It’s currently summertime and around the halfway point of the year! What does that mean for you?
Well, you should be reoptimizing your social strategy. Chances are you either created one or finetuned your previous one at the beginning of the year and haven’t looked at it since…
It’s okay though! It happens. The year goes by so fast and sometimes that strategy can fall behind. If you’re reading this, you probably know it’s time to make some changes now that we are at the mid-year point.
Honeypot Tip: Add a note on your Google calendar (or whichever tool you use) to at least take a look at your strategy every 3 months. Optimizing doesn’t have to mean a complete overhaul, but you can always make some small changes that CAN make a huge difference on social media.
I’ve broken it down into 4 different sections so that you can choose your problem area. Select one or all and try applying some of the simple tips to your accounts. Give it around 30 days and check to see if you have any progress or improvement in the area.
What are you struggling with?
If you’re lacking Community/Engagement…
Chances are you aren’t nurturing your community. It’s hard! Especially depending on the niche you are in. However, at the root of social media is community. Your brand or business is nothing if there is no community of support behind it.
What can you do?
Responding to comments/DMs: This one may be obvious but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t. It’s a choice for someone to reach out or leave a comment. Try giving that energy back. Respond to questions, give a genuine thank you, or provide more information in a timely manner.
Truly feel like this is a task you can’t keep up with? Let Honeypot help!
Stories: Stories are made for your current audience. They aren’t necessarily going to help you reach more people. This is where you can let your personality shine, and share your passion, niche, and services. If you are never posting Stories, add it to your task list to try and post at least 1 day a week, then from there slowly build that up. You’ll find it gets easier to find things to share over time.
Reactions: This one can be a bit more time-consuming but engage with others' stories and within your niche/community. You can always engage with past customers, a similar business you can partner with, or even accounts that are directly looking for your services. The key here is to be genuine though. Don’t engage to just sell or promote yourself. React with a question, something thoughtful, or just offer a supportive comment.
If you’re lacking Content Ideas…
We get it. This one can be hard, especially if you are new to the social media world. Here are some places you can check out for popular content ideas:
Honeypot Blog: Get social media news/trends delivered straight to your inbox. Stay up to date with the ever-changing social platforms.
Creators: If Instagram is your main platform, their @Creators page is a great source for content ideas and tips, and if Mosseri (Head of IG) posts any type of update, you can guarantee they’ll have some sort of recap or share the information so you aren’t out of the loop.
TikTok Creator Academy: This hub is TikTok’s own program to help businesses and creators start growing on TikTok. Find everything from content tips to guidelines to instructions on how to monetize.
Google Trends: SEO is important. Even if you are in a highly niche area already, your SEO can always use some improvement. After all, you want your content to be ranking higher. Take some time to look at popular keywords in your niche and create content around what is being searched for. Maybe something you think is common knowledge about your industry is something that isn’t necessarily widely known.
There are so many other websites and resources we can share, but these are good starting points. And if I didn’t touch on your specific platform, feel free to leave a comment and I can recommend some other resources!
If you’re lacking Consistency…
The biggest question you can ask yourself is “Why?”
Depending on your answer, there are a couple of different options.
If it’s a lack of ideas, refer to the above section.
If it’s a lack of time, I have two suggestions.
Batch, Batch, Batch and Schedule, Schedule, Schedule.
If you are someone who is a one-man show or gets overwhelmed needing to post consistently, the best advice I have is to batch your content. Dedicate 1-2 hours per week to creating content. From graphics to short-form, you can get a couple of pieces of content created in just those 1-2 hours, and over time, you will get faster and it will get easier.
Then, take another 30 minutes to schedule your content. We recommend Metricool at Honeypot but there are many tools on the market. Find what best suits your needs and schedule that content!!!
Honeypot Tip: We promise it DOES NOT hurt your reach.
You’ll find that once you eliminate creating content on the fly and having to manually post, management truly does get easier.
If you try this and still find you can’t dedicate the time you need, it may be time to outsource, which is where we come in. Let Honeypot help you! CLICK HERE to learn more about our social media management services.
If you’re lacking Results…
The first question to ask yourself is “How exactly are you measuring your results?”
Are you focusing on vanity metrics? Is there a specific metric that you look at?
Trust me, this is important to define. And you probably won’t love this part of the process as much unless you are someone who loves numbers… but analytic tracking is necessary on social media.
Just like you track sales, or outbound leads, social media is no different. You need to understand how content is doing to improve and make any sort of movement.
Here are 3 things you can start with:
Audience: If I were to ask you who your ideal audience was, would you be able to tell me in specific detail? You should know your ideal clients inside and out. It may seem silly but it is important to know the exact type of people or groups you are targeting. If you are speaking to everyone, then really you are speaking to no one.
Reporting: Whether you work for yourself or clients, reporting can be tedious but it is necessary to see how your content is performing month to month or over a set period. Most social media scheduling platforms do the work for you and help generate reports so there is no excuse for not looking at your analytics. Plus, it’s one thing to look at your analytics, but sometimes it is nice to have a laid-out report to reference back to.
Repurposing: This one goes hand in hand with reporting. Once you’ve taken a look at your reports, you should be able to pinpoint your best-performing content. The key here is to figure out how to replicate that content either to different formats or even other platforms. For example, turn an informative graphic into short-form video content or add more information and write a blog post. You can always spin content in new ways so rather than reinvent the wheel, take content that has previously performed well and save some time.
And there you have it, 4 different areas you can focus on to improve your social strategy at the midpoint of the year. Pick the one you need the most help with or consider improving all the areas. Regardless of where you are in your social media journey, you can always improve your strategy and content.
Let us know your biggest challenges in the industry and don’t forget, Honeypot is always here to help!