How to run social media without a social media manager

Why Do Businesses Need Social Media Marketing?

There's no denying that social media is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools for businesses today. Social media presence provides a way to reach out to potential customers, connect with other businesses, and build your brand. But why is social media so important for businesses?

With over 2 billion social media accounts active, your business has the potential to reach a large number of people. And since social media is all about interaction and engagement, you can use it to build relationships with potential customers.

It also provides a way to connect with other businesses. You can use social media to network with other businesses in your industry, collaborate on projects, and build relationships. This can lead to new business opportunities and help you grow your business.

Key Steps to Running Your Social Media

If you don't have the budget to hire a full-time social media manager, that doesn't mean you can't run an effective social media marketing campaign. Here are the basics on how to do it.

Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

There's no one-size-fits-all answer to creating a social media strategy, but there are some key elements that all successful strategies have in common. Here's what you need to do to create a a strategy that will work for your business:

• Define your goals - What do you want to achieve with your social media presence? More sales? More leads? More web traffic? Make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish before you start creating your plan.
• Define your avatar - Who are you trying to reach with your social media efforts? What are their demographic details (age, gender, location, etc)? What are their interests? The more you know about your audience, the better you'll be able to target your content and achieve your goals.
• Choose the right platform - Not all social media platforms are created equal. Some are better suited for certain types of businesses than others. For example, if you're a B2B company, LinkedIn which is used by 97% of B2B marketers may be a better choice for you than Pinterest. Do your research and choose the platform that will work best for you and your audience. Bear in mind that there are many alternatives to Facebook and Instagram.

Create Great Content

One of the most important aspects of social media for businesses is content. Content is what will help you connect with your audience, build relationships, and drive conversions.

But how do you create great social media content?

Here are a few tips:

• Know your target audience - The first step to creating great social media content is to understand your audience. Who are they? What are their interests? What kind of tone do they respond best to?

If you don't know the answers to these questions, take some time to research your audience and figure out what makes them tick. Once you know who they are and what they want you to be able to create content that resonates with them.

• Be authentic - The best way to connect with your audience is to be authentic. Be yourself and don't try to be something you're not. People can spot inauthenticity a mile away, so it's important that you be genuine in your interactions.

Additionally, don't be afraid to show some personality. People want to see that there's a real person behind the brand, so don't be afraid to let your true colours shine through.

• Create interesting and helpful content - Your social media posts should be interesting and helpful if you want people to stick around. No one wants to read boring, dry content that doesn't offer anything of value. You can also use customisable free templates to create engaging social media posts.

Think about what your audience would find interesting and helpful, and create content accordingly. If you’re not sure what kind of content to create, consider doing some market research or surveying your audience to see what they want.

According to social media marketer Zach Grove, an easy way to create content is leveraging User Generated Content (UGC). “Here’s a quick win for social content: email your best customers and ask them to create short videos reviewing your product. Without creating content yourself, you can get tons of authentic UGC videos to fill your social media calendar.”

Analyse Your Results

Once you know your goals, you can start looking at the data that will help you measure whether or not you're achieving them.

There's no shortage of data from all these social media channels. All that data can be overwhelming, and it's not always clear what you should be looking at to gauge the success of your campaigns.

Here are the best ways you can analyse your social media marketing results:

• Look at engagement metrics - Engagement is a good indicator of how well your content is performing and whether or not people are interested in what you're sharing. Some engagement metrics to look at include likes, comments, retweets, and shares. You can also look at click-through rates if you're running ads or promoting links.
• Check your reach - Reach is a measure of how many people are seeing your content. If you have a large reach, that means your content is being seen by a sizable social media network. You can measure reach by looking at the number of followers you have, the number of people who see your posts (impressions), and the amount of traffic you're getting to your website.
• Analyse your audience - You can use social media analytics tools to get demographic information about your followers, such as their age, location, and interests. This information can help you create content that appeals to your target audience and better understand what kind of content performs well with them.
• Test different strategies - Don't be afraid to experiment with different strategies and tactics to see what works best for your business. Try out different types of content, different times of day, and different frequency levels. Then, analyse your results to see what's working and what's not. Continuously testing and tweaking your approach will help you optimise your social media marketing and get better results over time.

Conclusion

The bottom line, you don't really need to hire an expert to run your social media. You don't have to pay someone else to do something you're capable of doing yourself. If you follow the simple guide that we shared, you'll save money and reap the benefits of social media marketing in no time at all.

About author:

I’m one of the founders of Virtual Valley. We own and grow profitable bootstrapped ventures that are entirely bootstrapped and funded by customers, forcing us to focus on building products that customers, not investors, love.

Our latest venture Review Grower aims to compete in a market with competitors doing hundreds of millions a year. Our goal is simple: By creating enterprises that address the most pressing issues affecting tomorrow's top firms, we enable growth in marketers, agencies, and companies.