Kate Smith – Page 2

Grow Your Twitter Following!

Posted on November 21, 2018March 29, 2019 by Kate Smith

So you made a company Twitter. You’ve nailed down the profile pic, the backdrop, the bio….Now what? Creating your profile is the first step to finding your Twitter audience but the truth is, if you build a profile, they probably won’t come. You have to invite them to you!

An active Twitter account can be a great asset to your company as long as you’re using it correctly. Twitter’s primary uses include customer service, reputation management, and keeping your audience informed. It is also the 5th most popular platform among US adults and roughly half of those users access Twitter at least once per day.

Twitter is an exciting social platform to be on! Implement these 6 tips to keep up in the fun yet fast-paced world that is Twitter.

Become a #Hashtag Jedi

Hashtags are your best friend on Twitter. The better you get at utilizing hashtags, the more people will see your tweets. People don’t only use hashtags to organize tweets but also to connect with other people. An example of this is the hashtag used during and leading up to the 2018 Super Bowl. Twitter users used the hashtag “#SuperBowlLII” 285,749 times to communicate about the big game. If you’re hoping to interact with other Twitter users on a trending topic, hashtags are the best way to go.

Make New Friends on the Playground

Twitter is fun! It’s a great place to get to know your consumers and even your competitors. Jump in on Twitter discussions and don’t hesitate to follow someone if you like what they have to say! Following more people as opposed to fewer can actually increase your account’s visibility. When looking for new people to follow I like to see who the top leaders in my industry follow. It helps me find more people within my niche that I trust will add value to my Twitter feed. Following the right people can also help you be the first to know about breaking industry news!

Construct Relevant Tweets

Who is your audience?

It’s important to know who you’re targeting. Would you follow a sports account that regularly digressed to post a political rant? Or a meme account that reviewed restaurants as well? These may be extreme examples, but my point is that these kinds of habits create sloppy Twitter feeds. The beauty of twitter is being able to pepper your feed with very specific themes and interests.

Once you’ve narrowed down your audience, it will be easier to post tweets that are relevant to them. So pick your target audience and make sure you have a goal in mind for your feed. Is it to educate your audience? Provide customer service? Maybe it’s both!

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Retweets

Just kidding. Posting an image will not ensure you 1,000 retweets. But it is one of the best ways to capture someone’s attention as they scroll through a constantly changing Twitter feed. A study conducted by Twitter proved that using images in your tweets is more effective for getting retweets than videos or hashtags. Tweets with images received 35% more retweets than those without.

You can use images as a dual sword in your social media strategy. Start by creating your own imagery to solidify your brand. Turn to your branding guide and create a theme for your images. You might find that you enjoy a clip-art look for your images. Or you may realize that you prefer to take your own photos. After you’ve developed a theme for branded images, start spicing things up with alternate pictures that suit your Twitter goals. For example, posting trending gifs and memes with captions that directly apply to your brand.

Don’t Ignore Twitter Analytics

Twitter analytics is easily one of the best ways to get to know your audience. Analyze your tweets and campaigns frequently. Which tweets performed best? Which tweets did people interact with the most? Be sure to give your audience more of what they want. Based on your findings, giving them more of what they want could mean posting more images or interactive polls. You may also find that shorter tweets perform better than longer ones. Remember you don’t have to use ALL 280 characters. In a lot of cases the quicker you can get to the point the better.

Make sure you’re regularly analyzing your data and adapting to the needs of your audience

Be Consistent

As I mentioned before, Twitter is a fast-paced platform. The lifespan of the average tweet is only about 24 minutes. This means you need to tweet regularly if you want people to keep you top of mind. Try to tweet at least twice a day and be sure to respond quickly to your followers.

If that all seems like too much for you, no worries! Use a digital planner like Lava Surf to plan everything out ahead of time! This way you don’t have to live on Twitter if you don’t want to.

