scrollers. The fact that Reels and TikToks are so popular right now reflects the effectiveness of video ads.

Carousel ads

It's well-documented that Carousel content performs well organically on Instagram. Slideshows provide an opportunity to show off multiple products from multiple angles. This provides shoppers with a complete view of what you're offering. With Carousels, a single ad can appeal to different types of customers at the same time.

Stories ads

Anything you can do to serve ads without interrupting potential customers is a plus. That's part of what makes ads in the Stories ads so notable. The key is to immediately hook viewers from the first frame to pique their interest. Bold colors and headlines plus a video format do the trick.

Branded content ads (AKA Spark ads on TikTok)

The common thread between most of these social advertising examples?

Featuring real people helps them stand out. These types of ads resemble organic content at a glance and that makes them so powerful.

Branded content ads allow you to take posts from creators on Instagram or TikTok and promote them as ads. Doing so should be on the radar for any brand that already invests in influencer marketing.

How social media advertising works

There are a lot of moving pieces involved in any given ad campaign. Below is a high-level overview of the steps required to get an ad up and running.

Bidding and targeting

The concept of bidding is something to understand when advertising with Meta. Without getting too into the nitty-gritty, here's how it works:

Meta ads work in a so-called "auction" system. You can almost think of this as competing for prime-time ad placements on TV. Meta determines which brands get their ads served to people based on relevancy. The idea is that your ad "wins" when it's set to serve people who'd be most likely to engage with them.

You set a timeline and budget for your ad campaign. With a lifetime budget, Meta will determine the optimal way to serve your ads until your budget is spent. With daily ad budgets, you can set a limit on how much you're willing to spend on individual ad sets per day.

You set up ad targeting to determine who your ads will reach. For example, you can set up ads to reach new customers that resemble your current customers. You can also target audiences based on customer lists, website visits and more.

How you define your audience is up to you but Meta can do a lot of hand-holding to walk you through the process. This applies to bidding and targeting alike.

Goals and objectives

Pop quiz: why do you want to invest in social media advertising in the first place?

This isn't a trick question! Big-picture goals will help you define specific objectives to optimize your campaign performance.

For example, are you trying to build awareness? Hype up a launch? Earn more traffic? All of the above are fair game in terms of goals. Social platforms will tailor your ad targeting and setup based on your goals via campaign objectives.

Here's a snapshot of the campaign objectives available on Facebook and Instagram:

Sales

Leads (lead generation)

Engagement

Traffic

Awareness

App promotion

Meanwhile, here are the ad objectives on TikTok.

Awareness (reach)

Consideration (traffic, views, community interactions)

Conversion (product sales, website conversions, lead generation, app promotion)

Once you define your elements, you're responsible for filling in the blanks to determine what your ads will actually look like.

Creatives

Piggybacking on the point above, your ad creatives are the "meat" of your campaigns. In other words, what people are going to get served.

When we talk about the many moving pieces of a campaign, creatives are make-or-break. Consider the anatomy of any given social ad including:

Messaging and copy

Calls-to-action

Format (think: photo versus video)

Color scheme

Audio

Discounts and offer amount

Some brands will actually run variations of the same ad with different creatives. This can be done for testing purposes and likewise serve as a way to reach multiple audiences with the same ad.

Tips for social media advertising

To wrap things up, let's review some quick tips for brands considering ad campaigns on social media.

Be ready to experiment with different campaigns

Knocking your first set of social ads out of the park is a tall order.

Thankfully, a little bit of experimenting can go a long way toward optimizing your campaigns. Rather than go head-first into ads, consider running small-scale tests first.

From formats to copy and beyond, there are so many variables that go into any given ad set. Be prepared to make a few tweaks before finding what works.

Use a social media marketing tool to make informed decisions

If you're stuck in terms of what you should run as an ad, look no further than your organic presence.

For example, your analytics and past engagement can serve as a treasure trove of insight for your ad campaigns. This is especially true if you're using a social media management tool like Sprout Social.

Sprout makes it a cinch to identify your top-performing content and messaging to repurpose as ads. Not to mention which networks would be prime for your next campaign.

The more granular you get with your data, the more confident decisions you can make with your ads.

The fact that Sprout allows you to track your organic and paid efforts side-by-side is a nice added bonus. Doing so gives you a more holistic understanding of your social media advertising efforts.

Make your ads as personable as possible

We'll say it again: the more your ads resemble organic content, the better.

There's a reason why TikTok's mantra is "Make TikToks, not ads." Authentic and unfiltered ads have proven effective on TikTok. Brands can apply the same approach to Instagram, too. Creator-based ads serve as a way to make your ads instantly feel less sales-y.

Is social media advertising on your radar?

Social media advertising campaigns are becoming a matter of "when" rather than "if" for brands.

As organic reach is harder to come by and competition grows in the social space, paid ads are often the best way to ensure that you're reaching your audience.

Hopefully you have a better idea of what's possible with paid campaigns and you're ready to start brainstorming your own. If you need more inspiration, check out our paid social media 101 guide !

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Social media advertising: How it works and tips for success

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Understanding how social media advertising works is crucial for marketers and brands today. This post explains what you need to know.

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Organic vs. Paid Social Media: A Hybrid Strategy That Works 

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Organic vs. Paid Social Media: A Hybrid Strategy That Works 

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Organic vs. paid social media: A hybrid strategy that works

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It’s not organic vs. paid social media—it’s organic and paid social media. Here’s how you can roll out a hybrid strategy that drives results.

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10 Steps to Create Amazing Paid Social Media Campaigns 

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10 Steps to Create Amazing Paid Social Media Campaigns 

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10 Steps to Create Amazing Paid Social Media Campaigns - Digivizer

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Follow these 10 easy steps for creating paid social media campaigns and boost your brand awareness and attract more customers to your brand.

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Building a Social Media Team for the Future of Marketing 

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Building a Social Media Team for the Future of Marketing 

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A short decade ago, one could assume they wouldn't miss much if they took a few days off social. Now, each day brings at least ten trending topics, a brand crisis or two and countless viral products. Brands that lack well-staffed social teams aren't just missing major moments-they forfeit countless daily opportunities to foster brand awareness and loyalty.

It's not 2013, anymore. So why are businesses still resourcing social media team s as if it is?

As social media has evolved, so have the expectations and capabilities of social marketers and teams. They take on content creation, strategy development, data analysis, community engagement-not to mention keeping up with an ever-evolving network landscape.

The truth is there's no one-size-fits-all social media team structure because there's no one-size-fits-all approach to social media management. Social media org charts have to reflect the unique needs of your business and audience.

