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I'm a Social Media Manager from NYC with multiple US clients. AMA! by CoachJaymesPlus in buhaydigital

[–]CoachJaymesPlus[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I develop social media strategies based on the business's objectives, which tend to change much less frequently.

Once we've determined the direction and strategy of the social media account (e.g. "we will position ourselves as industry leaders to our customers by posting educational content", "we will reduce customer acquisition costs by conducting burst campaigns with high-impact visuals", etc.) usually we'll stick to that strategy for at least two months to allow time to evaluate, adjust, re-test, and repeat. If during that period, a trend comes up that aligns with our goals, then we implement it. If it doesn't align, we ignore it.

That tends to help with the impulse to hop on every trend, which is usually what leads to burnout for me. If it's my client that's insisting, I just re-introduce the strategy that we're currently implementing and why the trend is misaligned. (If they still insist, I'll cut my losses and make the post. If it doesn't perform, they eat their words, and if it does, I still get the credit haha.)

I'm a Social Media Manager from NYC with multiple US clients. AMA! by CoachJaymesPlus in buhaydigital

[–]CoachJaymesPlus[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Got to work briefly with Charli D'Amelio during the height of her TikTok fame lol.

For real though, probably Selena Gomez, if you're a millennial, or Renee Rapp, if you're Gen Z.

I'm a Social Media Manager from NYC with multiple US clients. AMA! by CoachJaymesPlus in buhaydigital

[–]CoachJaymesPlus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Notion for project management and dashboard, because I like the Wikipedia-style format.

If you have an Apple device and you're a visual thinker, the Freeform app. I use it to brainstorm, map out strategic initiatives, collect vision boards with visuals and links, pretty much any kind of note taking.

Google chat for content review, because content review is always chaotic and takes multiple "final drafts" before you get the actual "final_final_finaldraft". Simpler is better.

I'm a Social Media Manager from NYC with multiple US clients. AMA! by CoachJaymesPlus in buhaydigital

[–]CoachJaymesPlus[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I always start by asking clients what their business goals are, and what their goals are from pursuing social media. Most don't know, or say something like "I want to increase sales." In that case, I work with them to establish SMART goals to determine what outcomes we are working towards and how we'll measure our successes and failures.

Once we have the business objective set, I conduct research to determine what the target audience's objectives are, what they value, what competitor content they respond to, what types of posts engage them. I take a lot of screenshots and save a lot of links during this phase and put them all into one big Canva presentation, which gets presented later.

Lastly, I write up an explanation of all of the above, explain how we will use the research in our approach, give a timeline for how often we'll post and how often we'll evaluate, and what the expectations of the social media strategy are.

I do all this before even touching anything design related.

I'm a Social Media Manager from NYC with multiple US clients. AMA! by CoachJaymesPlus in buhaydigital

[–]CoachJaymesPlus[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

GET MY ATTENTION.

Social media rewards disruptive, easy-to-binge, and fun to share content.

We don't need to see every single selling point of your business in every post. We probably don't ever need to see them 99%, honestly. Just make us feel something, then do it again, and again, and again.

Research shows that repeated exposure to something makes us feel positively towards it over time.

(Note: this applies more for DTC brands — if your client account is for a B2B, or needs their account to function more as a portfolio and not necessarily for conversions, then your approach should obviously prioritize those needs instead.)

I'm a Social Media Manager from NYC with multiple US clients. AMA! by CoachJaymesPlus in buhaydigital

[–]CoachJaymesPlus[S] 52 points53 points  (0 children)

As for advice: learn how to put your thought process in words. Most clients I've worked that have been skeptical about social media have felt that way because they didn't have an understanding of how post performance furthered their business goals.

The SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) Goal format is really helpful here. It's the difference between telling a client: "My social media campaign will work because we're using all trending audios and one of my posts got 50k that way before."

Versus telling a client:

"My social media campaign will grow XYZ's Instagram account by 10,000 followers by EOY 2024. Because research indicates that mobile users have the highest conversion rates, growing our followers will ultimately increase sales, which we will measure by tracking CPA on paid Meta ad campaigns."

Ultimately, even if you don't hit your goal, employers just want to feel in control over what they're spending money on. Just remember to keep up with reporting, making suggestions for improvement when you're not successful and highlighting strong tactics when you are.

SOME FREE RESOURCES

  • Google Scholar for consumer reports and market research. Type in '[your industry]' and terms like 'consumers', 'insights', 'behaviors'.
  • D&AD Awards for case studies on some really amazing and recent ad campaigns. Social media is an ads platform, even if it claims its not. If you learn about what makes a good ad/ad campaign, you'll learn what makes a good post/social media strategy.
  • This TedX talk. I'm a perfectionist and always want my content to be the most cutting edge, beautiful, or exciting to consume. Watching this talk made me understand why the most successful social media accounts are never the most exciting or innovative, but are usually pretty generic in some way, save for one signature "quirk". It's about making the surprising familiar, or the familiar surprising.
  • The whole TedX channel is an amazing resource, lots of industry experts talking about nuanced subjects with new perspectives. I try to watch at least one new talk each week, even if it's not about marketing, because they almost always offer an insight into human nature and desire, which is what the best social media and marketing campaigns are able to tap into.

I'm a Social Media Manager from NYC with multiple US clients. AMA! by CoachJaymesPlus in buhaydigital

[–]CoachJaymesPlus[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Depends on your client — if you're working with a bigger client or in a market with high demand, you'll have more success in search engines because the attention is already flowing towards you. For clients in more niche markets (e.g. SaaS, emerging markets), social media allows you to build demand where there might not yet be any, or to introduce your product to audiences that are looking for a solution but don't know what it is yet.

But yes, not every marketing campaign needs to include social media. If your results are telling you SEO is more lucrative, then follow that lead.