There it is! Twitter is a fun and simple platform to use once you get the hang of it! Your Twitter account is a great platform to have discussions with your customers and get to know your target audience better. So tweet authentically, tweet a lot, and have fun!

Social Media Tips for the Holidays

Posted on October 22, 2018December 3, 2018 by Kate Smith

The holiday season creeps up on us a little faster each year. The leaves start to change color and before you know it, you’re wrapped up in Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The holidays are busy enough on their own but lets not forget modern shopping holidays such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Not to mention the new phenomenon known as “Sofa Sunday” which takes place in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The traditions surrounding these holidays provide countless opportunities for heightened engagement with your online audience. Are you doing everything you can to connect with your followers this holiday season?

Read on for a few tips to help boost your social strategy this season!

Start Now

First off, if you haven’t launched your holiday campaign yet, you’re running late. In case you haven’t taken note, it’s almost November. Maybe you’re the kind of person who doesn’t even like to think about Thanksgiving or Christmas until the first of November. That’s totally fine when applied to putting up lights or waiting to crack out the Michael Bublé Christmas album. But applying that kind of mentality to your social campaign would be a huge mistake. Why?

Research tells us that in the US alone, 40% of consumers plan to start their Christmas shopping in October and 20% intend to start even earlier. So if you’re hoping to increase sales this holiday season, start now!

Cater to Your Mobile Audience

The second tip you’ll want to implement immediately is catering your campaign to a mobile audience. Did you know that the average American checks their phone every 12 minutes? Your audience is always on their smartphone and as a result, they are always shopping. Maybe it’s just window shopping on Pinterest or browsing a boutique on Instagram, but the pattern is there.

Ever heard of sofa Sunday? The day before Cyber Monday, people browse online so they’re prepared to make the most of upcoming sales. In 2017, studies informed us that 45 percent of shoppers spend at least two hours of Sofa Sunday researching Cyber Monday deals. Thirty-six percent of these shoppers plan to do all of that research from their phone.

What can we take away from this? Well, marketing involves being where the people are. The people are on social media and more specifically, on their phones.

Introduce a New Side of Your Brand

The holidays are the perfect time to give your brand a little more dimension by showing off a fresh side of your organization. You might choose to do this by launching a new campaign centered around a good cause. Or maybe you’ll opt to show off a genuine side through introducing your audience to your team. One way of doing this is taking your followers behind the scenes with your posts and even a few live videos. The holidays are full of fun behind the scenes gems. Here are just a few.

Show off show your holiday office decorations
Post candid shots of team members celebrating
Go live at an event you’re hosting! (Ex. Christmas Tree Lighting, Food Drive, Party)
Do live holiday-themed interviews with your team members

These simple posts will go a long way with your audience. It helps people relate to you more and the holidays are all about remembering what connects us.

Hashtag Campaigns

The holidays are a great time to introduce a new hashtag campaign! While some contests involve a series a of complicated rules, I believe that the simpler the campaign, the better. One of my favorite examples of this is Coca Cola’s “#ShareACoke” campaign. The campaign promotes sharing and kindness without being overly complicated.

Hashtag campaigns are also helpful in gathering user generated content. You’ll definitely want to utilize UGC this time of year. Social media users trust UGC content so much that it has a 4.5% higher chance of conversion than an average post. One of the most successful UGC related hashtag campaigns was implemented by Starbucks in 2014. Their #RedCupContest resulted in at least one new #RedCupContest image appearing on Instagram every 14 seconds within the first two days. By the time the contest came to a close, there were more than 40,000 entries. That’s A LOT of user generated content to pick from.

Engage. Connect. Repeat.

Again, the holiday season is about highlighting things that connect us and make us human. Consider injecting pathos into your posts to help increase engagement. Posts that evoke emotions within a person are more likely to be shared than those that don’t.

