If you are a social media manager handling different social media accounts, you know how difficult this can be. From posting regularly to responding to customer queries and checking analytics, there are many tasks that can occupy your time.
A social media workflow can help you manage your social media accounts and interactions. It involves the planning, publishing, and analyzing of social media content. This article will look at optimizing social media workflow for better results.
Importance of a Social Media Workflow
Here are several benefits of having a social media workflow:
Improved Efficiency
With a well-defined workflow, you can improve the efficiency of your social media campaigns. This can translate into more time to manage and optimize your campaigns as you do not have to keep switching between different profiles.
Better Quality Checks
One of the key steps in a social media workflow is checking the accuracy of content and ensuring it is up to date. These checks can help prevent errors and reduce risks.
Improved Engagement On Posts
Studies indicate that there are certain best times to post on social media. A good social media workflow allows you to share content across different pages at optimal times. This can improve engagement on your posts.
Better Performance Metrics
A good social media workflow will also show you how your campaigns perform. In return, you will be better positioned to make more informed decisions.
Types of Social Media Workflow
There are different types of Social media workflows. These are:
Social Media Posting Workflows
Here are the steps to follow when implementing a social media posting workflow:
Ideation
The first step in creating this workflow is to generate content ideas. You should understand what you want to gain with a particular content. When creating content ideas:
- Create a goal for your content
- Understand your target audience
- Create a content calendar.
- Track posts
- Measure the performance of your campaigns.
Content Sourcing
This involves finding the content, images, animation, videos, etc to post. You can get content ideas on places such as:
- Google Trends
- Social bookmarking sites
Content Drafting
This is when you write the content for your social media sites. Ensure that your post is written for your target audience. Keep your posts short and sweet. Also, use engaging headlines, videos, and calls to action in your posts.
Other steps in content creation workflows are:
- Editing. Ensure that all content is well-edited before posting.
- Approval. All stakeholders should approve the posts.
- Scheduling. Picking the time and interval for posting.
- Checking post performance
- Adhoc posting, which responds to changes in trends or other unforeseen circumstances.
Social Media Content Approval Workflow
The approval workflow aims to ensure that the content you post aligns with the goal of your brand. It involves ideation, creation, and review of posts. The content should then be reviewed by different stakeholders, such as the marketing team, legal team, and other third parties, to ensure that it meets the brand’s standards.
Content Batching Workflows
This type of workflow involves creating content for different social media sites and creating a schedule for posting the content. With batching workflow, you can ensure that you post content regularly that your audience can resonate with. Some of the steps to follow when doing content batching are:
- Brainstorming content ideas
- Creating content calendar
- Sourcing of content
- Editing content for quality and accuracy.
- Approval of content before it is published.
- Scheduling the content for release at a particular time
- Checking content analytics and optimizing for the same.
Tips And Tricks When Creating Social Media Workflows
When creating a workflow, you should:
- Assign duties and responsibilities to staff such as copywriters, graphic designers, social media managers, etc.
- Ensure that you operate within the rules of your industry, including disclosures and agreements for sponsored posts.
- Create a social media calendar to plan, track, and manage your content.
- Have a standard operating Procedure(SOP) for your workflow that everyone knows. It should define how content is created, the roles and responsibilities of each person, and the rules for accepting or rejecting posts. It should also define how social media performance should be defined.
- Passwords and other crucial data should be well secured and only within the reach of a few trusted staff.
- Have a unified social media inbox
Final Thoughts
With a well-crafted social media workflow, you can ensure your posts are well-created and align with your brand’s voice. It can also help remove the stress of creating content and ensure a consistent posting schedule. This can help you maintain a consistent brand voice and keep your brand in the minds of your customers.
