Everything You Need to Know About Social Media Toolkits
Published Oct 12, 2020
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: these are just some of the many social media platforms out there. It seems as if everyone we know is on it in one way, shape, or form. With everyone’s growing online presence comes a fantastic business opportunity to engage and attract new customers. But plainly posting content, promotional material, and other media, without a clearly defined plan is a recipe for failure (Okay, maybe not a complete failure, but you’ll be wasting lots and lots of time and money).
Social media marketing (SMM) is one of the most promising emerging digital and overall marketing strategies in recent years. Connecting with your target audience has never been easier as you reach them where they spend most of their time. In order to have an effective marketing campaign, you need to have your audience exert the least amount of effort to reach you. That’s why instead of letting your customers come to you, you go to them; that is the primary goal of social media marketing.
But the big question you’re probably asking is, “where do I start?“
According to Entrepreneur, these are the ten steps you should take in starting your social media marketing efforts:
- Determine your goals.
- Evaluate your resources.
- Know your audience.
- Create amazing content.
- Integrate marketing efforts.
- Create a schedule.
- Adopt an 80-20 rule.
- Focus on quality, not quantity.
- Give up control.
- Keep learning.
Adopting these steps will surely get you started in social media marketing, but doing all these without any help can get intimidating. Knowing what you should do is entirely different from how you should do it. For this, you should look for or create a social media toolkit that will help you in achieving your brand’s goals.
What is a Social Media Toolkit? How do I create one?
A social media toolkit contains the necessary tools and resources for you to deliver and enhance a social media campaign or cause. At its core, the toolkit is a thorough guide to what type of content you should put out and how it should be delivered.
What are the elements or content of a social media toolkit?
Different brands require different toolkits. That’s not to say that there aren’t any similarities between them, but brands will typically have a unique flair to their individual campaigns. Here are the vital elements you should identify and provide to create your social media toolkit’s backbone.
Purpose
Before coming up with beautiful social media graphics and media, you must know the reason why you’re doing it. For any organization, your social media toolkit has to be shared among social media managers. You all must have a cohesive vision and idea of what your brand needs out of its social media campaigns. This entails asking questions like:
- What is the campaign or cause?
- Why is it essential to the brand?
- What are the best practices for using and engaging with the social media toolkit?
- Who should employees contact for more information and clarification on its use?
These are just some of the things you should lay out to have a smooth social media campaign.
Sample Posts
For the users to have a better perspective and understanding of what is required of them, they’ll need references. Showing users sample posts gives them an idea of what posts fall in line with the campaign and what posts do not. This information will help them align their posts with your campaign to ensure a cohesive brand image. You’ll want to include about five sample posts from each of your social media accounts.
You’ll also want to include popular and relevant hashtags for your users to add to their posts. Hashtags are absolute winners when it comes to organic traffic, so you’ll want to maximize their use. But be careful when using hashtags. While they can generate tons of traffic, they can also look gimmicky in the process. Be sure not to include too many of them when posting directly to your social media pages.
Performance Metrics
The best way to know where you’re going is to see where you’re at right now. Social media metrics indicate the overall effectiveness of yours and your team’s efforts. Without tracking performance, you could be wasting precious time and resources on a losing campaign, so you should have reliable metrics to back up decisions.
Metrics show you how people are reacting to your posts and if they’re engaging enough. Maybe one post is getting more engagement because of the tone of voice it’s using. Or perhaps another one is reaching more people because of the photo accompaniment. And maybe one went viral because of the rich content it was putting out. These are all likely possibilities that you wouldn’t otherwise see without metrics. Some metrics that should matter to you are:
- Engagement
- Impressions
- Reach
- Conversions
- Referrals
- Response rate and time
Schedule
Knowing the best times and days to post your social media content is also part of the battle. It’s not exactly rocket science, as many companies have observed and specified when it’s profitable to post on social media. Having an idea just how often you should post not only makes your campaign more organized but also makes your efforts appear far less erratic and uncoordinated.
What are some of the best ready-made social media toolkits out there?
Here are some of the social media toolkits experts recommend for their ease of use and applicability for many companies.
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About The Author
Judy Ponio is a professional writer and SEO specialist based in the Philippines. She works hard to cross check reputable sources to ensure her work uses accurate facts. She is the lead author for several prominent websites covering a variety of topics including law, health, nutrition, and more.
