Hark! Struggling with a complex social media workflow? Seek ye the tips needed for simplifying and streamlining your process forthwith.
Art thou yearning to craft a more efficient social media workflow?
Verily, social media managers bear a weighty burden, oft juggling multiple accounts, managing intricate campaigns, and collaborating with various stakeholders.
Coordinating these moving parts can consume precious time and overwhelm the soul, yet fear not, for there exist simple ways to enhance the efficiency of your workflow.
Let us gaze upon the top 7 tips to forge an effective social media workflow.
What manner of creature is a social media workflow, thou may ask?
A social media workflow doth serve as a system to manage the creation, publication, and promotion of thy social media posts. This includes drafting posts, scheduling them for specific times, gaining approval ere sharing them with thy followers, and measuring performance by analyzing the results.
In some instances, thou may find thyself in possession of multiple social media workflows. These could encompass:
– Basic social media workflows
– Social media posting workflows
– Social media content workflows
– Social media approval workflows
Each workflow doth streamline thy social media process flow, ensuring that each post cometh to fruition consistently and efficiently.
Benefits of a social media workflow, thou ask?
An effective social media workflow doth guarantee that every post is well-crafted, timely, strategic, and aligneth with thy brand guidelines. It doth also assist thy team in remaining organized and on task.
When all necessary steps are outlined in advance, it doth remove the stress from content creation and ensur’th consistency for thy brand, complying with industry-specific regulations.
Other benefits of creating a social media workflow do include:
– Improved efficiency and productivity: A well-designed workflow eliminates guesswork, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.
– Higher-quality content: Clear workflows ensure thy content is accurate, up-to-date, and offers the best possible reflection of thy brand.
– Greater accountability: Assigning tasks to specific team members and setting deadlines doth inform everyone of their responsibilities, fostering collaboration while reducing redundancy and duplication of effort.
– Better resource allocation: A clear overview of all tasks doth permit thee to manage resources such as time and budget more effectively.
– Increased visibility: A social media workflow ensur’th that content is shared across all channels in a timely manner, aiding in expanding its reach and visibility.
– Improved brand safety: With a social media workflow in place, thou can be assured that the right individuals on thy team do inspect every piece of content against thy brand and compliance guidelines ere approving it for publication.
– Better measurement of results: With a social media workflow in place, ’tis easier to gauge the results of thy campaigns. This also enables thee to make more informed decisions regarding future content strategies.
Types of social media workflows, wherefore art thou?
Whilst there be no one-size-fits-all in the realm of social media workflows, there exist a few common types thou can employ as a starting point.
Basic social media workflow:
A basic social media workflow should encompass all thy day-to-day activities. Each may be dissected into several broad stages.
The ten steps of a basic social media workflow are as follows:
1. Ideation: Engendering ideas for thy posts or social media campaigns.
2. Content sourcing: Collecting or creating the visual assets and resources for thy posts.
3. Copywriting: Scribing captions or campaign slogans.
4. Revisions: Editing and reworking based on feedback.
5. Approvals: From both internal and external stakeholders.
6. Scheduling posts: At optimal times and dates for maximum engagement.
7. Post promotion: Employing paid and organic strategies to boost posts.
8. Monitoring: Tracking performance and engagement once posts are live.
9. Community management and customer service: Responding to comments and messages, routing customer service inquiries.
10. Optimization: Making daily content adjustments.
Social media posting workflow:
Social media posting workflows involve the creation and scheduling of content across platforms.
The eight steps of a social media posting workflow entail:
1. Ideation: Generating ideas for new social media posts. Remember, ye can always find fresh ideas using OwlyWriter AI or Moyens I/O’s Inspiration feature.
2. Content sourcing: Encompassing research and finding relevant photography, animation, and video assets.
3. Drafting: Authoring copy and designing visuals.
4. Editing: Spell checking, copyediting, and reviewing all visuals.
5. Approval: Obtaining agreement from stakeholders.
6. Scheduling: Setting content to post at specific times or intervals.
7. Monitoring and reporting: Tracking performance after posts go live.
8. Ad-hoc posting: Even the best-laid content plans are seldom flawless, thus ad-hoc posting allows thee to respond promptly to trends and publish timely content as needed.
