Spring Clean Your Social Media

Reviewing your social media marketing efforts on a regular basis is smart business. The tools you are using, including the social networks, may lose their effectiveness over time. Looking at them critically can help you "spring clean" your social media. Here are some areas that may need your attention:

1. Review your business goals

How are you measuring success? Depending on social media for sales is risky. Social media is better suited for:

• Building brand awareness
• Driving traffic to your website or online store
• Providing rapid customer service

Social media should supplement other marketing tactics such as paid social ads and more traditional advertising like print, radio, and television ads.

2. Review your metrics

When it comes to social media, it is less about the number of followers you have and more about the results that you get from your following. Likes are less important than more tangible engagements such as comments, shares, and conversions. Make note of where you are getting real results.

3. Focus on your most effective social networks

If you’re not putting more effort into your more effective channels - and that also means more of your ad spends - then you could be missing out on better results. If you’ve been focusing most of your energy on Instagram but can see in your metrics that Facebook is delivering a higher rate of engagement and conversations, shift some budget and attention to leverage those results.

4. Change up your social media marketing mix

It is easy to get overly comfortable using the same social networks for years, however, not every one of them will remain effective for you over time. Social networks change, and their user bases change as well. Some reasons you might phase out or add a new social network to your marketing mix include:

• The social network or networks you use no longer fit your budget. Social networks make their money from advertising and can control the visibility of your posts to encourage you to spend money on boosting or social ads. If getting "seen" on a social network is becoming too expensive, look at a social network where you are able to engage with your following without having to spend more money.
• The social network you use no longer operates in a way that aligns with your brand. An example of this is when Twitter went under new ownership and became X. The changes in rules and the conversations led many brands to shut down their accounts.
• A different social network may reach the audience you want to reach. You may have started your social media marketing using Facebook and LinkedIn but now realize you aren’t reaching the right audience with your messaging. If you’re looking to reach a younger audience, looking at Instagram or even TikTok could give you a more targeted channel.

5. Review your tools

Are you using the most effective tools to streamline and optimize your social media marketing process? Some of the tools you want to make sure are working well for you or that you might want to explore if you aren’t using them include:

• A social media management dashboard - From Hootsuite to Sprout Social, using a tool that brings the activity from all of the social networks you use into one place helps you monitor and manage your social media efforts.
• Visual editing tools - Photos, graphics, and video are key components of effective social media posts. They attract the eye, tell a story, and otherwise help to engage your following. Make sure you are using the best tools for creating and optimizing visuals, particularly if you or your team are not graphic designers or professional videographers. Tools such as Canva and Adobe Express can help you produce effective visual imagery to complement your content.
• A project management platform - While a social media management tool can help you manage reviewing and responding to comments on your posts and messages in your social media inboxes, your overall social media marketing process consists of multiple steps and often multiple team members. These steps include crafting post captions, creating visuals for each post, and reviews and approvals needed prior to scheduling or publishing. Using a project management tool such as Asana, Basecamp, Trello, or Monday can increase efficiencies.

Analyzing the tools and tactics you use to identify strengths and weaknesses helps you assess what is and isn’t working for your business. Making some strategic changes to your social media marketing mix and tools can help refresh and reinvigorate your social media initiatives.