Super smart social media on the move…A guide to using your smartphone to boost your business through social media

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This guide will take you through how to post content, the best apps to use and how to manage your business’s social media when all you have is a smartphone and a bit of data.

If you’re looking to manage your business’s social media on a smartphone, this guide assumes that you already have knowledge of how to manage social media accounts for business on a desktop computer.

Why on the go?We now have, in our pockets, little computers that could be used to guide 120,000,000 Apollo era spacecraft to the moon, all at the same time. The technology that we have access to in a smartphone means it is becoming easier to manage our businesses on the go. Social media is no exception.

The equipmentObviously, in order to manage your social media on a smartphone you’ll need…a smartphone! We use iPhones, so the screenshots used in this guide are from an iPhone. Most of the apps below are also available in Android with a slight difference in functionality and interface.

Depending on why you’re accessing your social media on your phone, if you know you’ll be posting content to your accounts from your phone, we recommend investing in some good smartphone equipment.

Phone charger/powerbank A must-have if you’re going to be doing things on your phone for long periods of time. We’d recommend one with plenty of power, so you can use it for several charges.

A tripod/monopod If you’re going to be videoing an event on your phone or need to keep the phone still for a while, a tripod or monopod with a smartphone will help keep your shots steady, and free up your hands for other things. There are plenty on the market that are portable and reasonably priced. We’ve used a Manfrotto monopod in the past.

Lenses If you want to create some cool photos and shots of events, a fish-eye or macro lens that attaches to your phone is a fun way to add variety to your posts. There are fairly inexpensive lenses online, like the VicTsing lenses set.

A microphone If you’re going to be recording video content, you might want to invest in a portable microphone (we’ve used Rode video mics before). Smartphone mics are quite good at getting rid of background noise, but a microphone makes sure any audio you want is clearly heard and you can post the best quality content.

Introduction

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The appsThere are many apps out there you can download that can help with your social media management.

Management The social media networks

Facebook pages This app accesses all the pages you’re an admin/manager of so you can check in on them while you’re out and about. You can enable notifications, so you get alerts should someone try to contact your business while you’re on the go.

Top Tip! Even if you use Facebook Business Manager for managing accounts on your desktop computer, the Pages app will let you access those accounts too.

Facebook ads If you’re promoting your page with advertising, the Facebook Ads app will let you manage these campaigns on the go. It doesn’t have the full functionality of Ads Manager on desktop, but (perhaps most importantly), it lets you pause campaigns on the move should there be a problem with your ad.

WhatsApp This is a very handy app when you’ve got several team members out and about in different places that may be posting on social media. It’s good to keep everyone in the loop with what’s happening and share any content that may need to be posted.

Other apps you might look at downloading are:

• iMovie: A good little video editing app on iPhone

• Photoshop Express: an image editing tool is always handy

• Canva: A great app to make social media graphic posts that will be automatically produced in the right size and format for the main social networks

• Boomerang/Layout/Hyperlapse: These are the partner apps to Instagram that create content that can be shared directly to Instagram or saved to your phone.

• Repost: As sharing another account’s content on Instagram is still a bit tricky, the Repost app lets you repost content whilst still crediting the author.

Managing multiple accounts on your smartphoneIf you’re managing a business account from your smartphone, odds are, you’ll have a personal account logged in. For networks that have singular logins for accounts (i.e. not admin access for pages), like Twitter and Instagram, their apps let you easily switch between logged in accounts.

Top Tip! Always check you’re in the right account when posting!

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Creating contentNow you’ve got the apps you need, let’s make some great content with them!

Images

Whilst most social media apps can access your camera to take photos within the app, it’s usually wise to use your in-phone camera app to take photos. This helps you avoid accidental posting of a poor-quality picture and enables you to do some editing to make it look as good as it can.

Before taking the photo If you’re taking a photo of people, it’s important to ask if it’s ok for you to use it on social media. This is especially important if your photo contains children or families. In certain circumstances, you may want to consider consent forms if you are involved in events that feature members of the public.

Think about the size of the picture Square images are usually best on Instagram but get cut off in the Twitter feed. If you’re going to be using the same image across platforms, it’s best to create different versions for each network.

Avoid lots of gimmicky filters Yes, the dog face filter is funny, but it’s not the most professional filter. Also, err on the side of caution when it comes to Instagram editing. As lovely as the Clarendon filter is, ask yourself – does this make my image look better? If the answer is no, don’t use it!

Editing on your phone Apps like Photoshop Express are handy to have on your phone should you want to add some text to your photo or do some very simple airbrushing (like lighting that makes your subject have an unfortunate moustache…just me?). If you’re used to photo editing tools on your computer, these apps should be fairly easy for you to use but if you’re not sure, it’s not essential.

Top Tip! iPhones and Android phones have editing tools in their photo app which can help with lighting correction and cropping.

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VideosThere are two ways to post video to social media: Recorded or Live.

Recorded video

Keep it short – 20 seconds to 1 minute

Sound Depending on the nature of your video, sound isn’t always a necessity. If you are running a short clip of a few seconds, you don’t need to worry about sound.

Top Tip! Always doublecheck when uploading video from your phone for any obscenities in the background.

Editing iMovie is handy should you need to put some music over a video or add some text or captions. They’re quite easy to use, and you can add multiple videos and photos to make a single video, should you want to. Your built-in camera app will also have some video editing options, which might be enough for what you need to do.

Live video

Beware the slip of the finger Make sure you’re not going to accidentally switch views, or even post a live video when you aren’t ready.

