I was chatting with a client the other day, let’s call her Carol. And in our convo, Carol spun me a tale of social media woe…
“All these gals [practitioners in the same space as Carol] are KILLING IT on social media!
Tens of thousands of followers. Hundreds of likes on every post. Tons of engagement.
And they’re all younger, less experienced, and frankly, far less skilled than me. It’s soooooooooooo frustrating!?”
Now, I could point out that some of these figures “vanity metrics” (because they are!). Yet, they’re still important in Carol’s space. These metrics have contributed to media opportunities, lucrative joint venture partnerships, book deals, and more for Carol’s (less seasoned) competitors.
Meanwhile, since social media’s meteoric rise to prominence in the marketing space over the past decade, I’ve heard similar versions of the…
Person X erupted from seemingly nowhere and suddenly eclipsed long-time industry pro, all thanks to mega social media exposure.
You may even have experienced this yourself in your industry?
Regardless, there’s a piece of the story missing from this narrative…
There’s a CRITICAL difference between Carol’s approach to social media and that of her uber-successful competitors.
Which is?
Carol has ZERO social media strategy. There’s absolutely nothing organized or systematic about her approach. When something relevant occurs to her, she posts it. And that’s the extent of her activity.
Meanwhile, I gar-UN-tee Carol’s competitors are very deliberate in their approach to social media.
They’re proactive, they’ve thought things out, planned ahead, and laid tons of groundwork. In other words, they’ve strategized their approach to social media marketing.
And moreover, they’ve created a SYSTEM by which they carefully manage their social media presence.
Which brings us to the meat of this post…

How to get MORE out of your social media marketing efforts!

The following is a five-step SYSTEMATIC approach to managing your social media efforts. This method will help you focus your social media efforts, gain more traction, and ultimately turn your social platforms into a powerful marketing tool.

Step 1: Figure Out What You’re Posting + Why

In other words, what’s your strategy?
I’ve covered this in detail in the past, but just to reiterate, social media is NOT an effective Direct Marketing tool. While every major social platform now offers some sort of ad component, throwing up a bunch of ads hawking your services has proven to be an unsuccessful formula.
But where does social media excel? Communication!
Social media gives you a DIRECT conduit to your audience — AKA your ideal prospects and current clients. And social gives you the opportunity to ask questions and receive feedback. Which gives you a window of insight directly into your prospects + clients’ thoughts, fears, needs, wants. The juicy psychographic data that reveals your audience’s emotional drivers.
Social also gives you the opportunity to educate your audience. You have a platform to share relevant content (both content you create and content you curate from trusted sources) that speaks directly to your audience’s concerns.
Now, you might have heard the phrase “content is king.” Strictly speaking, that’s not true. Relevance and credibility are KING.
Thus, by sharing relevant content in a timely manner, you establish credibility with your audience — and makes you a KING to you prospects + existing clients ;—)
Thus, figuring WHAT you’re going to post, and ensuring it’s relevant to your audience is the KEY ingredient to a successful social media strategy.

Step 2: Create a Content Calendar

So, your content calendar serves TWO purposes.
First, on the administrative side, it enforces a scheduling process.
You actually calendar what you’re posting and when. This can be done on a spreadsheet that lists the days, and even times of your scheduled posts. Along with text blurbs, corresponding images, and accompanying links (if the latter two items are relevant to a post).
You can (and should) also use tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Meet Edgar to catalog content and automate your social distribution — more on this later…
Secondly, and more importantly, it forces you to think through WHAT  — content-wise — you’re going to post. And the substance of your content, as noted above, is the KEY to building a productive audience on social.
Viewing your content from this perspective highlights two critical concerns…
Your Content Mix
We’ll start by assuming everything you post is relevant to your audience (that’s a given. And you have nailed down that aspect of your social approach, start there FIRST). But where should you draw your content from?
At least a fourth should be of your own making… Your blog, videos, podcasts, interviews, and any other original content you’re creating. (And if you’re NOT creating any original content, now is the time to get CRACKING on that front!)
The rest should be links to other relevant content from trusted industry sources. To keep your curated content pipeline full, sign up to newsletters and blogs, and subscribe to podcasts and YouTube channels authored by content generators in your industry.
Additionally, create Google Alerts (which you can sign up to directly through your Gmail account) for topics relevant to your industry and niche. Google will then email you a daily digest of content links you can distribute to your audience.
Collect all this data and copy links and brief descriptions into a spreadsheet, note-taking tool, an automated scheduling tool, or whatever storage mechanism works best for you. And do so on a consistent basis. This will ensure your content pipeline is ALWAYS full.
Your Content Strategy
Your “content strategy” is how you use content to guide prospects and existing clients further down your sales funnel. What are your audiences’ needs, wants, concerns? What keeps them up till the wee hours, pacing the floor? And how do your services solve problems your audience is fretting about?
You can use your content (as well as curated content culled from other resources) to address these issues and position your services the “solution” to your audiences’ problems.

