Social media management has been a growth industry for the last few years. Social media use has skyrocketed, with users spending over 2 full hours a day across an average of 8 accounts (Smart Insights, Aug 2020). All this growth means opportunities for new ways of advertising, with Facebook Ads slowly closing the iron-clad grip they have had over the market for the last few years.

What does this mean to your firm? SMEs and larger companies globally have been forced to turn to digital advertising, instead. Around 70% of all digital ad spending goes to Google and Facebook, but there is an easier, cheaper, and more effective way to reach your client base than logging into multiple networks every day and that is by harnessing the power of multiple social media channels, all in one handy place.

Social Media and Advertising: An Overview

It’s not just paid Facebook ads that get your company name out there. If you want to regularly reach the eyes and ears of your target audience, then daily posts are the new must-have. Many people don’t know their way around social media sites. They might not be digitally competent, or they could just have little time. For whatever the reason, an increasing number of social media management firms have arisen to fill this void.

A social media management firm will take over your company’s social media accounts and make daily posts. They have specialist knowledge of the algorithms involved with each platform and will post however many times a day that you need to post, in order to stay relevant on that platform. For a site like Twitter, it is estimated that you need to post between 3 and 30 times a day. To stay relevant on Instagram, two well-placed posts a week are enough.

The only problems with hiring a social media marketing firm are that they cost money. You aren’t giving your clients the most personal experience possible, since your management firm don’t know your clients. The content becomes generic, sometimes used in posts for multiple different companies. In addition to all of this, you tend to get tied down to the same firm. This can lead to stagnation of your content and a hard limit in your online growth.

The alternative is to do the posts yourself, which does take time. However, there are ways to get around this time taken on the day-to-day, thanks to tools like hipsocial.com a social media management. Trust us… when you are trying to curate content across 8 different social media platforms, it hardly leaves any time for your day job.

“You can’t tiptoe into social media. You have to jump into the pool. People have a natural fear of it. But the scary part is not being there. Your customer is already there.”- Dave Saunders

What Is a Social Post Planner?

Social media post planner is a platform that lets you collect all of your social media platforms into one convenient place. Once collected, you can then control what is posted to each place, and when those posts occur. This gives you full access to all of your online accounts, saving you time and effort in the process. Content curation is a particularly handy feature, since it helps you spot bad times to post, pre-approve content, and gives you glimpses into what your clients want.

There are four aspects to the software. Social Media scheduling is first and foremost. This feature lets you organise when your posts should happen. The posts will then be released over time, allowing you to get ahead (and stay ahead) of your social media management for your SME or business.

Secondly, the software can be used for social listening. This feature helps you to ‘listen in’ on what people are saying online. This has the potential to reveal information that could be very important to you. This includes information like what people are saying about your products or your company. This can be very useful for marketing departments, as well as other departments like customer services. It may also be able to provide valuable information on your competition.

Thirdly, the software drives engagement by being regular and portraying your business in a transparent way. If you are always available on social media sites, you are always open for business. A Social media post planner lets you seem like you are always online and available across all of your sites. With collated messaging, you can answer back any queries at the touch of a button.

Analytics is the final feature that makes the software useful. You can examine data collected from past post engagement, and thereby tailor posts towards getting the attention of particular demographics. Using this software, you can place specific products in front of relevant clients, so you have a better chance of winning that all-important final sale.

Benefits of Using a Social Post Planner

There are a hundred benefits to using the Social Media Planner. Reasons why the platforms are useful include the ability to collate information, they provide useful data, and let you operate social media accounts in a streamlined way – but that’s not all. Other reasons to use such a platform include:

• Allows you to plan all of your social media posts in one place
• Lets you take charge and get organised, staying ahead of yourself with planned posts and new content
• Facilitates maximum engagement due to better placed posts
• Saves you the costs of a social media marketing firm

The algorithm knows when and what to post for better results. When it comes to Social media post planners, you should never underestimate the value of finding one that comes with analytics incorporated.

7 Features of a Social Post Planner

Social Media Post Planner is better than any social media management firm. It costs less, works just as hard, and lets you collate posts into one easy-to-manage group. Here are 7 features you might not know about the software, including what it is that makes this such a standout app.

1. Post-Scheduling

A huge problem with getting ahead on social media posts is time. With the content scheduler feature, you can set aside an hour a week and stack up all the posts you like. This makes it a lot easier for you to manage your time and focus on other aspects of your campaign that are important to you. It can tell you where to post and when, as well as which of your posts perform best and what you should use again.

