Social media is a beast. There are hundreds of social networks out there and millions of conversations happening online every day. It is important for brands to be a part of these conversations, but keeping track of what’s happening on social media can be a daunting full-time activity. This is where a dedicated community manager becomes very useful.
A professional social media community manager can help you join the right conversations, build brand awareness, and amplify your messages, which gives you more time to focus on running your business.
1. Join the right conversations
Community managers know how to find topical conversations for your brand by instinctively keeping on top of trends and current news, as well as through keyword research and connecting with influencers.
Keyword research involves finding the words and phrases your target audience is searching for. These keywords would then be incorporated into your brand’s posts (typically via #hashtags).
This strategy has proven to be effective for our client the Traffic Injury Research Foundation. In less than a year, we’ve helped them grow their follower base by nearly 10% by working closely with them to develop targeted, hashtagged content.
>85% of Canadians say they don’t ride with a #drunkdriver. #Ridesafe this #StPatricksDay: https://t.co/POXTHZEGcZ pic.twitter.com/3wmoxNslun
— TIRF Canada (@TIRFCANADA) March 17, 2016
#Cyclists: We need your opinion on #biking in #Ottawa! Join us for our focus group on May 2 from 6–8pm. #ottbike pic.twitter.com/8g15VQpUFN
— TIRF Canada (@TIRFCANADA) April 19, 2016
Keywords can also help you find influencers in your brand’s category, who can share or create content for you. For example, we used hashtags to help an Ontario tourism region find, follow, and interact with travel bloggers and photographers.
2. Build brand awareness
A social media community manager helps you build brand awareness by setting up your profiles so they are optimized for search. This makes your profiles easier to find for your target audience.
A community manager also ensures a consistent brand voice across all your social media profiles, which often includes creating unique branded hashtags. A branded hashtag is similar to a signature tag; for example, if you are running a campaign, or have a sale at your store, a branded hashtag can help you further promote this short-term event.
Examples of branded hashtags we found were effective for our clients include #KeepTheEhInEggs (Egg Farmers of Canada), #OurTeamCan (Sports Canada) and #TheNewMeTime (York Region Transit/Viva).
How do you make the most of your bus time? Tell us in a tweet using #TheNewMeTime! pic.twitter.com/AYSRSgo7il
— York Region Transit (@YRTViva) April 10, 2014
3. Amplify your messages
Lastly, a community manager can help you improve your brand’s content organization and reach on social media. This may include creating a content calendar to organize your messages and events, as well as using a social media management tool, such as Hootsuite, to ensure your messages are going out at ideal times for maximum exposure.
A good community manager also can provide analytics reports to discover where your brand could use improvement on social media, and to see what kind of posts garner the most attention.
Are you interested in building your brand on social media?
Acart offers social media management, as well as many other social media services, for all types of clients.
Contact our team today to learn how we can help you optimize your brand’s social media profiles.