four steps to simplify your daily social media activities
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Four Steps to Simplify YourDaily Social Media ActivitiesBy Maggie Hibma
Published March 12, 2015
Do you engage with your audience onmultiple social platforms?
Do you want to work more efficiently?
Focusing your efforts on the socialchannels and engagement signals that aremost beneficial to your business can saveyou time.
In this article you’ll discover how to create a social media to-do list in four steps.
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Discover how to simplify your daily social media activities.
#1: Rank Your Social AccountsTo prioritize your social media accounts, compile a worksheet with key details foreach account:
1. Make a list of all of your social accounts.
2. Write down the current number of fans or followers on each platform.
3. Dig into your marketing analytics to figure out how many monthly visits,contacts and customers each platform brings. Use the last full month’s data or anaverage of the last three.
Here’s what a sample worksheet with these details might look like:
Prioritize your social media platforms by the revenue they drive.
Now, take a look at which platforms are generating the most revenue for yourbusiness. This information makes it easy to prioritize your social accounts. Thereshould be some correlation between the size of your reach and how many customers
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each platform generates for your business.
In the example above you would likely prioritize LinkedIn first and Twitter second. Eventhough you have a bigger reach on Facebook, Twitter is bringing in more monthlywebsite visits, which is closer to your ultimate goal.
#2: Prioritize Engagement SignalsAfter you’ve identified which social platforms are most important, you need to prioritizethe signals within in each platform.
Because social media is made up of multiple platforms that don’t share the sameanalytics, some engagement signals carry more weight than others. Also, a share onone network may weigh more heavily than a share on another because of the otheroptions offered on that platform.
Here are Facebook’s options for engagement and how to prioritize them:
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Each Facebook post includes Like, Comment and Share options.
Share : This type of engagement is weighted the heaviest and should beprioritized above the others because when someone shares your post, they’repassing along your information to their network.
Comment: Comments are important, and you need to address them in casesomeone needs help or has a question. But a comment is not as heavily weightedas a share because it lacks demand-generation potential. A comment is a great
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opportunity for one-to-one engagement, so if the chance presents itself, take it.Like : While getting likes is important, they’re tossed around pretty freely. A like is
a signal of the health and relevance of your Facebook account rather than a signalof engagement.
Here are Twitter’s engagement options and how to prioritize them:
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Tw itter’s engagement options appear in the icon bar.
Reply: A reply is a social media marketer’s dream—the direct mention. It’s trueone-to-one engagement, and it’s also part of the reason why companies are likelyto see good traction with Twitter if they’re using social media marketing bestpractices.
Retweet: A retweet is akin to a Facebook share, but keep in mind that aFacebook post has a longer lifecycle than a tweet. Like a Facebook share, thisinteraction is about passing along your information to the other user’s network.
Pocket*: I use the link-saving system Pocket, and since I’ve installed the Pocketplugin in my browser, it shows up in my icon bar. *Other users’ icon bars could bedifferent based on which plugins they’ve installed in their browsers.
Favorite : Again, akin to the Facebook like, a favorite is more of a signal of thehealth of your Twitter audience.
More (…): Clicking this button brings up a new menu of choices, as shown in theimage below.
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Clicking the More (…) button reveals additional options.
Here are LinkedIn‘s options for engagement and how to prioritize them:
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LinkedIn’s engagement options are Like, Comment and Share.
Like : Every platform has a like option. It’s a signal from your audience of someengagement.
Comment: Again, the one-to-one potential is ripe with opportunities to offer helpand present yourself as a thought leader in your industry. However, a commentisn’t as powerful a signal as a share.
Share : Bingo! Address your LinkedIn shares first before any other action on theplatform (but within the context of your overall prioritization—more that on below).
#3: Create a To-Do ListAfter you’ve decided which types of interactions are your signals, create a daily to-dolist.