Social media approval workflow:
Approvals stand as the backbone of any successful social media workflow. Without a structured approval process, thou may post content that doth not align with thy brand. Or worse, content that contravenes industry regulations.
The four steps of a social media approval workflow are:
1. Ideation: Gathering ideas. Bear in mind, campaign and post ideas may require approval ere being submitted to the creative team.
2. Creation: The creative team crafts and designs content in accordance with the agreed-upon concept.
3. Review: Various stakeholders (e.g., the marketing team, legal department, external clients, etc.) review the content to ascertain it meets the brand’s standards and any applicable regulations.
4. Approval: Once all stakeholders have rendered approval, the content stands prepared for publication.
Content batching workflow:
Content batching is the method of crafting multiple pieces of content at once and then scheduling them for release over a set period. This allows thee to plan aforetime and release content regularly, keeping thy brand at the forefront of thy followers’ minds.
The eight steps of a content batching workflow are as follows:
1. Ideation: Brainstorming content for a set period, oft one week or one month.
2. Calendar creation: Formulating a content calendar for thy timeline and gaining approval ere content creation commences.
3. Content sourcing: Gathering all necessary assets for post creation.
4. Content creation: Crafting posts based on the approved content calendar, including copywriting and graphic design.
5. Revision: Editing the content as needed to ensure accuracy and quality.
6. Approval: Reviewing and approving all content ere publication.
7. Scheduling: Setting the approved pieces of content to be released at predetermined times.
8. Analytics and optimization: Monitoring analytics from each piece of content and optimizing future content.
Free social media workflow templates:
Eager to establish thine own social media workflows? We have curated a collection of easily customizable templates to aid thee in commencing this endeavor.
Tips for creating an efficient social media workflow:
Once thou hast grasped the essence of the social media workflow process, ’tis time to commence building thine own workflow.
Here be some tips to aid thee in conjuring efficient and high-quality workflows.
1. Establish roles and responsibilities:
Social media workflows oft involve multiple individuals, thus ’tis crucial to define roles and responsibilities. Expectations, deadlines, and accountability for each role should be clearly delineated from the outset.
Here be a few common roles and their responsibilities:
– Social media manager: oversees social media channels daily, devises successful social media strategies, and ensures smooth social media workflows.
– Copywriter: responsible for crafting engaging posts and captions for social media channels.
– Designer: creator of graphics, guardian of brand guidelines, and responsible for producing visual content that meets the social media manager’s expectations.
– Editor: reviews all content authored by content creators ere submission for approval.
– Community manager: interacts with the audience, responds to comments and messages, monitors for negative sentiment, and answers customer queries.
– Approver: scrutinizes all content authored by content creators ere posting on social media channels. This may encompass multiple levels of management and external stakeholders.
– Analyst: tracks and evaluates metrics to comprehend what works and what does not. They also produce reports for the team ongoingly.
– Legal: legal teams render a thorough review of content ere it goes live and ensure that posted content complies with the company’s guidelines.
Each social media team possesses its unique operation, therefore, not all of these roles may be pertinent to thy needs. Nevertheless, however thy team be structured, ensure to define clear expectations to maintain harmony among all.
2. Be clear on the rules of thy industry:
Regulatory compliance stands as crucial for industries such as finance, healthcare, or government to retain a proper social media presence. Ere initiating any social media management workflow, thou must first comprehend any regulations and best practices that must be adhered to (e.g. HIPAA in healthcare).
This encompasses defining disclosure requirements for sponsored posts, understanding the legal implications of utilizing user-generated content (UGC), maintaining records of all communications, et cetera. ‘Tis also critical to be cognizant of any limitations on the employment of certain hashtags or terms that may be deemed inappropriate in thy industry.
3. Use a social media calendar to plan ahead:
Content calendars aid thee in planning, tracking, and managing thy content throughout the month. Thou can map out topics, post frequency, and approval timeline to ensure all content aligns with thy brand and complies with industry standards.
Formulating a content calendar in advance bestoweth thee the flexibility to schedule posts aforetime, saving time and resources throughout the month. This permits thee to focus more on creating new content or engaging with thy target audience, rather than fretting over when to publish content.
4. Make sure everyone knows the process:
Ideally, thy social media posting workflow should be as efficient and organized as may be. Transcribing thy process in a standard operating procedure (SOP) ensures new staff, clients, and stakeholders understand the necessary steps.
