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MySpace launched on August 1, 2003, and with it came a revolution that would rock the business world for years to come. Today, nearly half of the world's population is on some type of social media, and if your company isn't there, you may be losing customers.

Being on social media and managing social media content and communities effectively are two very different things.

How can you make sure your social media management strategy is nothing short of a slam dunk? These five tips can help.

1. Create Better Goals

If you're not examining the precise definition of “success” for your brand, you're not building out the goals you need to effect real progress. Any goal you set needs to be attainable, specific, and measurable. More than anything, though, it needs to matter for your company. What do criteria like those mean? That instead of establishing a vague goal - e.g., be more involved with customers - you build specificity - e.g., to increase engagement by 20% over the next quarter.

2. Know Where People Are

The social media landscape is a crowded place. Depending on your brand, you may need to be more present on one channel or another. For example, if your demographic is lower than about age 25, Facebook is not the place to do the bulk of your marketing. Statistics suggest that of the 2.19 billion monthly users on the platform, just 9% of them fall into the 18 - 24 age group. Conduct some research to figure out where you need to be and what type of content is going to work best for your target audience.

3. Create an Action Plan

This is the part where you decide exactly how you're going to reach your goals. How often do you plan to post? What do you want your brand's voice to sound like? Keep in mind that your entire social media strategy can't be one big conversation about how great your brand is.

Instead, you need to create conversation, ask questions, encourage people send photos and other user-generated content, offer new ideas, etc.. Social media is just that - social. You can't simply have a channel that is you, you, you all the time. It's a bit like having a friend who won't stop talking about how great he is. After awhile, you won't be inviting him with you on Friday nights.

4. Evaluate What You're Doing

You cannot measure success unless you're looking at the data. Before you ever get started, decide how to track and measure progress. Some platforms have built in analytics. Sites like Hootsuite even offer you more in-depth reporting capabilities. Checking it routinely will help you see what's working, what's not, and how to adjust along the way. This is a critical component of social media management. 

5. Consider Outsourcing

You likely already know you can't do everything for your company, and managing social media content and communities can take a lot of time. Even if you get started, you may not be able to keep up given all of your other duties. Consider adding a social media team to the mix to help you manage all of it.

Ready to start taking the world of social media by storm? Contact us today to learn more about our social media management packages - and start connecting with your audience.