This guide is designed to help you think through the factors that go into designing a social media department that sets everyone-leaders and contributors-up for success. Keep reading for advice on team structures

5 must-know social media team structures to consider

The word "restructuring" typically invokes a sense of fear, but when applied to your social media team it's most definitely an opportunity. The dynamic nature of social helps marketers refine and grow their skills quickly, so they can level up to the next stop on their career path.

Proactively experimenting with new types of social media department structures can result in career-making opportunities for social marketers. If you're ready to shake things up but aren't sure where to begin, here are five to consider:

1. Network

The majority (64%) of social media team s are organized by network, aligning individual team members to specific networks-like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. This approach empowers individuals to become experts on their assigned platform and take full ownership of a strategy from development to execution.

Our own social team experimented with a network-specific structure back in 2022 but ultimately decided they wouldn't continue the approach moving forward. While it did result in some highly intentional content and a much deeper understanding of platform-specific audience insights, it simply wasn't scalable for a team of our size.

Unsurprisingly, having a separate strategy for each social network is hard. As more and more platforms join the chat, creating effective strategies for each of them is virtually impossible.

This team structure gained popularity during a more stable era of social; Since then, the landscape has evolved into a much more fluid space where platform dominance is no longer a given. With new platforms emerging and consumer preferences changing rapidly, assigning team members to specific networks can now result in gaps and redundancies.

Our experience revealed that a network-based social media team structure can create silos and gaps, particularly when a new network gains popularity (hello, Threads!). However, it still has potential as an interim structure for new teams developing a social media marketing strategy from the ground up.

2. Audience engagement

The second most common team structure focuses on audience engagement goals and patterns, which can vary based on your industry or business size. The main categories include:

Awareness: Creating content that's designed to boost brand visibility with new and existing audiences.

Engagement: Creating content and engaging with inbound messages (comments, DMs, etc.) with the goal of building community and increasing brand loyalty.

Customer Service: Managing customer service questions, requests or complaints to ensure they're resolved in a timely manner.

Of course, these teams go beyond content creation. For instance, an awareness team might include a content creator, influencer marketing manager and performance analyst to ensure content stays relevant and valuable.

This approach calls on individuals to work across multiple networks, so a robust social media management tool is a non-negotiable here. Consolidating workflows into a single system is the only way to prevent your team from spending too much time hopping between disparate platforms.

3. Distribution

Teams structured around distribution needs and tactics align roles around content creation and publishing formats. This setup is good for businesses that need to produce a lot of different content formats to meet the distribution needs of their audience.

Think about when you go from writing a lengthy email into recording a video-it's not easy to switch your brain to a different skill. This is especially hard for creatives, who have to create a high volume of content in different formats. Allowing individuals to carve distinct lanes based on content formats (text, static images, short-form video, long-form video, etc.) gives them the focus they need to produce high-quality work.

That said, teams adopting this structure should note that it can create situations where audience engagement is put on the back burner. While creative and interesting content is crucial, our latest Index report found that the majority of consumers value brands that actively respond to their audience on social media.

4. Internal functional support

Designing social media departments around internal functions aligns teams with different departments or business units, supporting the creation of tailored social media strategies that benefit specific areas of a company.

Aligning social strategies with internal functions grants departments greater agency in shaping social efforts that directly support their work. This method provides a clearer understanding of what social media can achieve for each department. In practice, this might look like:

A team dedicated to recruitment and employer brand efforts to support HR needs.

A team concentrating on social commerce and down-funnel content to bolster sales efforts.

A team focusing on social customer care to enhance customer support functions.

This structural approach addresses an ever-present concern for social media teams: feeling siloed from other departments. Although the majority of marketers agree that other departments inform social efforts and vice versa, nearly half (43%) of teams still share a sense of isolation.

This approach also proves effective for businesses managing a portfolio of brands, ensuring that each brand benefits from specialized social media resources tailored to its unique needs.

5. Center of excellence

A social media center of excellence (CoE) model operates similarly to the internal functional support model but with a reverse approach. Instead of teams aligning with departments to formulate social strategies, each department appoints a representative to participate in a council, contributing insights to shape the social strategy.

Key participants typically include representatives from public relations, employer brand, human resources, product and customer support. Together, they offer valuable input into a company's social strategy, fostering collaboration across various business units.

We asked Kate Winick, former Senior Director of Social Media and Brand Marketing at Peloton, to give us an example of what that might look like.

"Consider a B2C brand managing their LinkedIn account. It's still social, but it's completely different from consumer-facing channels. There are stakeholders from your recruitment and employer brand teams who need to reach candidates and current employees. CoE models allow these stakeholders to manage a channel like LinkedIn strategically, without relying on your social team and stretching their bandwidth too thin."

Winick currently consults top brands on their team structure, including centers of excellence, and advises them on how to interact with stakeholders from other departments. In this role, she's found that CoE models work well for large businesses that have social stakeholders distributed throughout their org chart.

If your organization fits this description, exploring the CoE model might be a strategic move to align your social strategies with overarching company goals.

7 social media team roles to consider for your org

Finding a structure that suits your business needs may illuminate gaps that are present in your social media department. Here are some roles that should be at the top of your wishlist as you plan for team growth.

The social media manager

If you can only afford to hire a single social media marketer, it should be a generalist social media manager.

Social media managers know your brand inside and out. They are the ones drawing up the blueprint for your social strategy, goals and marketing plan. They're focused on developing and promoting engaging content, especially when they're flying solo and measuring the success of that content.

This person should also be the one building cross-departmental relationships, with a little assistance from other marketing leaders so social can make a business-wide impact. Ultimately, this person is the Swiss Army knife of your social team and has a diverse set of skills that includes writing, communication, data analysis and so much more.

The content creator

Content is your greatest asset on social media and having a person dedicated to creating it is a major asset to your team. A content creator directly supports the social media manager and takes some of the content burden off their plate, so the manager can focus on more strategic work. The content creator is a strong storyteller with a creative mind. They must be on top of industry news and social media trends so they can use that knowledge to influence the content strategy and spark creative direction.

At larger companies, a content creator might work with your brand's creative team or social agency to develop creative assets. In smaller companies, this role might be a multimedia content specialist who can do some design, photography, video and copywriting work for social themselves.

The social data analyst

Social is a power source of business intelligence, so having a person on your social team who is ready and willing to put on their data analyst hat is critical.

A social media data analyst makes sense out of the raw numbers and reports and turns data into actionable insights. They regularly report on key performance indicators to help determine if your strategy is on track and performing as planned-and when it isn't, they have the skills to make recommendations on how to bounce back. Perhaps most importantly, a data analyst can demonstrate the business impact of data and measure the return on your investment in social media.

The community manager

Monitoring, listening to and engaging with your social communities are a community manager's raison d'être. A typical social media community manager is responsible for advocating for a brand's audience and community on social. This person isn't just friendly and engaging, they're also strategic about building an audience.

