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Tips for Working With Your Social Media Manager

If you’ve invested in a social media manager to help you establish and grow your social media presence, you must work in partnership with them for the most success. Don’t just throw your manager out there and hope things will go the way you expect. Client partnership is key!

Tip for Working with Your Social Media ManagerWhat responsibilities do you, the social media client, have as a partner with your manager?

  • Be available. I can answer simple fan and follower questions on your behalf, but you are the expert. Fans and customers can and do ask questions I cannot answer, so I need a way to contact you and get an answer quickly. For many, it’s email. Some may prefer texting. One person I know keeps their Skype account up and running and prefers contact that way.
  • Send me links. Anytime you see a website, blog post, video, or newsletter containing information related to your expertise, send it my way. I always appreciate new information I can use as part of your social media strategy.
  • Send me photos. Fans love to see the real person behind the social media profile. Keep it simple and fun. Maybe you went on a hike, spoke at a conference or met the President of the United States and shook his hand. Get those to me post haste.
  • Keep me updated. If you have an upcoming event of some kind – book signing, speaker at a conference, ribbon cutting – tell me AHEAD of time. If you wait until the last minute and then are frustrated at the lack of social media response, you unfortunately just caused your own issue. You’ve got to give me time to work it.
  • Understand social media basics. You invested in me, your social media manager, to provide the expertise needed to make each platform work to best advantage. But it is helpful for you to understand that social media is not about selling, selling, selling. It IS about building relationships, being authentic, being consistent, telling your story and being interesting and of value to your fans and customers. As such, I am not going to scream “Buy My Widget” every other post.
  • Create new content consistently. The easiest way to do this is to keep a blog. Start small, like once a week, but be consistent and do it every week. Giving me high-quality content to work with will better establish you as the expert in your business.
  • Keep your scheduled communication appointment. In my social media practice, I speak directly with each client at an agreed-upon time (beyond email) by phone, video chat, or in person when feasible. This allows you to ask questions, ask for changes, mention new information, develop or enhance new social media strategy, and the best part – we get to know each other better.
  • Pay on time. Please. I want to spend my time working diligently on your behalf rather than on tracking you down for a late payment. Plus that creates hard feelings unnecessarily.

Of course this is only half the equation. Watch for another post on exactly what a social media manager does for you, the client. Some of those responsibilities are also mentioned in another post titled “Create a Partnership with Your Social Media Manager.”

What other tips would you add to this list? Post a comment below.

Would you like to receive my monthly newsletter All About Social? I’ll keep you updated on the latest social media trends and news, give you simple tips and tricks, an occasional joke or funny picture, and updates on the latest social media specials, programs, and trainings I have coming up. Just let me know via my Contact Melody Jones tab above.

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Reset Your Mindset About Social Media

 

Twitter
Twitter

As an author, small business owner, or entrepreneur, you’ve become acutely aware of the need to be present on social media. Do you find that you are reluctant? Overwhelmed? Think it’s not working? You need to reset your mindset, my friends.

Mindset: Social media is separate from everything else.

Reset: Social media is part of a cohesive whole.

  • Social media works best in synergy with your entire author or business platform. It is part of your marketing, not all of your marketing, so when you are planning your strategy, make sure social media isn’t shouldering the whole burden. It won’t work, and you will feel frustrated.

Mindset: I have to use all the major social media platforms right away.

Reset: I will begin with one social media platform and learn to use it correctly.

  • There is absolutely no need to begin using every platform at the same time. Start with the one where your target audience gathers. Learn about it. Become proficient at it. Then add the next one and do the same thing.

Mindset: Social media is overwhelming.

Reset: Social media can be managed with personal investment and the right tools.

  • It’s true that social media CAN be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. If you are serious about success, you must invest in yourself. That means you take the time to learn how to use your chosen social media platform, whether through self-education, classes, or one-on-one coaching. You must also learn the tools needed to streamline social media, such as HootSuite or TweetDeck, and time management techniques such as planning calendars. Your early investment will make incorporating social media MUCH easier.

Mindset: The only reason I use social media is to sell my stuff.

Reset: I use social media to create relationships, share valuable information, and build a loyal fan base.

  • Folks, we are here to sell our books or products, yes, but the world has changed. Gone are the old days when we talked at our audience with ads asking them to buy something. Now, we have conversations with our audience, building relationships in an authentic way that shows fans we’re real people with interesting stuff to share. And we happen to be authors or business owners, too.

With a few mental resets, you can incorporate social media into your life more easily. It’s worth your time to invest in yourself because in today’s world, authors and entrepreneurs must take care of themselves!