So brainstorm ways you can connect with your audience in a more personal way than normal. Ask your followers to share their favorite holiday photos or Christmas songs. In 2014 Barnes and Noble ran a #BNGiftTip campaign to increase one on one interactions with their customers. The campaign encouraged people to ask Barnes & Noble for gift suggestions. This stimulated more Twitter conversations and gave B&N an opportunity to provide personalized content for their audience.

End Late

The last holiday social tip you need to remember is to end your campaign late. If the campaign has been going well, why stop on Christmas? Shoppers certainly don’t stop there. The day after Christmas is one of the busiest shopping days of the year and 45% of shoppers continue searching for post-Christmas sales in January! So keep that in mind and ride out the holiday season a little longer.

The holiday season is rich with opportunities to connect with your online audience. Don’t hesitate to jump in on the fun when planning your campaigns! This is a great time to grow your following and increase brand awareness! Take advantage of it by building strong connections with your audience!

5 Tips For Increasing Visibility on Instagram

Posted on September 26, 2018December 7, 2018 by Kate Smith

Instagram is the happy place on the internet.

Each year, more users are drawn to the app for the stories, entertaining memes, and professional photos. Now, with just over one billio n monthly users, Instagram is easily one of the most popular social platforms worldwide.

But with so many other users competing for attention, how do you make your content stand out?

Here are 5 tips to organically increase your visibility on Instagram and stay afloat in the sea of content.

Tip 1: Hashtags and Locations

This one should be a no-brainer right?

It goes without saying that hashtags are not just for Twitter anymore. Relevant and trending hashtags increase your odds of appearing in other people’s feed and earning them as followers. It’s always worth it to seek out relevant or trending hashtags and incorporate them in your post. Making up your own hashtag for a single post can be fun, but it does nothing to increase your post’s visibility or your following.

Location is also going to play a role in how many people see your post. If you don’t think location important, then you might be interested in learning that posts with locations attached get 79% more engagement than posts that don’t.

Tip 2: Create Engaging Content

People say this all the time. But what does this mean?

Well for starters, DO NOT slack on your caption creativity. Instagram users are looking for accounts they can relate to. The way you caption your photo can actually change the way people perceive it. So tell a story in your caption. Or tell a joke. As long as it fits your brand. The best part about the caption game is that the captions come free. You don’t need a fancy photoshoot or special gear of any kind.

Engaging content also includes asking questions in your post or taking polls. These activities help you interact with you audience and build trust.

A final tip for creating engaging content is using people in your posts as often as you can. Studies have repeatedly proven that individuals like seeing photos of people. When you post images of people, your audience is more likely to pause and interact with the photo.

Tip 3: Utilize Instastory

Instastory is a prime location for interacting with your audience. Not only are the poll and questions feature handy, but you can post stories that will direct people right to your page.

The hashtag feature is an excellent way to get your stories in front of new audiences. Do you follow a hashtag? Odds are that if you follow a hashtag you’ve probably watched that hashtag’s story a time or two. Using a well thought out hashtag in your story can lead to it getting organized into the public hashtag story and increase the number of people who view it. Hopefully your story will lead them right to your page.

Tip 4: All About That Bio

Did you know that your bio is more than just a pick-up line for those who stumble across your profile? Your bio, if well crafted can actually draw new followers to your page. Use keywords in your bio to attract the kind of followers you want. These keywords could include locations, interests, or services.

Finally. If you want to make the most out of your Bio section, be sure to add the link to your website so people are directed straight to the source!

Since your bio shows up in searches, it also would also benefit you to select a hashtag to guide people towards your page.

Tip 5: User Generated Content

People like content that feels relatable. This is what makes user generated content so powerful.

Once you learn to gather and use UGC, you will add a whole new dimension of authenticity to your page. Consumers are more likely to trust in the quality of a product when it is endorsed by their peers. In fact, users trust UGC content so much that it has a 4.5% higher chance of conversion than one of your average posts. That percentage almost doubles once the user interacts with the post. Not only does your audience like seeing UGC, they often enjoy creating it! Sharpie’s Instagram account is an excellent example of a brand that utilizes UGC to create a dynamic and engaging Instagram feed!

