The Social Media Checklist You NEED for 2020!
How many of you feel like you have the social media game down? Are you feeling confident in all of your posting plans for this next quarter and know exactly what your feeds are going to look like?
With the Christmas shopping, baking, tree decorating and running a business you may not be ready for your 2020 social media gameplan just yet. A lot goes in to curating and creating a profitable and successful social media strategy. You have to be relevant, fun, informative and most importantly, CONSISTENT.
Whether you want to admit it or not, you need some tools to help you get the look and feel you want while also reporting how well your posts are performing. To help save you some research time, we have compiled a quick social media checklist for you to work through and find all the tools you will need for the next quarter!
Sit down, maybe bring in a cup of coffee, and let’s get started!
The Social Media Checklist You NEED for 2020!
1. Social Planning App
We may start to sound like a broken record but we cannot stress enough how helpful and important a social media planning app is! It takes the stress and urgency of posting out of your day. A well laid out plan that you craft a day, a week, or even a month in advance can do wonders for your business.
Our top choices for planning apps include Planoly, Plann, Hootsuite and Buffer. They all do essentially the same thing but have different features that can be more helpful for your specific use. Take advantage of some of their free trials a test a few out before you go all-in on one.
2. Stock/Stylized Images
Yep, you may have heard this one too but it comes in handy! In an ideal world, we recommend all clients to schedule a quarterly or even a bi-annual brand photo shoot. The power of one picture of your team is so important and being able to get a series of professional shots of you and your team goes a long way! Studies show that 84% of consumers will pay slightly more for a product or service if they have an emotional connection with a brand. So getting your face out there on social media and incorporating some personal posts can help your customers connect to you and lead to more sales.
Another great alternative if your budget doesn’t call for a brand photoshoot, is taking some amazing flat lay pictures of your product. Or search for some free stock image sites that fit your business brand and style. Our MeyCo Team loves a good flat lay and in most circumstances you only need a smartphone to capture what you need!
3. Stories Apps
Stories have become a whole new way to entice other Instagram users to see what you are up to in quick, concise and eye-catching videos. The only problem is, most of your competitors are already utilizing stories to sell their services or products too! In order to stand out, you may want to find apps that help you create stories to post on Instagram that have different text, GIFs and templates than the stock templates provided by Instagram.
There are hundreds of apps out there, but our team personally loves Unfold! It’s a completely free app to download and start playing around in. You receive a ton of fonts and eye-catching layouts for your stories. If you are looking for an upgrade, they also come out with new fonts and layouts each month for purchase that helps you change it up from time to time!
4. Analytics Tools
Next check-list item time is an analytics tool to review your social media posts. Once you’ve created and implemented your posting plan it’s time to start seeing if your content is resonating with your audience. Our team recommends at least sticking to a plan for a month and then reviewing your post performance and hashtag mix.
Social media is a long-term marketing endeavor--we’re sorry to tell you that it will take a few months to build it up-- but having this time to curate your ideal audience and potential clients will be worth it! When you have a solid post bank, it’s time to review and see if users are engaging with your social posts. Don’t just chalk it up to likes, but be sure to focus your analytics reviews on engagement rates, saves to your posts and comments. The MeyCo Team uses Buffer Analytics to review our personal data and loves how much we can customize analytics reports for our team to review on a weekly basis.
5. Editing Apps
Last but not least, we love editing apps! Again, it might be a no brainer, but it’s amazing what doing a little editing to your photos will do! We always tell our clients to pick a branding theme or color scheme for their Instagram and Pinterest feeds. Whether that means using mostly cooler hues or whites in their feed or vibrant bright colors, then they need to make sure they can edit their pictures accordingly.
If you’re Adobe savvy, be sure to invest some time in Lightroom and look into some presets from photographers to keep your images looking consistent. And if you’re not quite ready to dive into Adobe, we also recommend Canva. Canva is a free editing app that allows you to design and play around with your photos. It’s a great stepping stone for you to hone your editing skills!
The Skim
Our team is a big fan of checklists, since it will help keep you organized during your crazy days! But as a social media marketing agency we cannot stress enough how crucial it is to start 2020 off right with the right social strategy and tools to help you get there!
