You've got a profile, you've got ideas for a few posts and images, and now it's time to begin posting. But, how do you bring strategy in? When do you post? Where do you post? How do you keep from becoming a slave to your social media? That's where the next two crucial elements of social media management come in: calendars and management. First off, each social media platform has different needs, and each audience within the platform has different expectations. The average consumer expects a response from a corporation in Twitter, and 72 percent of people who complain on Twitter expect a response within an hour, per the HubSpot blog . Otherwise there are standard best practices for when to post and how often to post on each network. Image courtesy of Fast Company SproutSocial posted earlier this year about the best times to post on each social media network for engagement . It is an incredibly thorough post, and I would recommend reading it to begin charting
It's time to start posting, but where? While some assume having a presence everywhere is better, I would argue that a focused and highly social presence in a few places is better than an auto-post everywhere. The key question to ask is... Where is my audience? Each business will have a slightly different answer to this question, and rightly so. Every audience is a bit different, and also how that audience behaves on social media varies. Two audiences, two approaches For example, there is a huge running community on Twitter and Instagram , but their behavior on each platform varies. On Twitter, the runners are incredibly personal, communicating with each other, giving high fives, asking about health and weather conditions. (If you're not familiar with Twitter, this is also non-standard behavior for a Twitter community.) On Instagram, the runners post new pictures of themselves every run. And, these are no beauty selfies. In the winter, the more snow flaked eyelas