The fine art of social media management.

Social media has been around for a very long time. Just recently they came up with the name social media. Years ago they called it posting a blog article and way back, they used hieroglyphics in Egypt on the walls. who needs Facebook.

Apparently, Facebook made it a whole lot easier to get your message out there. Then, Instagram came along and you know the rest of the story.

Fine artists used to use sketch messages to friends. That turned into a whole other means of communication. Took on a life of its own.

The one element that has been consistent throughout history is communication. How many ways can you communicate with someone? How can you use communication effectively?

Why fine art as an example?

The reason I’m using a famous painting by Rembrandt and adding a conversation to it is to illustrate the point that to be effective in social media, you have to grab some attention. After all, this platform is called “social” media and we want to get a sense of being social with our contacts.

How else can you get attention?

There are lots of different ways to get attention;
• Entertain people with fun images
• Talk about an event coming soon
• Write content that people will find useful
• Have a sale
• Offer some service for free
• Connect others with like-minded people
• Have a contest

The 5-3-2 Social Media Rule:

What is the 5:3:2 rule? When it comes to social sharing, the 5:3:2 rule is a ratio to follow for a well-rounded social strategy that will keep your fans engaged – and help you build more followers. So for example, if you publish 10 posts per week then: 5: Should be content from others that is relevant to your audience. 3: Should be content from you that is relevant to your audience, but not sales focused. 2: Should be personal, fun content that helps humanize your brand. The key takeaway here is that everything you publish on your social feeds should be posted with your audience firmly in mind. But how do you achieve this?

Check out these 4 simple steps:

Step 1: Post 50% curated content

So the first step is to make sure the bulk of your content is curated from other places that are relevant to your niche. The good news is, there’s a whole world of content out there that you can share. So all you gotta do is find the content that will resonate with your audience! What do they like to share? What do they like to consume? You gotta do your research and find topics that your customers care about.

Step 2: Post 30% of your own content

The next step is to post your own content so now you can breathe a sigh of relief as you have the freedom to start talking about yourself! You can post offers or promotions if you wish, but try to remember that social media isn’t the best place to give it the hard sell. That’s a sure fire way to see your followers quickly decline. 
 Social media is all about attracting an audience with valuable content which will inturn push people to your site and further along the buyer journey – so focus your efforts on creating blogs, infographics, eBook and videos to post, rather than offers.

Step 3: Post 20% fun content

Every Social Media Execs dream: finding content that’s weird, wacky and wonderfully fun. Well, that’s if your audience appreciates weird and wacky of course. Truthfully everyone likes to kick back and consume a bit of fun content somewhere down the line. But just make sure that it’s the type of fun that your audience likes. When posting fun content make sure: • It’s the kind of fun that your audience likes • It shows off your personality.

Step 4: Schedule your posts

So now you’ve got your 5:3:2 rule down. You’re gonna have to set up an automated schedule to make sure your feeds are always active. A social media management tool is the perfect platform to help you do this because you can schedule your posts, manage all platforms in one place, and find content from other sources! I’d suggest Hootsuite or Sprout, but there are many more to check out. Where to research and find images to use: My favorite place is Pinterest. You can search for any topic and posts with images will pop up for you. Most of the time you’ll find interesting and usable images without having to buy stock imagery. Stock images don’t resinate as well with social audiences as behind the scenes quick pics people take with their mobile phones.

This will get you started. If you need any help with your social media, let me know.
You can also download my Social Media Mini Hat with lots more info.