It is a truth universally acknowledged in 2022 that to do your business justice, you need to have a social media presence. Sure, select businesses can get away without being on the internet or just having a website but that isn’t the case for the majority.
According to a 2021 SproutSocial poll, 55 percent of consumers learn about brands and companies on social media (read the story here). The poll also found that in the aftermath of COVID-19, 43 percent of potential customers increased the amount of time they spent on social media to find those new brands vs. in 2020 with that number expected to increase even more in coming years.
One final stat SproutSocial shared about the importance of social media is that 78 percent of customers reported they are willing to give a company a shot if they have a positive interaction with them on social media.
The benefits outweigh the cons that come with social media but I’ll be the first admit social media isn’t as easy as some people expect. That is why Pyrois Media offers social media services so you don’t have to worry about your online presence.
That said, if you would like to run your own social media, I’ve put a few tips below to make life a little easier.
- Scheduling apps – In the world of increasing social media usage, there is also an increase in scheduling apps. In the case of Pyrois Media, I go simple – Facebook has its business app that lets you schedule on both Facebook and Instagram and I also utilize the scheduler on Twitter. The downside is that the story scheduling function for Instagram is a bit of a mess and on Twitter you can’t tag people outside the words in your tweet when scheduling. But for both of those issues I just post them live (I’ll have another tip for that below) if I need to.
- Calendar of events – There is nothing that gets you extra engagement like posting relevant stuff around big days. Facebook has some of those days on their scheduling calendar but I also keep a calendar of my own that includes big horse sport days. Most of those are big stakes race days so I can do posts that relate to those events, especially for a client where we do Throwback Thursday educational-type content some weeks. I also use my calendar for ideas I have for certain dates if I don’t have everything needed to schedule it right away. In those cases, I’ll also email myself a reminder so I know that I’ll need to organize everything.
- Graphic and download apps – On my phone I have a folder named “Social Tools” that is for exactly what it sounds like. I included most of those tools in a blog back in March (you can find that here) but they make life much easier and faster when putting together content. A few of them also have websites where you can do whatever you need with them so you aren’t locked to using your phone.
- Schedule your own time – Sundays are for social media scheduling in this office. For a few hours each Sunday I sit down and schedule social media posts for most of the next week and sometimes two weeks depending on what is coming up. In my opinion it takes much less time to schedule everything in one go than to do it every day. Since the Pyrois Media office is closed on Mondays, that also makes it so that day isn’t missed. You may be thinking “but what if I have something come up after scheduling that needs to be posted?” In that case, you can either just have two posts on whatever day you need to post that thing or you can reschedule. Rescheduling is a breeze so it’s not a big deal to have to do that.
- Rough drafts – As I said before, a few things can’t be scheduled to their full potential so that’s where I utilize rough drafts (and my calendar). If it’s a tweet or Instagram Reel, I just create it out and save it as a draft. If it’s an Instagram story, I keep everything I need in my email so I can grab and go when it’s time to post it. You can also utilize this if you need to post results for something by typing out everything you’ll need to say if a horse wins. But personally, I prefer to do those sort of live-action posts in real time.
- Make time for engagement – One thing to remember is that you shouldn’t just schedule everything then forget about your social media for the week. Engaging with replies and moderating comments is another important step in having your social media fulfill its promise. I personally at least glance at clients’ social media three or four times a day to make sure I’m not missing any replies (and to make sure their posts posted at its scheduled time – sometimes the apps glitch). In my opinion, spending two or three minutes going through your notifications every few hours and answering followers takes a lot less time than waiting to sort through them at the end of the day.
If you aren’t sure where to start on getting social media accounts up and running, Pyrois Media offers both social media consulting and management services. Email mbauerherzog@gmail.com for more information.
Have a topic you’d like to see covered here? Email Melissa@PyroisMedia.com with your suggestions and you could see it in a future blog!