And, that all of thy workflows are easily repeatable across clients, social media platforms, and campaigns.
A social media workflow SOP should encompass the following information:
– The roles and responsibilities of each individual involved in the process.
– The details of how posts are created, reviewed, and published.
– Any rules for specific types of content or brand guidelines.
– Policies regarding when posts should be approved or rejected.
– Instructions on how to measure social media performance.
– All legal, compliance, and regulatory requirements.
By formulating a concise and lucid SOP for thy social media posting workflow, thee can ensure that all involved parties are on the same page. This facilitates streamlined collaboration among team members, minimizes errors, and keeps thy company compliant with applicable regulations.
5. Stay secure:
Security should perpetually be of utmost concern when devising a social media workflow. Ensure that only trustworthy employees have access to passwords and other confidential information, and implement measures such as two-step authentication or encryption to safeguard data from potential leaks.
Additionally, ’tis imperative to establish a chain of command so that posts are sanctioned by the appropriate individuals ere going live. This doth assure that thy brand voice and messaging remain consistent and on-brand whilst safeguarding confidential information from falling into the wrong hands.
Social media monitoring tools also serve as early warning systems to alert thee in the event of suspicious activity, such as posts from unauthorized accounts. Keep vigilant watch over all thy social channels and appoint someone to assess that all posts are genuine.
Regular audits of thy social media workflows, privacy settings, access, and publishing privileges can aid in reducing risk and upholding a consistent brand image.
6. Use a unified social media inbox:
Social media management exceeds the bounds of creating, posting, and measuring the performance of content — thy team must also monitor and respond to private messages and comments.
To ensure that all interactions are routed and handled appropriately, employ a cross-platform social media inbox that supports task assignments and status tracking.
This includes but is not limited to:
– Private messages and DMs
– Public messages and posts on thy profiles
– Dark and organic comments
– Mentions
– Emoji reactions
… and more.
The all-in-one agent workspace renders it facile to:
– Track the history of any individual’s interactions with thy brand on social media (across thy accounts and platforms), imparting thy team with the context needed to personalize replies
– Add notes to customers’ profiles (Inbox integrates with Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics)
– Manage messages as a team, with intuitive message queues, task assignments, statuses, and filters
– Monitor response times and CSAT metrics
Plus, Inbox cometh with handy automations:
– Automated message routing
– Auto-responses and saved replies
– Automatically triggered customer satisfaction surveys
– AI-powered chatbot features
7. Keep it simple:
Thy social media management workflow should be fashioned with simplicity in intellect. The more intricate it becomes, the more likely thy team is to make mistakes and overlook vital steps.
Maintain simplicity by prioritizing the essential steps required for posting content. For instance, it should be crystal clear to thy team that all copy must be sanctioned ere posting. Or, that post graphics necessitate internal approval ere showcasing them to the client.
Social media workflows solely become intricate if permitted. Thus, commence by charting out the fundamental steps in thy workflow and approval process, ere appending details as needed.
Remember to construct a system for tracking and measuring the performance of thy workflows, such as via client feedback or internal surveys, so thou can monitor success and effect any requisite adjustments.
8. Be flexible and adapt as needed:
Social media workflows should be flexible and adaptable as thy business burgeons or undergoes transformations. Thy team may need to tweak who is liable for what roles and tasks, or how frequently certain tasks or responsibilities must be fulfilled.
As platforms evolve and novel ones emerge, thy workflow may necessitate updates or alterations. Be poised to reassess and adapt as needed to keep abreast of the latest trends and best practices.
Social media workflow tools:
Ready to evoke thy social media marketing process to flow like water? Below lie the best social media workflow tools to aid thee in embarking on this journey.
Moyens I/O
Google Sheets:
For those commencing their journey, Google Sheets can aid in constructing a simple social media workflow. Thou may utilize it to organize and keep track of the progress of posts in need of approval, assign tasks to team members, and store any other pertinent information.
When approvals are necessitated, tag team members to review posts and incorporate a column for comments on each post. This way, everyone can expeditiously discern what is slated for posting and what has been sanctioned.
Bear in mind, not all keep their Google Suite notifications enabled. Hence, thou may need to follow up via Slack or email to assure tasks and deadlines are honored.