[Social media community managers] keep things going in the comment section, reach out to superfans, create fan experiences-anything that builds a sense of brand loyalty.

Paula Perez
Community Manager, Oatly

This person is not a customer service representative, but they might connect customer service to community members who have reached out with product or service-related questions or concerns.

The paid media specialist

Organic and paid social strategies are like two halves of a whole, which is why they can, and should, complement and reinforce each other.

Whether you aim to boost brand awareness, welcome new followers or gather new leads, combining both efforts will deliver optimal results. It is helpful, however, to split organic and paid social media team roles. While your other social media marketers focus on the art of organic content, a teammate that specializes in paid digital media can optimize those efforts further and deepen the business impact of social.

The influencer marketing strategist

The influencer marketing industry is expected to reach $21.2 billion worldwide in 2023. This exponential growth has meant that what was once assumed to be a space for retail brands exclusively now has room for industries of all kinds.

A great influencer marketing strategist will sift through the many influencers that might fit your brand to identify the few that will drive tangible ROI. They then work with those individuals to develop content that meets the needs of your audience and theirs.

Building relationships with influencers on behalf of a brand is inherently a high-touch process. When you consider that, alongside ongoing tasks like performance reporting and budget optimization, investing in a full-time professional for this role becomes a no-brainer.

The social customer care lead

Your social customer care lead serves as a conduit between your social media and customer service teams-an essential hire for businesses that experience a high volume of social customer service requests.

This individual is responsible for documenting social customer care processes, creating escalation management strategies and managing integrations between your social media and case management tools. They also provide much-needed support for customer service agents as they learn how to offer more brand-centric support across several social media channels.

Today, only 8% of social marketers believe themselves to be leaders in social customer care. Businesses that make this critical hire will secure a competitive advantage in their customer experience.

3 signs it's time to expand your social media department

Hiring is a big decision, and recruiting is often a long and expensive process that takes time from multiple parties. That said, the costs of waiting can outweigh the costs of taking the leap. If you're debating whether it's time to post that job description, here are some key signs to look for:

1. Growth is stalling

Your output is consistent and you're maintaining content quality, yet you've stopped seeing growth toward your goal metrics. Growth lulls can stem from a lot of root causes, but if your team is stuck in one you can't shake, bandwidth may be to blame.
How expansion helps your case
Social is constantly evolving, and what it takes to meet your goals today might be a fraction of what it will take tomorrow. As consumer social media usage grows exponentially, establishing your brand as a market leader will only become more competitive.

To maintain momentum, marketers will have to spend even more time combing through social data for insights on what's resonating with customers. If there's no time, then expanding your social media department is your only path toward ensuring you have resources dedicated to both strategy and execution.

2. You're missing engagement opportunities

On average, brands receive 87 inbound engagements on social per day. The more people you reach, the more engagement you attract. Responding to every interaction can feel like an uphill battle, but engagement is too important to let it fall by the wayside. If you're unresponsive to your audience, it will be that much harder to build loyalty in the long term.
How expansion helps your case
There are several ways for customers to interact with your brand on any given channel. Aside from the standard Likes and comments, they can leave reviews, share support requests and tag brands in praise (or in worse cases, complaints).

In other words: social isn't a one-way communication channel, and brands that are making an impact on social today embrace its bidirectional nature by prioritizing audience engagement. According to the most recent Sprout Social Index™ Report, 51% of consumers say the most memorable brands on social media respond to customers. This responsiveness isn't limited to complaints or questions-consumers need brands to engage in conversations of all types to gain their loyalty.

3. No time for collaboration

Social media is a collaborative profession by nature. Social data can inform marketing, product roadmaps, competitive analyses, sales tactics and more. By the same token, team members beyond marketing can widen your perspective to refine your messaging and content decisions.
How expansion helps your case
According to 93% of executives surveyed, social media data and insights will be a primary source of business intelligence for their companies in 2024. If your insights live in a marketing silo, your business risks losing sight of consumer interests.

Social can be transformative when managers have the time to share their reporting and collaborate with other leaders across a business.

How to future-proof your social media team

Social media is an incredibly dynamic field, where things can-and do-change at the drop of a hat. As social becomes more entrenched in our everyday lives, the future of the channel becomes more wide-reaching and more complicated.

Maintaining your brand's competitive edge and reaping the most rewards from social starts with investing in the professionals that help shape your brand perception across this new digital terrain. If you're not sure what that looks like, here are three ways to future-proof your social media team.

1. Invest in your staff's ongoing development

Managing a social presence is an always-on job that requires constant explanation-whether it's clarifying why a particular post might not resonate on a specific platform or advocating for the value of the channel itself.

It's no wonder 42% of marketers plan to stop working in social media within the next two years, and 20% want to change careers within the next 12 months. This poses a genuine threat to the industry, potentially leading to a scarcity of experienced talent.

Fostering opportunities for growth and career advancement is crucial for retaining social talent. Leaders may not be able to secure budget for immediate pay increases, but they can still support their teams by creating opportunities for skill expansion.

Allocating budget resources for conferences (both digital and IRL), professional development resources and courses signals a commitment to long-term growth and success. Additionally, leaders can direct their teams to free communities (like Sprout Social's Arboretum) for more regular opportunities to connect with and learn from their peers.

2. I dentify more opportunities for cross-functional impact

Gold standard social media strategies shape cross-functional business decisions. There's just one catch-achieving this level of impact becomes an uphill battle if your team is confined to a marketing bubble, isolated from potential collaborators.

Forward-thinking companies break down these silos by sharing social data pervasively throughout their organizations. This approach ensures that social insights can inform decisions related to customer, product and business opportunities. If social data remains within the confines of your marketing department, you're at risk of falling behind.

Social teams need executive sponsorship to guide them as they realize the full potential of their strategies, and marketing leaders are uniquely positioned to fill this role. This does more than just lay the groundwork for cross-functional collaboration-it empowers teams to showcase the impact of social across various functions within an organization.

It's a strategic move that secures buy-in for your team to wield their influence within a broader organizational framework.

3. Encourage experimentation

Emerging technologies are redefining what it means to work in social. In the past, attempting to conduct regular social media data analysis while managing a full content calendar and engagement duties felt daunting. Now, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies, teams can expand the impact of their work without adding more hours to the day.

AI tools help social media teams collate massive amounts of social listening data and transform it into actionable recommendations that elevate how social data is used across departments. According to the 2023 State of Social Media Report, a staggering 96% of business leaders believe that AI will play a pivotal role in significantly improving decision-making processes in the future.

Businesses are all-in on AI for social marketing. To make sure your brand isn't left behind, it's crucial to support your social media team in embracing the latest AI use cases in marketing.

This involves investing in tools that prioritize AI development and collaborating with business leaders to establish thoughtful AI use policies. These policies not only safeguard your business and brand but also ensure that your team remains at the forefront of the competitive landscape.

