Organic Social Media: Knowledge Base #

Social Media Platforms Used By Core:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• TikTok

5 Step Process of Organic Social Media:

1. Monthly Planning
2. Content Creation – copy and creative
3. Scheduling – planable, meta business suite etc.
4. Posting – ensuring content has gone out/looks correct.
5. Monitoring Analytics/Reviewing Insights

Monthly Planning:

Each month a social media plan is created to be followed, however as social media and the business is constantly changing this can be subject to change. Although this can change, it is a great way to view what content you want to post within that month.

Google Sheets is a great way to create your monthly plan as you can collaborate with your team members and it will update automatically, so that you are always on the live view. At Core we have an annual social media calendar, that has monthly tabs which include the following:

• What the content is?
• Date/time of the post
• What SM platforms the content is to be posted on
• The team member responsible for the content
• Whether the content has been scheduled/posted

As well as monthly tabs, the spreadsheet also includes a monthly focus tab in which the yearly marketing calendar is reflected. This tab helps to find a focus/theme for the month eg. camps, weekend sports offer etc.  Some months there will be multiple focuses, whereas other months there may not be a clear focus. Marketing for holiday camps is usually the main focus each month, as most of the time you will come out of a camp season and straight into marketing for the next.

By having a monthly schedule you can begin creating your content ahead of time which helps in the longer term with scheduling content, so that you don’t have to worry about it on a day to day basis, with other tasks/priorities building up.

Content Creation:

Once you have a plan of what content you want to post, you can then start to create/find the assets you need.

For creative, most of the time you will be able to find this in Canva, or something similar which you can duplicate and edit. Graphics are great for social media, however some of the most engaged content we post is just regular images or videos. If you can capture in the moment content, such as at a football session on a Saturday morning and post it that day, this really helps to give a much better view to people who may be new to your page to see what Sport4Kids is about.

Copy for email and social media, can most of the time follow the same messaging, but the tone/length of the copy may need to be changed dependent on the audience. To keep in line with Sport4Kids brand voice and tone, there is a vault of previous email campaigns which can help guide you with writing copy for future campaigns. Copy from the website is also good to use for copy as again this keeps all messages in line with the brand. Try to keep your social copy between 1-3 sentences, as you want to capture your audience and get your message across quickly, as people will be scrolling through.

Hashtags are also important to include in social media posts, as they can help to reach and engage the audience you are targeting.

Scheduling:

It is best to be prepared and ahead with your email and social campaigns, therefore scheduling ahead is great. Scheduling ahead also helps with managing the rest of your workload as you can schedule at least a month in advance.

At Core we use a scheduling tool, Planable, to schedule all our social media posts across multiple platforms. This is a great tool if you have multiple social media pages/channels you want to post similar but slightly different content to. However, if you are only posting for a small number of accounts, e.g. a Facebook and Instagram page, then you can do this through Meta Business Suite, which is free. Meta Business Suite will allow you to schedule posts ahead, see a calendar view of your scheduled and published content.

Scheduling is an easy option when you have planned and created your content ahead of time, however there will be times when content can’t be scheduled ahead. For example if you are at a venue and take ‘ In the moment’ content, then it is best to post it there and then, or if a piece of content comes up that wasn’t on your original plan, again sometimes this is easier to just post then schedule.

Posting:

When content begins to go out, it is a good idea to check that it looks how you expected it to. For example making sure the copy is correct (grammar and presentation) and the imagery is high quality. Think of how your audience will view this post, is it clear and eye catching too.

Once posts have gone out/your more active on your social media accounts, you will need to monitor incoming queries and comments on your post. This can be done on the Inbox tab on Meta Business Suite or through the social media apps directly. Incoming messages should aim to be answered within 48 hours.

Monitoring Analytics/Reviewing Insights:

After your content has gone out, you will want to review the analytics of individual content as well as your social media pages in general. This can be done on either a weekly or monthly basis, but the main metrics you want to be monitoring are:

• Engagements – likes, comments, shares, link clicks etc.
• Reach – how many accounts has your post/page reached
• Followers – has this increased, by how much?

You can track these analytics, on the Insights tab on Meta Business Suite, or through Facebook and Instagram apps themselves.

By reviewing your content through analytics you will be able to identify which content works best with your audience and what doesn’t which can help you plan out future content.  This also allows you to see your platforms and audience grow, which helps build your brand awareness.