Instagram is not as challenging to master as some people seem to think. As long as you use strong keywords and hashtags, your content will have enhanced visibility. Engaging with your audience through this platform is an effective way to build trust and loyalty.

Again. Instagram is the happy place on the internet, so find a way to join in on the happiness!!

Which Social Media Platforms Are Best For You?

Posted on August 24, 2018December 7, 2018 by Kate Smith

You know that social media will benefit your organization. But did you also know that all social media platforms are not created equal? Each platform functions like different items in a toolbox. You wouldn’t use a hammer to perform the same task as a wrench and if you did…it probably wouldn’t go too well.

So we’ve made you a list of the three most popular social media platforms and the unique benefits each can provide for your brand or business.

Facebook

Facebook is your one stop platform for reviews, ads, and customer engagement. In the U.S. population alone, 68% of adults are on this platform. Facebook has evolved from a strictly social platform to a semi-professional one. What does this mean? Well your Facebook page is likely to be a little more casual than LinkedIn, but a little more professional than Instagram.

The casual side of your Facebook page may include engagement posts, entertaining content, or questions for your audience. The professional side involves responding professionally to reviews, complaints, and personal messages.

Both the casual and professional side of the Facebook coin are important for building customer loyalty. Your audience wants to feel heard but they also need to be engaged.

Instagram

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about Instagram. It’s the happy place on the internet. Don’t ruin it for people. They won’t respond well to controversial topics or posts that seem too “salesy.”

People open their Instagram app for the stories, quippy captions, and quality photos. This means you have an opportunity to present your story and brand personality. Instagram is all about connecting with your audience. People are more likely to make purchases from people they relate to.

A great way to relate with people on Instagram is to find and repost user-generated content for your brand. Why? People relate to it more because of its authenticity. It also shows that somebody out there is endorsing your brand simply because of its quality and not because they’re getting paid for it. In fact, users trust UGC content so much that it has a 4.5% higher chance of conversion than one of your average posts.

Twitter

Twitter’s primary uses include customer service, reputation management and keeping your audience informed.

Twitter has stated that 80% of customer service requests come in through their platform. This means the majority of customer comments and complaints have now gone public. Some individuals may choose to view this as a negative. However, if you respond to your customers promptly and professionally, it can actually enhance your reputation.

An example of reputation management and customer service through Twitter can be seen in most airline services. For example, Southwest Airlines responds promptly on Twitter to both complaints and compliments. In the event of an accident, Twitter would be an important source for communicating with the public.

Brands that primarily use Twitter to keep their audience informed include news organizations and sports teams. Do you want to stay in the know during the next NFL draft? Do you want updates on the latest breaking news? You just need to follow the right Twitter accounts.

Depending on how many retweets you get, the lifespan of a tweet is only 20 minutes to 3 hours. The lifespan of your tweet is when you can expect it to get the most engagement before it’s lost in the Twitter-Verse forever. So if you’re using Twitter as a tool for your company, make sure you stay active. Be sure to check out our tips for growing a Twitter following if you feel like Twitter is the right platform for you!

What now?

Maybe your organization uses all the above platforms. Or maybe, you just stick to one. Whichever platform you choose, be sure to do your homework on it if you want to properly connect with your online audience.

Harnessing Social Media as a Franchise

Posted on July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 by Kate Smith

What Social Media Can Do For Your Franchise

Social media has opened up countless doors for organizations looking to expand their marketing efforts. Organizations can now, more than ever, take on their own personalities and develop relationships with their customers.

So why is social media so effective? Because it’s a two-way street. Your can put your brand on display in any way you want and facilitate discussions that will expand your online visibility. If you’re a social media pro, you’re also your customer’s best listener. People like feeling heard so interacting with your customers online is a great way to build trust and earn loyalty.

