As a new year approaches, having a social media strategy must be a part of your marketing plan for your business. Taking a few steps now and early in January to organize your social media presence will set you up for success for all of 2023.
We have previously discussed ways to improve your digital footprint, so now is the time to put those findings into a plan.
1. Take an Inventory of Your Social Channels
Before you start creating social media content, it’s important that you first determine which platforms you already have access to. For example, if it seems like you haven’t tweeted in months or even years – make sure that your password is still safe where it belongs. You may also notice inactive profiles such as a Facebook group or old business page; if these are going unused then feel free to delete them at your leisure. However, keep in mind that if any of these platforms will come back into play down the line then there needs to be some trace left behind so people can find you again when they need something from you. But before deleting anything, always redirect followers to another account so they can stay updated and contact someone who’ll actually respond back instead of sitting there waiting for replies from an abandoned account! In addition to checking over deleted accounts, be sure to double-check whether all your website links point back towards active profiles – including both homepages and landing pages alike!
> RELATED: Why Google My Business Should Be A Top Priority In Your Social Media Strategy
2. Create a Content Calendar
Creating a plan ahead of time is an enormous help when time is not on your side. A tool that can help you with keeping track of posts and planning is a content calendar.
There are a variety of ways you can build a content calendar. You can, quite simply, create an Excel spreadsheet or a Google Doc to help you plan.
Some additional options include:
Hubspot calendar guide and template ($: Free)
Hootsuite planner ($: Free)
There are numerous benefits to maintaining a calendar, including:
- Saving time. But you have to make sure that you devote a certain amount of time each week or a few times a week to plan out your content.
- Developing consistency. You can move away from posting something randomly or when an idea hits you, to plotting out a certain number of posts per week.
- Making fewer errors. Nothing is worse than a typo from a rushed post, right? A calendar will give you a chance to edit your content before scheduling it.
3. Schedule Posts Ahead of Time
Now that you have a calendar in place, go ahead and schedule your posts. Set aside time to post ahead for a week or two so you don’t have to stress about getting something posted every day.
There are numerous ways to schedule content depending on the platform. On Facebook, for example, you can schedule posts to your business page and on Instagram using Creator Studio at no cost. You can also schedule posts on Twitter directly on the platform, through a tool such as TweetDeck, or through Twitter’s ads manager.
There are also tools that allow you to schedule to multiple platforms at once, which will save you tons of time and stress. For example:
- Loomly ($: starting at $26) has a free 15-day trial to test out the platform. You can schedule and post content to just about everything (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google My Business, Pinterest, and TikTok including FB/IG Reels, and YouTube Shorts). It also offers fantastic reporting that’s easy to follow and read.
- Agorapulse ($: starting at $49) has a free credit card-less trial for you to test out its platform. Agorapulse also has robust reporting features so you can see how all of your platforms are performing monthly or against your competition. They also allow you to post to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google My Business, and TikTok.
- Canva ($: starting at $12.95) is known for making creating graphics easily and also has the ability to let you schedule your posts on multiple platforms.
4. Engage With Your Audience
Be “social” on “social media.” Schedule a few minutes a day to click the “like” button on comments, answer questions that people have and respond to direct messages. No matter what industry you are in, good customer service can set you aside from your competitors in 2023.
This can also be something that other employees do at the beginning or end of their shifts so you can be more timely in responses.
5. Remain Timely and Relevant
What do you do if you have your social media calendar filled out and scheduled, but something trendy happens that you want to be a part of? It’s important to not ignore those things, so keep yourself flexible to move a post to another day, or schedule it several hours after you’ve posted something that day.
You also want to ask yourself if you HAVE to post it right now? If you see something you want to post, save that idea and add it to your calendar. It could be something that fits nicely a few days later without missing out on the trend.
You can also stay up to date with things happening across social media through our very own “Social Media in the News” blog where we post updates about your social media platforms.
If you’re looking for social media help in 2023, The Social Ginger is here to be your partner! Set up a FREE discovery call today.