Prepare your subjects Before starting a live video with other people, it’s good to prep them with what you’ll be doing. If you’re interviewing someone, let them know the questions you’ll be asking so they can prep some answers (to avoid long pauses). If you’re live streaming something that’s moving, have an idea of where you’ll need to move the phone to get the best shot.

Use the right equipment This is where good microphones and tripods/monopods come in handy. If you’re live streaming something that’s quite long (like a parade or talk), avoid aching arms by resting your phone on something (if you don’t have a stand).

Have a practice run if possible Record what you’ll be live streaming before hitting the live button, so you know you’ve got the right

angle, the sound works, and everything looks ok.

Keep an eye on comments Most live videos have an interactive element where viewers can ask questions or comments. If you’re interviewing someone, looking at those comments and passing on the questions can help you interact and engage with your audience.

Don’t worry if you’ve got no viewers You can save live videos, so you can post and share at a later time. Just because people weren’t tuning in at the time, doesn’t mean no one will see the video.

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Posting contentNow you’ve got the content, you can post it to your social platforms (if it’s not live).

Twitter and Instagram This is fairly straightforward. Upload your content in the account of your business and publish. Make sure you’ve included any necessary hashtags or tagged any relevant accounts if you’re at an event.

Facebook You can publish content using the Pages app, or the Facebook app (we prefer the Pages app). Once you’ve got to the right page, posting is very similar to posting from your personal profile where you can upload content, check into a location or add a feeling or activity. In the Pages app you can schedule that post for a later date or time.

Engaging with your audienceThere’s no predicting what will happen when you’re not at your desk. You can use your smartphone to manage social media posts, as well as respond to comments or queries.

Editing/removing content The Facebook Pages app lets you access scheduled posts by tapping the toolbox in the bottom right corner. Here you edit or remove scheduled posts.

Top Tip! Explore the three dots on Instagram and Facebook… it’s where the interesting stuff is.

Unfortunately, there’s no tool for Twitter that will let you remove tweets that you’ve scheduled via TweetDeck. However, if you use Hootsuite or Sprout Social to schedule your content, you can manage your scheduled tweets through their mobile apps.

Responding to comments The Facebook Pages app has an inbox with your notifications that lets you see all unread notifications. If you have notifications enabled on your phone, these will give you alerts whenever someone comments, posts or messages your business page.

Twitter also gives you an alert when you get a reply, retweet or message for any of the accounts you have logged into the app.

Should there be a comment that you can’t ignore as it contains abuse or strong language, you can deal with these commenters on your phone.

• Twitter: You can report the tweet, block the user or mute them so you don’t get notifications of any tweets where they mention you. Use the arrow in the top right of the tweet.

• Facebook: You can hide or delete a comment on a post, or you can ban the user from posting on your page.

• Instagram: You can swipe left on a comment, and press the ! icon and report it as spam or a scam, or abusive content.

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Managing ads on the moveYou can boost posts and tweets on the go within the social media apps if you choose to but beware: they don’t all let you do what you can on desktop.

Twitter You’re very limited with your targeting when promoting a post in Twitter (you also need to make sure you’ve enabled Twitter for business for your account) – it loads locations you’ve saved when you’ve been in your account on desktop and won’t really let you select anything else there.

You can manage ads within the app by selecting Twitter Ads in the left-hand side menu. This will give you some top-level analytics (impressions, engagements etc.) but it won’t let you edit any of the campaigns on your smartphone.

Instagram If you’ve linked your Instagram account to a Facebook ad account, you can promote your posts from the Instagram app. Again, the targeting here is limited, but the analytics do also give you some top-level results.

Facebook Facebook has its own Ads Manager app in which you can access your Facebook ad accounts. This won’t give you everything you can access on your desktop – especially the analytics – but you can pause campaigns, which would probably be the

most essential thing when on the go. You can also create nice ads and set up campaigns on your smartphone. This is by far the most comprehensive app for advertising on social.

Top Tip! You can also boost posts from within the Facebook app itself.

About DTWDTW is a PR and marketing agency that delivers outstanding results. We’ll engage your communities, excite your customers and inform your stakeholders.

We fuse creativity and flair with intelligence and knowledge to create top-notch PR, marketing and community relations campaigns for organisations in and around the public sector. Our real specialism is in delivering exceptional communications for those involved in education and training, infrastructure, waste, energy and the environment, government and healthcare.

Through brilliant, well thought-out PR and marketing we’ll help you achieve your goals – delivering results with a one-of-a-kind service.

Our thinking, planning and execution is always focused on your goals, and we’ll help you achieve remarkable results. We do this using award-winning PR, marketing, video, animation, social media and design techniques to deliver successful digital and offline campaigns.

If you want to learn more about our services, you can visit our website:

www.dtw.co.uk/socialmedia

Strategic consultancy Community engagement PR Marketing Digital Social Design Video Animation dtw.co.uk

Things to remember:It’s still just a phone. You don’t have to run your entire social media strategy on your phone, and it’s probably best not to, but with the right equipment and apps, you can do a lot of things on the go.

Take your time. Managing social media on your smartphone makes it easier to make mistakes on your accounts. It’s always worth double-checking everything you’re doing.

Be prepared. Make sure you have all the equipment and apps you need to access your social media on the go, but you might not have a chance to get what you need so it’s always best to have a backup plan.

Communicate with others. If there’s more than one of you, make sure you’re all on the same page about who will be posting what and where and when.

There’s always the delete button. If you make a mistake, you can always remove a post or tweet and start again.5

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