Get Organized this Year on Social Media (2018)
[ORGINALLY WRITTEN FOR AND PUBLISHED ON KEYMEDIASOLUTIONS.COM]
It seems like every week our favorite social media platforms force us to change something — adapt to a new layout, update settings, or agree to new terms & services. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s take a look at how the social scene in 2017 shook things up in big ways.
- Facebook Stories happened and, in October, we learned Facebook was rolling out an option to cross post Instagram Stories to Facebook Stories.
- LinkedIn stepped up its game for B2B brands by adding lead generation forms to the LinkedIn Advertising platform, letting users claim an offer with one click.
- One of influencer marketing’s favorite platforms, Instagram, incorporated a “paid partnership” tag with the intention to enhance transparency for users to easily distinguish sponsored content.
- LinkedIn, again making waves, included its own native video abilities answering the prayers of B2B marketers everywhere.
- Twitter dominated social media headlines in November 2017 by doubling its character limit from 140 to 280.
As we’ve officially put one full month of 2018 under our belt, it’s time to take another look at our resolutions we set coming into this year. Let’s start by reviewing our 2018 Social Media promises to ourselves to see what progress we made in our first month of the new year.
Getting Organized
Committing to organization with your social media means being intentional. Don’t post just for the sport of posting something. Think quality over quantity to give your followers a reason to keep coming back each time you share.
Planning out social media content requires thinking through content that drives results. Ask yourself:
- Why is my business on social media and what am I aiming to achieve by being there?
- What value does this content bring to the person reading it?
- Is this content relevant to the goals of my business?
- What has driven engagement and results in the past?
Using monthly or quarterly content calendars are great ways to plot out a timeline of content to ensure a consistent presence and timely messaging. Calendars can help you organize how to share the same content on multiple platforms with strategy instead of generic copy and pasting. Calendars can also include deadlines to ensure timely creation of valuable and engaging content. In the end, a little upfront time and effort can smooth the social media processes.