Common cliches and “hacks” in articles about social media management for small businesses include: “social is supposed to be social!” Make sure to interact with your entire fan base!
That’s sound advice, sure, but haven’t you heard it a million times already? And do things like vanity metrics and activities really help your business?
You’ve been working on social media for years, and it shows. While this is true, it is becoming progressively more challenging to actually observe any positive outcomes. If you run a scrappy small business and are looking for ways to streamline your social media management without sacrificing results, then this post is for you.
Save yourself some time with your social media management by downloading one of these templates.
Managing your social media accounts effectively can quickly become a chore
Maintaining focus and demonstrating success are both challenging. The social media beast can be tamed, though, with the help of the social media management templates provided below.
You can find many different social media management checklists and templates, such as:
- A social media management schedule broken down into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.
- A downloadable scheduler for your social media updates.
- This eBook will serve as your guide as you implement your new social media strategy.
- An online crisis management plan.
- The first piece of advice is to connect your social media efforts and metrics directly to your company’s objectives.
Adjusting vanity metrics and using social media to grow your business should be the first social media hack your scrappy small company implements.
Exactly what does it mean when people talk about “Vanity Metrics”?
First, we should define exactly what we mean by the term “vanity metric.”
The term “vanity metrics” refers to measurable factors that don’t contribute significantly to the development of a company or the direction of marketing strategies. Likes, follows, and comments are examples of what are known as “vanity metrics” in the realm of social media.
Profits and Social Media: A Win-Win Combination
Let’s spend some time discussing how to make your social media goals coincide with your company’s actual objectives.
First, you need to figure out the big picture of your company and how marketing contributes to it.
Here’s a case in point. Let’s pretend the company’s 2020 objective is to increase revenue by 10%, to $20 million.
Count Facebook Page Likes
Click the “Insights” tab at the very top of your Facebook screen to see how many people are engaging with your posts.
UTM Parameters Can Aid in Social Media Lead Tracking
Setting up UTM parameters will give you a more in-depth look at how your social media posts are generating traffic for your website.
Parameters for UTM can be set up in this manner.
First, you’ll want to get Google Analytics up and running
Get yourself set up with Google Analytics first. What follows is a guide for getting one going if you don’t already have one.
Create a Property for your website. Stick to the prompts when creating a new account.
Second, make some UTM codes for following up.
Making a UTM tracking URL is the next step. Use Google’s UTM generator to make your own UTM parameters.
Tracking the Campaign in Google Analytics
To view your campaigns, you can expand the Acquisition section on the left side of your Google Analytics dashboard.
Suggestion No. 2: Pick One Metric to Track
Now we’ll move on to the next social media strategy for resourceful start-ups and small businesses.
A more divisive and paradigm-shifting recommendation is to identify your “One Metric That Matters” and focus most of your social media efforts on increasing that metric.
Thirdly, schedule tasks in batches
Strategy for social media is time-consuming. If you don’t set a time limit for yourself, you might waste a lot of time trying to update your social media accounts.
This is where batch scheduling can be a huge help.
Automate with IFTTT
IFTTT – which stands for IF This, Than That – connects two platforms together so when something takes place on one platform, the connected platform performs an action automatically.
For example, you could have a photo saved to Dropbox everytime you’re tagged in a post on Facebook.
Tip #4: Use IFTTT Automation
With IFTTT (an acronym for “If This, Then That”), you can link two services so that when a certain event occurs on one of them, the other service will immediately react to it.
When you’re mentioned in a Facebook post, you can have the photo automatically uploaded to Dropbox.
Tip #5: Select Your Perfect Channels
Even though there are many social media outlets, your presence on each is not required.
To get the most out of your social media efforts, you shouldn’t necessarily be present on every platform. This is especially true if your intended audience isn’t using any of those platforms.
Tip #6: Give Your Fans What They Want Most
Another plan that develops from the results of the first suggestion.
You can assume that a person has some level of curiosity about a topic if they click on a link in a social media post to access the content.
There are many ways in which this helps.
One, if you’re posting content that’s interesting to your audience, you’ll attract more of them while also maintaining the interest of your current followers.