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Developing Content for Social Media

Developing Content for Social Media

One of the most common questions I’m asked is “What do I post?” A close second is “Where do I find content for my social media?”  I say don’t over-think it. If you are writing blog posts, have a website, have a book/product/service, and have a brain, you have things to post.

 

Use Your Own Stuff

If you write a blog, have a website, published a book, or produce a newsletter, you’ve already created content. Because brevity is valued in social media, it’s easy to find a snippet of information within any of these mediums to share. Search for an interesting fact to post and make sure you include a call to action such as asking a question, or attach it to a theme such as Trivia Tuesday. Include a link to the blog post or add a graphic like a photograph.

Blog

Let’s look at an example.  An author I work with, Dr. Merrie P. Wycoff, wrote a blog post relating to her Egyptian-themed book. Take a look at it here and follow along as we discover bits and pieces to share on social media:  What is the secret of religion hidden in King Tut’s necklace?

  • The title is already a perfect question to ask using social media.
  • In the first paragraph, we can pull interesting information and rephrase it: 1 – Trivia Tuesday: King Tut’s unusual stone, seen here in his necklace, comes from a field of glass in Egypt. 2 – What does a meteorite have to do with King Tut’s necklace? 3 – Like this post if you love King Tut!
  • First and second paragraphs. 1 – What do a meteor crater, King Tut, and the development of Ancient Egyptian religion have to do with each other? 2 – Trivia Tuesday. Ancient Egyptian religion was profoundly impacted by a meteorite.  3 – Any guesses on how the shock of a meteor impact spurred Ancient Egyptian religion to develop?  4 – Has anybody ever seen a meteor crater?
  • Third paragraph. 1 – Hey fans, first person to find this fact in my blog post and post the paragraph and line number here gets a free Eye of Horus: “…the Hanuti discovered these ley-lines and energy spots and placed crystalline stones upon an altar…” 2 – Did you know the nose became a symbol for a temple in Ancient Egypt? 3 – Who recognizes the pattern on the map in this blog post from another famous piece of Egyptian art? 4 – How are jackals, a nose, and crystalline stones related to Ancient Egyptian religion? 5 – Trivia Tuesday. The early symbol for a temple was a nose because the priests would bake wheat into loaves of bread and the smell wafted over to the farmers in the field signaling it was time for worship. 6 – What does bread have to do with Ancient Egyptian worship?  7 -Those Ancient Egyptians were crazy. Meteors, jackals, and noses?
  • Remember, all of these posts also include a link back to the blog post so your fans can read it.

Book Excerpt

If you’ve written a book, fans love it when authors share excerpts. Utilize your website or blog for the excerpt and use social media to drive people there with a post like “Just released an excerpt from my new book. What do you think about the character John Smith and the life-or-death decision he had to make?”

Website

This is an easy one. Of course you can post and link website information to your various social media accounts. My one caution is that you should not promote your widget too often, or your fans will tune out because they see you as a commercial. They want to be informed, be entertained, get to the know the real person behind the company, and have conversation.

 

Fan Questions and Comments

Your fans are a goldmine of potential content. If you get a particularly intriguing comment from a fan or see certain questions repeatedly (like, say, where can I find content?), these are excellent launching points for social media content.

 

Share the Love, Dahling

You must track down and post third party content that relates to your subject matter. For example, an Egyptian theme lends itself well to content located on museum websites. If you provide a health-related service, like chiropractic care, there’s a wealth of information out there to share. Now you can just post and link that information into your social media.

  • Google Alerts. You can enter a word or phrase into an alert, and Google will scour its entire network for that phrase, sending you a notification with a link when found. It is absolutely invaluable for helping you keep up with the latest and greatest in your subject matter. Phrase examples could be “Ancient Egyptian Religion” or “bumblebees” or “space travel.”
  • Websites. Find one with a large amount of relevant information and set aside time to look at it. Here are a few to check out.
    • Alltop. Imports the stories of the top news websites and blogs for any given topic and displays the headlines of the five most recent stories. Also has a search function.
    • Pinterest. A fantastic site to find visual content relating to your subject. Just make DANG sure you can use what you find there. Copyrights are in play.
    • Topsy.  A search engine that posts information in real time from Twitter and Google+ and that strives to find only the “most important” content.
  • Trivia and Quote Sites.  All serious all the time = no fun! You must also entertain your fans with trivia, jokes, quotes, and cartoons. Do a Google search to find sites with this information. There are also cartoon and funny quote pages on Facebook that allow you to share their content.
  • Videos. Search YouTube for related subjects and post to your other social media accounts. Fans love video.

 

Once you’ve developed content, plan ahead by entering it into a social media planning calendar. This way you won’t repeat information too soon or too often, and it’s easy to cut and paste into social media or HootSuite.