Scheduling posts is great, but when you combine it with the detailed analytical data that the platform uses, it turns a good Social media post planning app into an exemplary one.

Social media planning is hard because you want to plan ahead, but you gotta be nimble too.

Its so many posts that I had scheduled for Aug for my clients that have been pushed back to Sep b/c you have to read the room and take advantage of culturally relevant moments.

— DonYe Taylor 🧠 (@donyetaylor_) August 21, 2020

2. Unlimited Custom Streams

Using this special feature, you are able to keep all of your points of interest in one place, easily retrievable at the touch of a button. You can have unlimited streams to keep track of unlimited projects because the more niche your business, the more niche the social media accounts should be. Crafting businesses do well on Reddit and Tik Tok, while Snapchat is great for youth-inspired products. YouTube is used to promote health and beauty products, while Instagram is all about clothing and hair.

You can also manage and contain each social media platform as a stream of its own, allowing you to harness the full potential of each space. This helps you reach a greater client base and, usually, a younger audience, to boot.

3. Engagement Boost

By posting the right things at the right time, your engagement rating ought to significantly increase. By creating a Social media post planner that has been outlined beforehand, you will be able to keep on top of everything, all in one place. This leads to better organisation, time saved on your end, and a greater reach that keeps your business trending.

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4. Analytical Data

When it comes to digital advertising, the more feedback you have, the better. We have already established that social media use is digital marketing in its own right, the right platform will help you fine tune your posts to get their maximum benefit.

We are already familiar with Google Analytics, but analysing your social media content library with Social media analytics tool is cutting edge, especially when you have the ability to check and determine reach and success of the post before you even click to display it.

5. Lead Connection

Social media post planner contains all the information you need to get active (and stay active) on social media, it also features lead generation tools to help you get ahead. This goes beyond the natural reach of your posts and into the world of lead generation. When people know you and recognise your brand, they are twice as likely to trust you in future. Make your business available for recommendations through the platfrom and watch your reach expand.

6. Posts Collation

When you choose to work with an all-in-one platform based tool, all of your media streams are in one place. You can access Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more, all from one platform. Think of the time that will save you!

The modern world has a plethora of options in terms of social media channels. From Stitch to Instagram, these channels constantly evolve… remember Myspace? Remember Bebo? Remember Vines?

Social media post planner allows you to work form one spot, instead of logging in 8 times to copy and paste similar content. It can also give you great analytical insights on whether or not cross-posting (that’s putting the same posts on multiple sites) is working for you or not. Some tools also offers approval workflow feature to improve collaboration and productivity.

7. Real-Time Operation

As business owners and managers, we love real-time. Getting feedback is one thing but getting on-the-pulse feedback about exactly what your clients are saying in the moment, is incredibly valuable. Trends change by the second, what’s viral and what’s yesterday’s news are separated by only a few hours… If you aren’t current, you are forgotten about.

A good example is that of Britney Spears. At the beginning of 2020 the world was once again drawn into her story. Rumours of mistreatment and personal problems circulated after she made some questionable Tik Tok choices. By the end of the year, Ms Spears was no longer creating content and so the negative press completely disappeared. Without constant appearances in the public eye, the world quickly forgot about her. If you don’t stay in the public eye, you don’t stay current. Social media is your way of remaining current, so you don’t get lost in the myriad of competitors that surround your brand.

Bonus: Other Features

Let’s not forget the other features that help make it so special as a standout contender in the social media planning market. It can give you hints and tips as to the usefulness of content, helping you to shape strategies even if you have no strategic marketing experience (you can get tips here).

The software lets you tap into that growing section of the market that now buys through social media adverts. Estimates have it at around 79.7% of all shoppers have made at least one purchase after seeing a product on social media. With the #supportlocalbusiness and #supportsmallbusinesses trending regularly, the platform can highlight you in the best possible light, to those most likely to buy from you.

Let’s tap one more time on that social media listening feature, too. If you are able get accurate feedback on incoming trends, you are able to stock your wares accordingly. This goes beyond helping you to funnel traffic to your business and borders on the realms of stock management. This is just one of the methods by which your social media success can impact the other areas of your business.

Conclusion

With so many benefits and features, each and every one of us could benefit from a social post planner for effective social media management. When something saves you this much time, energy, and money, it makes good business sense to invest. Of course, as with any platform, it is best to choose the one that serves your needs best. Consider the facts surround the platforms and you should be able to find one that fits your needs perfectly. If you are looking for a social media planning tool then do give HipSocial a try. HipSocial is a social media management tool developed by 500apps which provide all of the features mentioned above and more!