Now's the time to invest in your dream social media team

There is no one-size-fits-all social media team structure, but with some vision, strategic planning and leadership buy-in, you can make it to your dream state. Now that you know how your team can benefit from additional resources, it's time to design a role that will make an impact.

If you're in need of inspiration, check out this guide to social media org charts. Inside, you'll find insights from the social marketing leaders behind Kaplan, Cielo Talent and VMWare, as well as their takes on what future social media org charts will look like.

Ronnie Gomez

Ronnie Gomez is a Content Strategist at Sprout Social where she writes to help social professionals learn and grow at every stage of their careers. When she's not writing, she's reading or looking for Chicago's next best place to get a vanilla oat milk latte.

Read all articles by Ronnie Gomez

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How to build your social media team for the future of marketing

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Tomorrow's wins are built today. Here's everything you need to know to build a social media team that drives results.

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What is a Social Media Manager? And How to Become One

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What is a Social Media Manager? And How to Become One

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A social media manager is typically responsible for setting content strategy and driving engagement on a company's social platforms. To be successful in that role, social media managers often need to possess a knack for storytelling, a keen eye for design, and an ability to analyze what does well with an audience-and what doesn't.

Social media has become a key marketing area thanks to its ability to reach and capture customers while learning more about their needs, desires, and frustrations. And it's ubiquitous across industries-corporations, brands, non-profits, government officials, celebrities, and more have accounts to communicate directly with followers-which means working as a social media manager can lead to a variety of fields.

In this article, we'll explore the responsibilities a social media manager typically has, the key skills necessary to do this line of work, and how to get started.

Social media managers are ordinarily responsible for developing strategies to increase followers, creating and overseeing social campaigns, producing content, reviewing analytics, and communicating with key stakeholders in a company.

As a social media manager, your specific responsibilities will depend on the size of your company. For example, while many social media managers at larger corporations typically approve copy or videos rather than create them, it's common for social media managers at smaller companies to take on more content creation.

If you're interested in working as a social media manager, your tasks may include:

Average time: 7 month(s)

Learn at your own pace

Skills you'll build:

If you're interested in becoming a social media manager, it's a good idea to improve your skills in the following areas:

Writing: Whether you're drafting posts or crafting captions, good social media writing goes beyond solid grammar and spelling. It will be important to hone your copywriting skills to develop compelling writing that fits into a brand's story and voice and engages its audience. before applying to become a social media manager.

Read more: 13 Key Marketing Skills to Boost Your Resume
Average time: 1 month(s)

Learn at your own pace

Skills you'll build:

Social media continues to be a growing field. According to data on LinkedIn, the demand for paid social media skills rose 116.4 percent, while the demand for Instagram skills rose 28.4 percent since the onset of the pandemic [ 1]. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that advertising, promotions, and marketing manager roles are expected to increase by 10 percent between 2020 and 2030 in the US [ 2].

In the US, social media managers earn an average salary of $74,367, according to Glassdoor (July 2022).

Learn more: What Can You Do with a Marketing Degree? 11 Career Paths

Becoming a social media manager often requires a combination of education and experience, though the specifics can differ by company.

Consider a degree.

Social media managers typically hold a bachelor's degree, according to the BLS. Majoring in a field that will build your communication or business skills-like marketing, journalism, or communications-can prepare you for the role.

Going to college can also expose you to various opportunities where you may be able to gain specific experience in a professional setting. Use your career center's resources to look for internships, volunteer opportunities, or part-time roles. Otherwise, try joining a club and contributing to their social media efforts.

There's more than one path toward a career in social media management. Watch below for a look at the career journey of Daniel Kob, an instructor for the Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate.

Daniel Kob talks about his career journey in marketing.

Get an internship or entry-level social media job.

Experience working with social media is a key part of becoming a manager in the field. If you're short on experience, look for an entry-level position that can teach you the basics of social media marketing before trying to move into a managerial position.

Keep an eye out for these entry-level job titles:

Getting started

Social media managers can act as an organization's mouthpiece to engage with the public and promote their vision. If you're ready to start learning, consider the Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate on Coursera-the first week is free.

Average time: 7 month(s)

Learn at your own pace

Skills you'll build:

Related articles

Article sources

1. Marketing Week. " Steep rise in demand for marketers with digital skills, https://www.marketingweek.com/steep-rise-demand-marketers-digital/." Accessed July 4, 2022.

2. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/advertising-promotions-and-marketing-managers.htm." Accessed July 4, 2022.

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What's a Social Media Manager? And How to Become One

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A social media manager is typically responsible for setting content strategy and driving engagement on a company's social platforms. To be successful in that role, social media managers often need to possess a knack for storytelling, a keen eye for design, and an ability to analyze what does well with an audience-and what doesn't.

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Data-Driven Marketing: Leveraging Analytics to Make Informed Decisions

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Data-Driven Marketing: Leveraging Analytics to Make Informed Decisions

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The importance of data-driven decision-making cannot be overstated. It allows marketers to move away from vague assumptions and subjective opinions and instead base their actions on tangible evidence derived from thorough data analysis. By understanding customer preferences, pain points, and purchase patterns, businesses can tailor their marketing efforts with unparalleled precision, fostering stronger connections with their target audiences.

One of the cornerstones of data-driven marketing is the use of analytics tools. With the rise of advanced technologies and big data solutions, marketers now have access to an array of sophisticated analytics platforms that can extract valuable insights from vast datasets. These tools not only aid in deciphering complex data but also enable marketers to discover hidden trends and patterns, enabling them to predict market shifts and optimize strategies accordingly.

In this article, we will explore the indispensable role of data-driven decision-making in shaping successful marketing campaigns. We will delve into the various ways businesses can harness the power of analytics tools to unlock the true potential of their marketing efforts.

Data-Driven Decision-Making

Data-Driven Decision-Making (DDDM) is a methodology that involves making informed choices and strategic decisions based on empirical evidence and data analysis rather than relying solely on intuition, personal experience, or gut feelings. In this approach, data takes center stage as the primary driver of decision-making processes across various industries and domains, including business, marketing, healthcare, finance, and more.

The key principles of Data-Driven Decision-Making involve:

Data Collection: It begins with the systematic collection of relevant and reliable data. This data could be sourced from various channels, such as customer interactions, market research , surveys, website analytics, social media metrics , sales figures, and other relevant sources.

Data Analysis: Once the data is gathered, it undergoes rigorous analysis to derive meaningful insights and patterns. Data analysts and data scientists use statistical techniques, machine learning algorithms, and data visualization tools to extract valuable information and identify trends that might be otherwise imperceptible.

