First Things First

1️⃣ Step One

Get access to your company’s social media profiles

I would suggest scheduling a meeting with whoever currently has access or the access credentials.

2️⃣ Step Two

Choose a social media scheduler and connect those social media channels to that scheduler.

Professional social media managers need a scheduler to stay consistent and analyze data. So, pick one. I prefer to use Metricool (here’s a sneaky link). Sometimes, connecting social media accounts to a scheduler can also be tricky, so I like to do this in the manager meeting from step one.

The Research Phase

3️⃣ Step Three

Go over your company’s old social media strategy.

The goal here is to get a good idea of the company’s thought process regarding its marketing. However, I’m willing to bet most companies do not have this. If they don’t, skip this step.

4️⃣ Step Four

Perform a social media audit

Comb over your company’s social media channels and get a good feel for who its followers are, what they post, and how they format their content.

5️⃣ Step Five

Perform a competitor analysis

Who are your company’s top five competitors? What are they posting? How often are they posting? (I use Metricool for this. Here is a tutorial from their blog)

6️⃣ Step Six

Write out two or three buyer personas

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and accurate data about your existing customers. So, when you create content, you are hyper-fixating on this one person. (I use HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool for this. It’s free)

7️⃣ Step Seven

Develop a keyword / hashtag library

If you are working with a medium to large business, I would recommend contacting your company’s SEO specialist or Google Ads expert. If your company does not have that, start doing some research. A simple way of doing this is by listing down terms and phrases that you think your customers might use to search for your products or services. Then, use Google Keyword Planner and AnswerThePublic to find other common phrases your target customer uses.

Moving on

8️⃣ Step Eight

Create a weekly (or monthly) work schedule.

Working as a social media manager means that you’ll be juggling a lot of different tasks, so I find it extremely beneficial to sit down and write out a weekly schedule.

Bonus points if you review this schedule with your manager. This way, you both are on the same page, and they can provide feedback such as, “Hey, I would prefer to have a weekly meeting on Tuesdays. Can you adjust your schedule to accommodate that?”

9️⃣ Step Nine

Develop a content calendar

I suggest starting with your key quarterly dates (e.g., upcoming sales, product launches, etc.). Then, plan content two weeks at a time.

1️⃣0️⃣ Step Ten

Create the content

This means scheduling time to get video footage, edit graphics, source photos, or take photos yourself. Businesses with a larger cash flow may have a photographer or videographer on payroll. Coordinate with them.

1️⃣1️⃣ Step Eleven

Write your captions and assign hashtags

Use your keyword library and sprinkle one or two words into your caption. Instagram still utilizes hashtags, so I would pick 3 – 5 per post. TikTok loves hashtags, so I usually go for 8 – 10.

1️⃣1️⃣ Step Eleven

Create the content

This means scheduling time to get video footage, edit graphics, source photos, or take photos yourself. Businesses with a larger cash flow may have a photographer or videographer on payroll. Coordinate with them.

1️⃣2️⃣ Step Twelve

Schedule your content

As always, I recommend Metricool, but using a scheduler in general will allow you to focus on other essential tasks without stressing over posting content. And no, it does not affect reach. That’s an old wives tale. I’ll dive deeper into this in an upcoming newsletter.

1️⃣3️⃣ Step Thirteen

Set aside 15 – 60 minutes daily for social media engagement.

This may look like answering DMs, responding to comments, and leaving comments on other accounts.

1️⃣4️⃣ Step Fourteen

Set aside one day a month to write a social media analytics report.

Not only does it justify your position as a social media manager, but you need the time to go over data and figure out how well your strategy is working

I made a YouTube video digging into this topic a lot deeper!