Challenges You May Face

Now with all of the benefits that stream from the kingdom of social media, there also come challenges. As a franchise you may find yourself feeling daunted by the idea of implementing a social media campaign. Properly applying social media as a marketing technique means investing time and money into strategies as well as having a strong sense of brand awareness.

When looking at your franchise as a whole you can easily take into account that they have a variety of locations, each under different management. Although the brand is the same, without guidance, each different franchise manager is likely to present your brand a little differently than the last. Attempts to localize content combined with different presentation styles can result in each of the local pages carrying a different brand voice. This will water down the strength of your brand and your attempts to market it.

Here’s Your Solution

So how can you utilize social media to stay ahead of the game while protecting your brand voice?

One powerful solution is a branding guide. Now a branding guide can be as complicated or simple as you like. But for the most part, the more detail the better.

A branding guide can be distributed to each individual location and define exactly how you expect employees to interact with your online audience. Train your employees to interact with customers on social media just as they would be expected to with customers standing right in front of them.

Your branding guide should clearly specify the voice and tone for your brand. Is your brand voice professional? Trendy? Playful? Whatever it is, stick to it. Your tone is a little different than your voice. The tone of your brand voice may change depending on the situation. What tone does the organization take in day to day conversation with customers online? What tone does the organization take when responding to negative reviews?

The guide can also include color schemes, fonts, and examples of copy that uses the brands voice. The more detailed and clear your branding guide, the more direction your individual franchise locations will have for their social media efforts.

If you’re not utilizing social media, your brand isn’t going to thrive. Don’t let multiple locations overwhelm you! Putting together a few simple ideas for a branding guide is a huge step in the right direction.

Post History in Calendar & More!

Posted on July 16, 2018July 16, 2018 by Kate Smith

You have spoken and we’ve delivered!

We’re excited to announce two new feature enhancements to the Lava Surf platform that are sure to make things much better for you.

The new features include:

Post history in the calendar
Multi-photo post creation

Post History in Calendar

We understood the need to see past posts on the calendar alongside your scheduled posts. Because of that, you will now be able to view a history of your published posts on the calendar in Launcher. When clicking on a published post in the calendar, you can:

View the post’s caption and media
When it was published
Which profiles it was published to
Status of the post
Delete the post from selected profiles
Clone the post

Published posts will show as grey on the calendar and rejected posts (if approvals are turned on) will now show as red.

Multi-Photo Post Creation

We knew you wanted post history in the calendar so multi-photo creation is just icing on the cake!

Now, when adding your media on a new post for Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, simply select multiple images from your device or your Lava Surf content library. Multi-photo post creation for Instagram and Google My Business will come in the future once their APIs allow it.

Please contact your admin or Lava Surf account manager if you have questions regarding these updates.

-The Lava Surf Team

Lava Surf Dashboard Update

Posted on June 27, 2018June 26, 2018 by Kate Smith

Lava Surf is unveiling several new features to make your experience with social media management more seamless! The newest updates on the Lava Surf Dashboard are Google My Business publishing and review response and Instagram comment moderation.

Google My Business Publishing and Review Response

We have further integrated Google My Business into the Lava Surf platform so you can now view and respond to reviews on your Google listings all with the Moderation dashboard. Why is this important? By not responding to your reviews you run the risk of increasing your customer churn by 15%.

In addition to being able to moderate from the dashboard, you can now publish “What’s New” photos and link posts to your Google My Business profiles. When creating a link post, you will also be able to select a call to action to go with your post.

To view and respond to Google reviews, visit the ‘Moderate’ page under Moderation after you’ve connected up Google My Business. If you don’t have a Google listing set up for one of your locations, you can learn how to set that up here.

You will, however, not be able to publish video posts to your Google My Business profiles since that has not been made available through Google yet.