Based on the earlier example—where you prioritized the platforms in the order ofLinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook—this would be your daily to-do list:
LinkedIn:
ShareCommentLike
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Twitter:
ReplyRetweetFavorite
Facebook:
ShareCommentLike
Pro Tip: Prioritizing Other Social Platforms
You may also be using accounts on other social platforms like Pinterest, Google+and more. To prioritize signals on those platforms, ask yourself these questions:
Which signal shares my information with people I don’t know? This signalis always the strongest because it provides the most reach for your message.
Which signal requires one-to-one communication? This signal is alsostrong due to the direct engagement.
Which signal doesn’t require any follow-up? These kinds of signals areimportant to note, but should only be addressed after the others.
#4: Stick to a ScheduleCongratulations! You’ve now prioritized the platforms you’re using in your social mediamarketing and created a daily to-do list in the process.
Now, all you need to do is decide how much time you want to spend each day onsocial media and how much time to spend on each platform.
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Set a schedule for managing your social media.
Image: Shutterstock.
Depending on your role, you may have a whole day or just one hour to spend onsocial media. A good general rule is to spend the most time on your top network,less time on your second-ranked network and so on.
However, the only way that plan will work to your advantage is if you continue to payclose attention to the numbers associated with your social platforms andmake smart decisions based on the data. If nothing else, repeat step 1 everythree months to ensure you’re up to date with what’s going on in your socialaccounts.
Conclusion
Social media is a proven way to build your brand, but managing accounts can be time-consuming. To get the most from your social engagement efforts, focus on channelsand activities that have the most impact for your brand.
What do you think? What tactics do you use to prioritize your socialengagement? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Hourglass photo from Shutterstock.
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Tags: maggie hibma, social media engagement, social media f or business, social media management, social media schedule,
social media to do list
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Maggie Hibma
Maggie Hibma is a Produc t Marketing A ssoc iate at HubSpot. She
f requently blogs f or the HubSpot Inbound Marketing Blog on soc ial
media. Connec t w ith her on Tw itter @MaggieHibma. Othe r pos ts
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11 Comments Social Media Examiner
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• Reply •
Michael D. Yoder • 3 days ago
This is a very practical approach to prioritizing and managing your social media channels. Lots of good informationthat should help people get their arms around the day-to-day of managing their social media activities.
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• Reply •
Maggie Hibma • 2 days ago> Michael D. Yoder
Thanks Michael! Glad the post was helpful. 1△ ▽
• Reply •
katbron • 3 days ago
Thank you Thank you Thank you! △ ▽
• Reply •
Maggie Hibma • 2 days ago> katbron
You're welcome! △ ▽
• Reply •
Ezra Cooperman • 2 days ago
Nice, clear and concise post. Seems like a clean system.
I find it interesting that Pinterest is still generally not mentioned as one of the first social platforms alongside Twitterand Facebook. Seeing as it's now used by more U.S. consumers than Twitter, it seems like it deserves more love.
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• Reply •
Jacqui • 2 days ago
Really simple but practical advice Maggie; so many businesses flounder on social media because they don'tprioritise and review. Thanks for your tips. Jacqui
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Raquel M Ramirez • 2 days ago
Love this article Maggie! It was long overdue and so practical. You shared practical yet super useful tips and provideda easy to follow format. Can't wait to share this with my communities. Thank you and blessings!
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Julia Blake • 2 days ago
Can't agree that these are the simplest tips ever, although they are very useful. I have been thinking of ranking myaccounts for months, but just haven't time for that or didn't want to find time) Right now (this minute) I will create adoc with latest stats for my accounts and will continue to fill it regularly. Thanks for pushing me)
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Steve Hedstrom • 2 days ago
Nice post Maggie! Easy to follow and implement! Perf! Thanks and happy Friday! :-) △ ▽
• Reply •
Suhaib Ahsan • 10 hours ago
Very practical and helpful advices for time management, very much thankful △ ▽
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Bonnie David • 2 hours ago
Informative! It can be confusing to understand the true meaning behind each social signal. And it is easy to think thati.e. like, share and comment or reply, favorite and retweet all mean the same thing in terms of engagement. appreciate that you clearly differentiated between each of these signals and their relevant significance in each SocialMedia Platform! Thanks Maggie!
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