Are you tasked of "babysitting" your boss' or the company's social media page? Is this something totally new to you? Then, this post is for you.
Other businesses would hire marketing professionals who specialise in high returns of social media activities. This entails so much complexity that requires experience in copy writing, marketing, social media use, advertising, etc.
However, if your boss is just asking you to babysit a social media account which means you just have to make sure you have posts up enough to have an online presence then this post might help you get started.
This is the third in my mini series of becoming or being a virtual assistant where I talk about what the basics that I know of the common tasks for a virtual assistant. I will leave the links to the other posts at the end.
Branding and Audience
Some might think that this task may seem easy because who does not have social media nowadays, right? Wrong. You should distinguish the line between personal and a brand's social media impact. Even if you are managing another person's social media if the point at the end of the day is for profit, then you should look at this as a brand. There are two things that you should wrap your head around at this stage: branding and audience. Branding basically is how you want to be seen to a larger group of unknown people and audience is that group of unknown people. Study and learn the answers to what the branding strategy is and who are your audience by asking your boss what image does the business want to achieve or maintain and who is/are your target audience. Once you have the basic grasp of these two things, you can begin researching.
Very basic research
Just because you're just babysitting a social media account does not mean you just go to town with what you do. You have to do some research on the extent of the company's products and services and all the topics that relate to those products and services. For example, if the business is selling slimming teas, you can also research related articles and facts on healthy eating, exercise, wellness, etc.
You also have to research on who your audience is. If your audience is a group of young professionals then the basic thing you should know could be things like what are the jobs of the majority of these people and what time do they usually work - with this information, you can determine a schedule of your posts based on what time they commute to and from work and NOT during their work hours. Another example is knowing the artists and influencers they typically listen to and studying how those influential people communicate with them. This would be an easy way to know what language your audience easily hears and you can adjust accordingly. Study your audience like how you would study a person you're interested in.
Creating graphics and media content
For a lot of social media platforms like Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and the likes, graphics and other media content like videos, webinars are the main tools of communication. Your work will involve creating these graphics to share to your page. This will be a challenge especially if you have zero experience in graphic design or you think you are just not creative for these sorts of things. Be not afraid, Canva will be your best starting tool. A lot of businesses and social media managers now rely on this very easy to use graphic design platform that is free to use (with options for premium membership). I think even someone who has absolutely no idea how to create graphics would be able to learn how to use Canva within an hour. There are tons of template that are perfect for a wide variety of businesses and when you're confident enough, you can also start creating your own. You can access the site here.
If you're still scared of using Canva for the first time, here is a two-hour online course for free on how to use the platform to create visuals for businesses.
Writing the captions/copy
These are the texts that come with every post that you share even if you are just posting an image or just simply sharing another article. It is important that you have a caption and your writing style would be strongly tied to the business branding. Those without experience in writing will find this challenging but don't pressure yourself too much if you're just starting. You can also directly quote the article but for heaven's sake do not forget the quotation marks if you do. If you are sharing a graphic with text on it, do not retype the same text in your caption (it's just weird) - instead, write something in the caption that expands the thought that is expressed in the image's text.
The neat trick that you can apply is to keep it short and sweet. The less you say, the less chances of being misinterpreted.
This will take practice but you'll be able to learn this fast with consistency. Make sure your grammar is correct (you can always use Grammarly) and your message is clear, non-offensive and non-degrading.
Social media calendar
A very efficient way would be to plan your posts in advance into a social media calendar. You can also have your boss check this for you so you'll know what to adjust before actually posting it. You can create one with the many online tools available but you can also create it in the good ol' Microsoft Word if you have too much on your learning plate already. This is not necessary, but a great way to always have a post up for consistency.
Insights and Statistics
The good news is that if you're only tasked with the very basic social media management, then you don't have to create your own study of how effective your social media activities are. However, insights are available across all platforms for business accounts if you're wondering how people respond to your posts, who are the people responding and what times they usually respond. These types of information will help you create better and more effective content.
I hope this short guide will help ease your anxiety if you're ever tasked with basic social media management. Until the next one!
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