Objective Decision-Making: Data-driven decision-makers prioritize objectivity. They base their choices on concrete evidence rather than subjective biases or preferences. This approach helps eliminate guesswork and emotional responses, leading to more accurate and reliable decisions.

Continuous Improvement: Data-driven decision-making is an iterative process. Organizations continually collect new data, refine their analysis techniques, and adjust their strategies based on evolving insights to optimize their performance and outcomes over time.

Benefits of Data-Driven Decision-Making:

Accuracy and Precision: By relying on empirical evidence and data analysis, decisions are more accurate and precise, reducing the risk of costly mistakes or missteps.

Understanding Customers: Data-driven approaches offer valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs, enabling businesses to tailor their products and services more effectively.

Identifying Opportunities and Trends: Data analysis helps identify emerging trends, market opportunities, and potential areas for growth, giving businesses a competitive edge.

Cost Efficiency: Data-driven strategies optimize resource allocation, ensuring that resources are utilized efficiently, thereby saving time and money.

Risk Mitigation: With data-backed insights, decision-makers can better assess and mitigate risks, making strategic choices with greater confidence.

Personalization: Data-driven marketing allows businesses to personalize their messaging and offers, creating more engaging and relevant experiences for customers.

Types of Analytics Tools for Marketing

When it comes to gathering data, there are various analytics tools at your disposal. Here are the different types and the kinds of data they assist with gathering.

Web Analytics

Social Media Analytics

Social media analytics tools focus on measuring the performance and impact of a brand's presence on social media platforms. They provide metrics such as engagement rates, reach, impressions, follower growth, and audience demographics. By analyzing social media data, marketers can grow their following , gauge the effectiveness of their content, identify trends, and tailor their social media strategies to resonate with their target audience . Examples of social media analytics tools include:

Email Marketing Analytics

Email marketing analytics tools are used to track and measure the performance of email campaigns . Marketers can monitor metrics like open rates, click-through rates (CTR), bounce rates, and conversions. These insights allow them to assess the effectiveness of their email marketing efforts, identify engaging content, and refine their email campaigns for better results. Prominent email marketing platforms often include built-in analytics features or third-party tools like:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Analytics

Key Metrics for Data-Driven Marketing

Data-driven marketing relies on a variety of key metrics to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, track performance, and drive strategic decision-making. Here are some essential key metrics commonly used in data-driven marketing:

Identifying Relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Marketing Campaigns

Revenue-Related Metrics

Return on Investment (ROI): ROI measures the profitability of marketing efforts by comparing the revenue generated from a campaign to the cost incurred. It helps marketers understand the effectiveness of their investments and identify high-performing campaigns.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): CLV estimates the total value a customer is expected to generate for a business throughout their relationship. Understanding CLV helps in focusing on customer retention and loyalty efforts.

Cost per Acquisition (CPA): CPA calculates the average cost of acquiring a new customer. It helps in optimizing marketing budgets and assessing the efficiency of customer acquisition strategies.

Engagement Metrics

Click-through Rates (CTR): CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on a specific link or call-to-action (CTA) within an advertisement or email. It indicates the level of engagement with the content and the effectiveness of the CTA.

Conversion Rates: Conversion rates measure the percentage of visitors who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. It provides insights into the effectiveness of landing pages and marketing campaigns in driving conversions.

Bounce Rates: The bounce rate represents the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page. High bounce rates may suggest issues with website content or user experience.

Brand Awareness Metrics

Reach: Reach measures the total number of unique users who have been exposed to a marketing message or content. It helps understand the potential size of the audience reached by a campaign.

Impressions: Impressions count the total number of times a marketing message, or advertisement was displayed, regardless of whether it was clicked or not. It reflects the overall visibility of the content.

Share of Voice (SOV): SOV measures a brand's presence in the market compared to its competitors. It helps assess the brand's visibility and market share in relation to its competitors.

How to Implement Data-Driven Decision-Making

Implementing data-driven decision-making in marketing involves a structured process that integrates data collection, analysis, and action into the overall marketing strategy. Here is a step-by-step guide to implementing data-driven approaches:

Step 1: Define Clear Marketing Goals

Step 2: Align Data Collection with Goals

Identify the types of data you need to collect to measure progress toward your marketing goals. Depending on your objectives, this could include website analytics, social media metrics, email marketing data, customer behavior data, CRM data, and more.

Step 3: Select the Right Analytics Tools

Choose appropriate analytics tools that can efficiently gather, process, and analyze the data relevant to your marketing goals. There are various tools available, so make sure you select tools that fit your requirements and integrate seamlessly with your marketing platforms.

Step 4: Data Analysis and Interpretation

Once the data is collected, analyze it to derive meaningful insights. Look for patterns, trends, correlations, and outliers that can inform your marketing decisions. Data analysts and data scientists can use statistical techniques, machine learning algorithms, and data visualization to help interpret the data effectively.

Step 5: Make Informed Decisions Based on Data

Translate the insights obtained from data analysis into actionable marketing strategies. Use the data to optimize your campaigns, personalize content, identify target audiences, allocate resources efficiently, and refine your marketing messages. Base your decisions on the evidence provided by the data rather than relying on assumptions or guesswork.

Step 6: Monitor and Measure Results

Implement data-driven marketing strategies and closely monitor their performance. Continuously measure the outcomes and compare them against your defined KPIs. Regularly assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and be prepared to make adjustments if needed based on real-time data.

Step 7: Cultivate a Data-Driven Culture

Encourage a data-driven culture within your marketing team and organization. Foster collaboration between data analysts, marketers, and decision-makers to ensure that data insights are considered in the decision-making process. Regularly communicate the value and impact of data-driven decisions to stakeholders across the organization.

Step 8: Continuously Learn and Improve

Overcoming Challenges in Data-Driven Marketing

With every strategy and approach comes some challenges and issues to keep in mind. Here are the various challenges you should keep in mind and ways to overcome them.

Addressing Data Privacy and Security Concerns

Data privacy and security are paramount in data-driven marketing. To address these concerns, consider the following measures:

Compliance: Stay updated with data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and ensure your data collection and handling practices are compliant with relevant laws.

Data Encryption: Use encryption to safeguard sensitive data during storage and transmission.

Access Controls: Restrict data access to authorized personnel only, and implement role-based access controls.

Anonymization and Pseudonymization: Anonymize or pseudonymize personal data wherever possible to protect individual identities.

Data Auditing: Conduct regular audits of data processes and storage to identify potential vulnerabilities and ensure data security.

Dealing with Data Overload and Information Fatigue

Managing vast amounts of data can lead to information overload, making it challenging to derive meaningful insights. To handle data overload:

Define Relevant KPIs: Focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with your marketing goals, and prioritize data collection around them.

Data Segmentation: Segment your data into smaller, manageable subsets to focus on specific target audiences or campaign objectives.