Instagram Post Comment Moderation

With the number of users on Instagram increasing daily, moderation is becoming more important than ever. As a Lava Surf user, you can now view comments made on all your Instagram posts and respond to them through the dashboard!

All comments made on posts published to any of your connected Instagram profiles will be viewable in the Moderation dashboard. You will also be able to respond to comments, allowing you to easily engage with your followers.

Please contact your admin or Lava Surf account manager if you have questions on setting up your Google My Business account and profiles.

5 Ways to Engage Your Audience on Social Media

Posted on June 11, 2018 by Kate Smith

Social media today is vastly different than it was 10 years ago. It’s even pretty different than it was 6 months ago. That’s because algorithms, platforms, and people change.

So, how can you guarantee success when the digital landscape is constantly shifting around you? While success may never be a guarantee, there is one thing you can do to give you a fighting chance: engage your audience.

No matter what platform you’re on, the one unifying purpose that brings everyone there is included in the term “social media.” People flock to social media to be social. They want to engage with others, share their thoughts, and have meaningful conversations. Here are five ways you can start engaging with your social media audience.

1. Ask Questions

A common mistake that social media marketers make is failing to ask questions. We often assume that if someone follows our page, they must want to know what WE think. In fact, they come for the opposite reason. They want to be engaged by us.

Think of someone you know that seems to only like to talk about themself. Do you enjoy spending time with that person or would you prefer to spend time with someone who asks you questions and genuinely cares what you think? Most people prefer the latter.

When writing post copy or responding to comments, think of interesting questions you could ask. Maybe you’re looking for ideas for a new flavor of ice cream. Maybe you want to hear about their favorite stories with Dad for Father’s Day. Anything you can think of that will get people talking with you will also get them talking about you.

2. Use Emojis

Written text is a tough medium to convey emotions with, especially in short doses. Even if you believe your words are clear and simple, they can easily be misinterpreted. A single exclamation point can indicate anything from excitement to anger to surprise! If you’re going to spend the time cultivating relationships with your followers, why not be as clear as possible?

Emojis give you the opportunity to visualize a plethora of different emotions in your message. Sure, they can be overly cutesy sometimes and a little annoying if overdone. Just be judicious in your usage and they can become a powerful tool for audience engagement.

3. GIF, GIF, GIF!

One of my favorite ways to engage with followers is through GIFs. They’re eye-catching, often humorous, and a whole lot of fun. I’ve found that when I use a well-thought-out GIF at just the right moment, my engagement gets a boost.

Because GIFs are often snippets of other media, they provide the opportunity for inside jokes with your followers. If you notice a commenter has made an image of Inigo Montoya their profile picture, it may be a good idea to respond to that comment with a GIF from “The Princess Bride.” This doesn’t just get a laugh, it makes your business relatable and human.

Another great benefit of GIFs is that it offers you that chance to be humorous. Not everyone is good at coming up with snappy wordplay and witty jokes off the top of their head. In fact, brands can get into a lot of PR trouble if they make the wrong joke. With a GIF, you’re borrowing someone else’s (likely tried and true) humor and getting in on the joke.

4. Broadcast Live

Live videos are a great tool for any business wanting to engage. It creates a forum for suggestions, questions, comments, and other congenial interactions between brands and their followers that’s invaluable. Real-time responses and a feeling of genuineness are what draw users to these videos and it’s no wonder that they’re taking over as the most popular post type on many major platforms.

The best part about them is, you don’t have to be an experienced videographer to shoot one. Most platforms have a simple interface that will allow you to broadcast at the tap of a screen. Just pull out your smart phone and start a conversation.

5. Be Prepared

Perhaps the most important advice I can give is to be prepared. When the moment comes, are you ready to engage with a follower who engages with you? Here are some suggestions to get yourself prepared.

First, build up your content bank. Regularly fill it with GIFs and photos that you can share quickly in various situations.