Step 3: Formalized a Posting Schedule

Your content calendar is the “what and the when” aspect you content shares. Your posting schedule is the regular appointment you make with yourself to create and update your content calendar.
This is the time you dedicate to sitting down and plotting out when you’re going to post which content. And physically scheduling updates using an automated scheduling tool.
So, we’ve got a couple of points to unpack here…
First, you set a reoccurring appointment with yourself to sort and organize your content.
I recommend setting aside an hour a week to review the content you’ve collected and develop a strategic flow. This is when you sort through both your own creations and the curated material you’ve compiled. And plot out a posting schedule that flows logically over the coming week.
Secondly, schedule your content using an automated social scheduling tool.
I STRONGLY recommend using an automated scheduling tool to log your posts in advance. It’s a wise move in part because it’s more efficient to tackle content review, orchestrating posting flow, and scheduling all in one fell swoop.
But using a scheduling tool is also a good idea because if you get busy or are otherwise engaged, you may not have time to post updates, or you might just flat out forget.
When it comes to scheduling tools, you have a number of options here. Hootsuite, Buffer, and Meet Edgar are among the most well-known.
Hootsuite is the tool I use, but I signed up when they still offered a free basic account. That option, however, is long gone. Buffer still offers a free account. Both Hootsuite + Buffer have pros and cons that basically make them an even bet. But Buffer still has a free option, so that may be your best place to start.
Meet Edgar offers loooooooads more options, but accounts start at $50 per month, which is kind of pricey.
And, of course, there are other tools. Do a quick Google search, and no doubt you find a bevy of alternatives. Just don’t get hung up on the tool. The point here is jump on the social scheduling bandwagon!

Step 4: Set a Regular (At Least Twice) Daily Read + Respond Appointment

The operative word is in the actual title of the platform: “Social” Media.
It’s not “broadcast” media. Nor is it “advertising” media. Or even “promotional” media.
In other words, social media by definition is an interactive platform. It’s NOT meant to be just another broadcast channel to blast your marketing messaging on a “one to many basis.”
In fact, effective social media marketing attempts to ratchet down the convo as close to a one-to-one ratio as possible.
And to make this happen, you need to INTERACT with your followers. Which means you should…

• Read + respond to the comments and questions.
• Highlight, retweet, repost, recycle, or otherwise showcase insightful comments.
• Address detractors and critics with thoughtful, measure responses; to those who make valid points, gracefully accept valid points, and to those who voice misconceptions, reply with reasoned logic dispelling those misconceptions.

Now, it’s fair to say, this is no small task. And to manage it all, you need to make an appointment with yourself to engage with your audience (just like with your content calendar appointment).
Ultimately, scheduling is up to you. But I suggest a mid-morning drive-by. Sometime between 9:30am and 10:30am. And then another late afternoon review Sometime between 3:30pm and 5:30pm. You could also throw in a post-lunch look-see. But at a minimum, aim for twice daily.
And it doesn’t have to take that much time. More often than not, you can handle your business in less than five minutes. If something interesting or unique (or troubling) is brewing, you’ll likely send more time. But under those circumstances, it’s time well-spent.

Step 5: Review + Revise

As with any marketing strategy, evaluation and adjustment is the key to long term success:

• If you fail to foster engagement, or engagement falls, there may be a flaw in your approach.
• There could be an issue with the content you’ve chosen. For whatever reason, it’s not engaging your audience.
• Something could be off with your posting schedule. Your audience isn’t active when you’re posting. And the platform’s feed algorithm isn’t capturing them when they are active.
• Perhaps you’re not engaging often enough. And your audience is losing interest.
• Or it could be any one of a host (or even several) other issues.

The point being, monitoring your progress, and adjusting your strategy accordingly is critical to the success of your social media marketing efforts.

If You Want to Succeed in The Social Media Marketing Game, You Can’t Slack Off…

This is kind of a lot to take in. And following through with all of these suggestions is a LOT of work.
But anything worth doing, is worth doing well. And moreover, you’re not likely to see tangible results that truly benefit your business unless you invest the time effort.
Good luck!
P.S. Need help devising a social strategy, creating your own content, curating content, or setting up a social management structure?
I can help!
Give a call or shoot an email: 310.466.7893 + ryan@ryananys.com