Data Visualization: Use data visualization tools to present complex data in a more digestible and actionable format.

Data Prioritization: Prioritize data that has the most significant impact on decision-making and disregard irrelevant or redundant data.

Automation: Implement automation to streamline data collection, analysis, and reporting processes, saving time and resources.

By leveraging advanced analytics and embracing a data-driven approach, companies can gain valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and campaign performance. As technology and data analytics continue to evolve, staying committed to a data-driven marketing approach will be the key differentiator for businesses seeking sustained success and competitive advantage in the years ahead.

by Benchmark Team

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Data-Driven Marketing: Leveraging Analytics to Make Informed Decisions

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Data is crucial for marketing success. It allows you to create strategies based on facts. Here's how to use a data-driven marketing strategy.

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Social Media Analytics and Data-Driven Decision Making

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Social Media Analytics and Data-Driven Decision Making

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In the vast ocean of the digital landscape, social media analytics serves as your guiding star. It empowers businesses to navigate through the turbulent waters of social media, providing a compass to make informed decisions. In this voyage through the world of social media analytics and data-driven marketing, we'll explore how these tools unlock the potential for businesses to steer their strategies in the right direction.

Social media analytics is the lighthouse that illuminates the dark waters of digital marketing. It involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data from various social media platforms to gain insights into audience behavior, content performance, and campaign effectiveness. It's the key to understanding what works and what doesn't in your social media endeavors.

In essence, social media analytics offers a systematic approach to monitor, measure, and analyze your social media activities. It provides you with the tools to quantify the impact of your social media marketing efforts, offering valuable data that can steer your decision-making processes.

To navigate with precision, you need a map. Social media metrics are your map through the social media landscape. These metrics, such as engagement rate, reach, clicks, and conversions, provide you with quantitative data on how your social media campaigns are performing.

Engagement Rate: This metric measures the level of interaction your content receives. It includes likes, comments, shares, and other forms of engagement. A higher engagement rate indicates that your content is resonating with your audience. By closely monitoring this metric, you can assess the quality and relevance of your content.

Reach: Reach quantifies how many unique users have seen your content. It's a crucial metric for understanding the potential impact of your social media efforts. High reach can mean that your content is getting in front of a broader audience, potentially leading to increased brand awareness.

Clicks: Click-through rates indicate how many users clicked on your links or calls-to-action. It's a strong indicator of how effective your content is at driving traffic to your website or landing pages. Monitoring clicks is essential for assessing the performance of your social media campaigns, especially if your primary goal is to direct users to specific actions on your website.

Conversions: Ultimately, conversions matter the most. Conversions can take various forms, such as a purchase, a sign-up, or any other desired action taken by a user. Tracking conversions allows you to measure the tangible impact of your social media marketing. It's the metric that can directly tie your social media efforts to business objectives and ROI.

These metrics are your tools for assessing and quantifying the effectiveness of your social media campaigns. They provide concrete data points that guide your decision-making processes, enabling you to refine your strategies for optimal results.

With social media analytics as your compass and metrics as your map, you set your course towards data-driven marketing. This approach revolves around using insights gleaned from social media data to shape marketing strategies and decision-making processes.

Understanding Your Audience

One of the primary advantages of social media analytics is the ability to understand your audience on a deeper level. Analytics can reveal demographic information, preferences, and behaviors of your followers. Armed with this knowledge, you can tailor your content and campaigns to better resonate with your target audience. For instance, if you discover that the majority of your audience prefers video content, you can prioritize video production in your strategy.

Content Optimization

Metrics such as engagement rate can tell you which types of content are most effective. By analyzing these metrics, you can identify trends in what your audience likes and dislikes. This information is invaluable for optimizing your content strategy. For example, if you notice that posts containing images of behind-the-scenes office life garner more engagement, you can craft more content in a similar vein.

Timing Is Everything

Data-driven marketing isn't just about what you post but also when you post. Analytics can provide insights into when your audience is most active. By aligning your posting schedule with these peak times, you can maximize the visibility of your content. For instance, if analytics indicate that your audience is most active at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, you can schedule your important posts for that time to ensure they receive maximum exposure.

ROI Tracking

Your marketing budget is precious, and you need to know that your investments are paying off. Social media analytics can track the return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns, helping you allocate your resources more effectively. For example, if you discover that your Facebook ad campaign generated a 300% ROI, while your Instagram campaign only produced a 100% ROI, you can adjust your budget allocation to favor Facebook ads.

A/B Testing

Data-driven marketing encourages continuous improvement. Use A/B testing to experiment with different content, headlines, visuals, and posting times. Analyze the results to determine what resonates best with your audience and refine your strategy accordingly. For instance, you can A/B test two different ad headlines to see which one generates a higher click-through rate. The winning headline becomes the standard for your future campaigns.

In the digital age, businesses cannot afford to steer their marketing ship blindly. Social media analytics and data-driven marketing are the wind and the compass, propelling your strategy forward with intention and precision. By harnessing the power of social media metrics, you can navigate through the ever-changing digital waters and make informed decisions that lead to success.

Data-driven marketing isn't just a trend; it's a necessity. In a world where digital landscapes evolve rapidly, having data to inform your decisions is akin to having a sturdy ship in a tumultuous sea. So, set your sails, embrace social media analytics, and chart a course towards data-driven marketing that will lead your business to exciting new horizons in the digital realm. Your audience is out there, waiting for your message, and with the right tools and strategies, you can reach them with precision and impact.

Cnergix is a digital outsourcing company that helps businesses of all sizes achieve their goals. We offer a wide range of services, including web and mobile app development as well as digital marketing. Our team of expert developers is skilled in a variety of programming languages, platforms, and frameworks, enabling us to deliver custom solutions that meet our clients' unique needs. We also have a team of digital marketing experts who are experienced in developing and executing effective strategies across a variety of channels, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing. From startups to enterprises, we empower success in the digital world. Understanding your goals and challenges, our expertise delivers innovative solutions for your achievements.

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Social Media Analytics and Data-Driven Decision Making

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In the vast ocean of the digital landscape, social media analytics serves as your guiding star. It empowers businesses to navigate through the turbulent waters of social media, providing a compass to...

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5 Steps for Creating a Data-Driven Social Media Strategy (with Templates)

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5 Steps for Creating a Data-Driven Social Media Strategy (with Templates)

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Is your business just getting off its feet? Are you a business-owning veteran, but still looking for ways to optimize your social media presence? This article will explain, with detailed steps and templates, how to find and understand your audience, establish goals, and analyze your social data - all steps to creating a solid and data-driven social media strategy that will serve you long-term.

Tip: We've included free templates for you to use throughout this article. Download, copy, and use them however works best for you! Download each one individually as you go through the article or scroll to the end to get all of the templates at once.