Next, Write the ready-to-go responses to frequently asked questions. Answer the same question multiple times in different ways and keep those answers handy. Then, when you get the inevitable question, you can answer right away without giving the same templated response every time.

Finally, invest in social media management tools. When you have multiple social media accounts across various online platforms, it can be tough to respond to everything. If you don’t currently use a software platform that lets you moderate all of your social accounts in one place, then you should start.

With a platform like Lava Surf, you’ll not only be able to post, schedule, and boost your content, you’ll also be able to bring all of your social accounts into one moderation dashboard. Instead of going to multiple web pages and signing into multiple accounts, you’ll save valuable time by logging into one single online platform.

6 Steps For Creating a Successful Social Media Strategy

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Kate Smith

Whether you’re a social media veteran or you’re just barely breaking into the social media realm, your focus should be on creating the best social media strategy possible. While things like brands and budgets vary, there are some things that should always be a part of your calculations. Here are the 6 steps for creating a successful social media strategy.

1. Understand Your Audience

A key element in any great social media strategy is an understanding your audience. In the beginning stages of determining your social media strategy, there should always a discovery phase to determine who your audience is, where they are, and what motivates them. Most companies pour a great deal of research into this initial stage, but many fail to maintain that level of research throughout subsequent campaigns.

Who are you trying to target? What are their needs? What social platforms do they use? These are just a few of the questions you should be answering on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, because of the pace at which the digital landscape changes, last week’s data may already be too old to inform today’s decisions. For this reason it’s important to continually research your customers’ pain points as well as larger societal trends.

2. Set Clear Goals

When you know who your audience is, where they are, and what they want, then you can set some goals. Examine what your strategy is and identify some metrics you can measure that will help determine your progress. Some common metrics used in goal setting are: reach, shares, clicks, etc.

Goals help shape the direction your campaign takes and they give you something measurable with which to track your progress. Just the act of writing down your goals will help keep them top of mind as you make important decisions in your campaign.

3. Plan Effectively

You must have a calendar.

A content calendar is essential for planning a winning strategy. It will allow you to see the bigger picture and keep your team on track. As you move forward, it will act as a reminder of important dates and events so you can spend more time engaging and less time worrying.

Just be sure your calendar reflects the goals you’ve set.

The second half of the planning step is building a content bank. While you should always carefully plan out each post and where it should fall in your campaign, contingencies are important. A healthy content bank contains not only additional new posts, but old posts as well. Whenever you have a gap in your content calendar, this will allow you to fill it with a fresh new post, or give you a starting point to repurpose old content.

4. Measure

What’s the point in setting measurable goals if you never actually measure them?

By this time in the process you’ve put a lot of work into your social media strategy. Check your measurements! This will help you see how you’re doing and assess what, if any, changes need to be made. Measurement can help you identify successful content, as well as any gaps that may exist.

5. Make Time

Now that you’ve created a great social media campaign, don’t think you’re out of the woods just yet. Great content isn’t enough anymore. Creating engagement is growing in importance, now more than ever.

Social media feeds are filled with millions of posts, messages, pages, and groups. Most algorithms are built to favor posts that get a lot of people talking and taking action. The best way to make your posts stand out from the others is to engage.

Set aside time to engage with your customers as they engage with your posts. Respond promptly messages and questions. If you do, your efforts will be magnified and your all-important metrics increased.

6. Audit Regularly

Finally, be sure to perform regular social media audits. After weeks and months of running various campaigns, it’s important to assess the state of your online presence as a whole.

Check for old posts on your Facebook page that may contradict the current brand image you’re trying to build. Remove them. A self-audit can also help you identify inconsistencies and assess previous campaign success. Use these insights to improve your current strategy and inform your content decisions moving forward.

Author: Kate Smith

Post History in Calendar & More!

Lava Surf Dashboard Update

5 Ways to Engage Your Audience on Social Media

How about a solid case study?