Why do I need a social media strategy?

Social media is a crucial channel for businesses to connect with and convert customers, whether you primarily rely on foot traffic, e-commerce, or both. Improving your social media strategy with data analytics can increase customer engagement and retention, qualify leads, and increase conversions. Basically: data is more reliable than your gut.

Step 1: Find your Audience

Social media success is all about delivering your content to the right people, at the right time, and in the right place. In order to make those factors line up, you must narrow your focus while expanding your reach - using demographic indicators.

You can retrieve your audience's demographic information on platforms like Google Analytics, Facebook/Facebook Ads, or LinkedIn/LinkedIn Ads. This information can be collected manually or automatically.

While we always recommend the use of an ETL tool to automate certain processes, gathering demographic info typically only needs to be done once (with periodic updates). Using your existing sources, manually research your current audience demographics to create customer personas for your social media strategy.

Specific information to look for:

For Business-to-Business social media strategy:

Goals & challenges (aka, Why are they here?): This one is more nuanced, and you're unlikely to find it on a typical ad platform. Nonetheless, understanding your customers' motivations is a critical part of marketing to them online. Conducting customer interviews can help answer these questions (and many more questions for your business).

Once you've collected your info, either manually entered into a sheet or loaded to a dashboard, you can start creating your personas.

These personas will inform the type of content to post and which channels to post it on. It will also help you nail your unique selling points and the value you bring to your customers.

Download

Step 2: Establish your Goals & Set KPIs

Your Goals

Among the many goal-setting frameworks already established, we prefer SMART goals. The SMART framework builds on your initial goal and pushes you to get more specific and clear. SMART is:

Specific: have a clear direction.

Measurable: attach a numerical value to your goal to hold you accountable and track your progress.

Attainable: stay realistic.

Relevant: ask yourself, "why this goal?" and ensure it's relevant to overall company goals.

Timely: give yourself a deadline.

To start off, set between one and five goals. These goals should hold you accountable, guide your budget, and will make you pay attention to your data instead of using guesswork. You may decide to start by focusing on one smaller goal and work up - this is a fine tactic, but only if it can be tracked by data.

Some common initial goals for social media marketing (with examples):

Increase brand awareness: Increase brand awareness by starting paid advertising campaigns on LinkedIn. Have new content reach more than 5,000 people per post by the end of the month.

Generate leads and sales: Increase leads from LinkedIn by 8% in the next three months by reaching 8,000 people per paid promotional post.

Boost community engagement: Boost community engagement on Instagram by asking followers to comment and tag a friend to be entered into a raffle. We will increase engagement by 15% per post.

Grow your brand's audience: Increase the number of Instagram followers by 500 in the next month by using relevant hashtags and creating valuable content.

Drive traffic to your site: Increase website traffic to 1,500 visitors per day by posting and promoting relevant content two times per week on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Remember: these are the starting points. Once you get going, refine and revisit until your SMART goals are perfectly attuned to your business goals.

Is SMART not your style? Delve into some other common frameworks:

OKRs: setting objectives that are qualitative, time-bound, and actionable; and setting 3-5 key results that quantify each objective based on things that are measurable

BSQ: think big, act small, move quick

CLEAR: collaborative, limited, emotional, appreciable, refinable

KPIs & Metrics to Track

In your SMART goal document, write down what KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and metrics you'll be looking at for each goal and where you can find those metrics (ie Google Analytics, LinkedIn, etc). This will help ensure your goals are measurable and will let you track your progress.

Keep in mind that there is more to social media than likes and comments - While they are helpful, they can be considered "vanity metrics": they look good, but don't actually contribute to your goals.

KPIs to track:

Some examples of metrics to track:

Increase Brand Awareness

Generate Leads & Sales

Boost Community Engagement

Grow Your Brand's Audience

Drive Traffic to Your Site

Follower Counts

Conversion Rates

Likes

Engagement Rates

Link Clicks

Impressions

Cost per Lead

Shares

Mentions

Conversions

Reach

Email Sign-ups

Comments

Follower Counts

Sign-ups

Mentions

Sales Revenue

Mentions

Link Click

Clicks

Some tools to find these metrics: Mediatoolkit, Brandwatch, SEMrush, Google Analytics, social media platforms, Socialbakers (now Emplifi), and any other social listening tool.

Step 3: Form your Content Strategy

While "content strategy" typically refers to all of a company's marketing content (not just social media), we're going to focus on social content specifically to help you figure out the direction your social media content should take.

Competitor Research

You probably know who your competitors are, but how well do you know their social media presence? Understanding what you're up against is vital to finding your marketing niche - research your 4-6 biggest competitors on their most active platforms to see what they're posting, what's working, what's not working, and get ideas for the content gap that your business can fill.
Tip: get inspiration from your competitors, but don't copy them. Uniqueness is your goal. You can use your competitors as performance benchmarks-number of followers, engagement rates, etc.
To do this manually, make a note of:

Platforms where they have accounts and platforms where they are active

The kind of content they are posting (videos, text posts, blog links, etc)

Engagement on their posts

The tone of the captions. Are they casual and fun? Do they use emojis? Or are they straight to the point?

Frequency of posts

Use of hashtags, how often/how many, and what hashtags

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Alternatively, social listening tools like Socialbakers , Brandwatch , or Semrush can speed up your competitor research process and give you great insights into your competition.

Hashtag Research

Start finding hashtags by using known industry keywords, or by researching your competitors' hashtags. (The above social listening tools can also find relevant and popular hashtags for your posts.)

Once you have a list of hashtags, then go to your chosen social platform and search to find their popularity - how many people follow the hashtags, or how many posts include the hashtag. You can also see what kind of content is being posted for that specific hashtag to ensure the hashtag is actually relevant to your business.

Social Media Audit

Before moving forward with your social media strategy, you need to take a hard look at your current social media presence to understand what has worked in the past and what can be improved upon moving forward.

Conduct an audit of each platform your company has an account on, including platforms where you may not have posted in a while. For each platform, document existing profile info like your description/bio/about section. Identify the frequency of past posts and the weekly average and track your follower count over time. Then decide on which KPIs you'd like to focus on for each platform, keeping your SMART goals in mind.

While conducting your audit, keep in mind the best practices for each platform and see if you've been abiding by them. For example, do you use 30 hashtags on a Facebook post? That might be ok on Instagram but may be a bit much for Facebook.

Taking this all together, you can find what needs to be updated and take steps to improve your KPIs.
Tip: Instagram insights doesn't let you track follower count over time, but a data integration service like Dataddo can help you find this information. Read our article on How to Track your Instagram Follower Count.
Content Calendar

Finally, you need a way to plan and organize your posts (we recommend a trusty calendar). You can track when to post what, including the copy and any graphics or links that may be included.

In deciding what kind of content to post, reference your previous research on competitors, hashtags, and your own social media audit to find what works best. Keep your audience in mind to post content that will provide value for your followers.

Also, keep in mind the best practices for each platform. Certain kinds of content may work great on one platform but won't do very well on another. Mix up what you're posting across channels so your followers will find different valuable content on each platform.

Once you've figured out the types of content that work well across channels, find your best performing posts to re-share in the future, while making sure the post is still relevant and can provide value. But, remember that republishing content works differently on different platforms. For example, generally, you can repost the same content on Twitter more than on Facebook and more on Facebook than on Instagram.

Timing

Checking Facebook and Instagram Insights will show you higher activity times to post for your audience. But, choosing a posting time isn't always black and white-when you post when your fans are most active, there's a higher chance of them seeing your post and engaging. Or, posting when your fans are least active means less competition for the spaces in the newsfeed. Timing your posts is ultimately trial and error. You may even find that the time of day you post doesn't actually matter at all for post success!

Content Mix

Regarding content variety, there's one golden rule: you don't want all of your posts to be self-serving. Beyond that, various content mix strategies include:

4:1:1 - four pieces of new content, one repost, and one self-serving/sales post

80/20 - 80% of content should be education/valuable/entertaining to your audience, 20% can be explicitly to promote your business

Rule of thirds - ⅓ of posts used to promote your business, ⅓ to share ideas of thought leaders in your industry, and ⅓ to personally interact with your audience.

Curate Content

Your content calendar can also be used for content ideas or to keep track of external links to use in future content-becoming a thought leader in your industry means keeping up with the latest trends. Keep tabs on your audience's favorite news sources (blogs, influencers, newsletters, etc) and share links that would be valuable to your audience. This can also fill gaps in your content calendar.

Step 4: Analyze your Data

You've been working with data this whole time, but actually analyzing it is another game entirely (and the most important step in this article). To ensure you're gathering all the necessary data from your different data sources, we always recommend using an ETL platform, like Dataddo. Dataddo automates the process of moving data from disparate data sources into a dashboard, warehouse, or spreadsheet, so you can spend your valuable time actually analyzing it.

Share Score: Organic Posts

While there are several ways to track your organic post performance, our favorite way is to use the Share Score. Share Score, originally developed by the content team at Moz , takes into account different metrics that can be measured with assigned weights, giving you one simple number per post to compare its success against other posts.

The formula, though complicated, works through its highly customized approach. You can choose any metric to work with for each post, and you can even assign different weights to each metric according to their importance for you and your organization.

You can get your Share Scores from the social media platform to Google Sheets using Dataddo - all for free.

To get your Share Scores, you first need to create a source in Dataddo to pull the metrics you want to track from the platform. Then connect that source to a Google Sheet destination.

In a separate sheet in the workbook is where your data will be organized and separated by post and where the Share Score will be calculated.
Note: Unfortunately, Facebook's API doesn't allow for the extraction of post captions so this wouldn't work for Facebook posts unless you want to do it manually. Which would be a pain in the butt.
Hashtag Performance

In addition to seeing the performance of each post, you can also use the above templates to find important hashtag information based on your past posts. In the "Share Score" tab, you can track how many hashtags and which hashtags you use in each post. Then in the "Hashtags" tab, you can track the performance of the posts that contain your main hashtags. Our provided templates show the performance of each hashtag broken down by month as well as the average impressions, clicks, and likes for each hashtag. Remember to edit the sheet over time as your goals (and hashtags) change.

Some Other Evaluation Techniques

Organic Post Performance

A different, or additional, way of tracking organic post performance is by loading the data into a dashboard to visualize the important metrics you want to keep track of. When visualizing in a dashboard, it's easier to keep track of metrics over time, such as link clicks, or how many impressions posts received in a certain month.

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When connecting your data sources to your dashboard (which you can do for free using an integration service like Dataddo), be sure to choose the attributes below for optimum results:

Facebook Post

LinkedIn

Instagram Media

Caption

Engagement

Caption

Timestamp

Paid Ad Performance

Paid ads on social media oftentimes have completely different metrics to track, more related to cost. In an ads dashboard, you should see performance broken down by campaign as well as spend metrics and conversions, in addition to your usual likes, comments, and impressions that you find with organic posts.

This information is vital in informing your paid ad strategy. It will give you a better idea of what content is performing well and where you should spend your budget to optimize the campaigns and ads that are producing results.

Choose the attributes below when creating your ad sources in Dataddo for the best possible dashboard:

Facebook Ads

LinkedIn Ads

Instagram Ads

Campaign Name

Breakdown: Region

Reporting Date Start

Breakdown: Country

Create up to 3 flows to any dashboard or Google Sheets ALL FOR FREE using Dataddo.

Sign-up for a free 14-day trial and continue on the FREE FOREVER plan to visualize your data in your dashboards.

A Note About Dashboards

When creating dashboards, think about how you can present them to your stakeholders in a way that will help them understand the importance of the information. One way you can do this is by giving them context; what was going on in the business or social media sphere to better understand why the numbers are how they are?

In addition, consider the granularity of your data. If you're running reports quarterly, do you only need to get down to monthly numbers, or do your stakeholders want to see daily numbers for the whole quarter? This will be important in formatting and organizing your dashboard to suit your audience.

Some examples of granularity:

Per day (ie total clicks): this will give you the big picture view of daily activities but does not take into account differences in daily posting frequency.

Per post (ie average clicks): this can be helpful for a content strategy to see what types of posts are performing well and what's not.

Per follower (ie click rate): for follower info, think about rates (divide the metric by the number of followers, or by reach, or impressions); ie if your post has 200 clicks and you have 400 followers, that's a 50% click rate! But if you have 4,000 followers your click rate is only 5%.

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Step 5: Monitor & Optimize your Campaigns

Never forget that social media is an ever-evolving medium, so your social media strategy cannot be static. Even with all of your new dashboards and sheets up and running, it is vital to monitor and update your documents according to your results, allowing you to make improvements over time. Optimization can mean optimizing individual posts by trying different copy/hashtags/graphics etc, or by changing up your posting schedule to find the right time and cadence of posts that work for your audience.

Data lets you connect with your audience and learn what they engage with so you can work to those strengths. Identify top-performing content based on your KPIs, look for common threads between your most engaged-with posts and your links, and most importantly: don't be afraid to try something new (as long as you can back up your decision with data).

Always track and reevaluate your progress and your goals, staying open to changing and redefining those goals as necessary. Learn from the experience and move forward with more knowledge as to how to make your social media strategy truly great.

See how Dataddo can optimize your marketing pipelines - FOR FREE.

Just a few quick steps to get your marketing data to your dashboard or Google Sheets for better analysis, without the hassle and without the cost.

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