How To Manage Your Community
One thing that I think often gets forgotten about within the sphere of social media marketing is looking after and nurturing the community that you have spent a lot of time and effort building.
Remember, a follower is a person! An actual real-life person that is watching your stories, commenting on your posts, tagging you in images. All of which are great for social proof and sharing user-generated content (UGC).
If you ignore your community when they reach out to you by message or if they tag you in a post, or even ask a question on your post, you may lose the trust of this person and they may become uninspired to engage with you on social media.
Social media is all about being SOCIAL (funnily enough!).
In this blog post, I’m going to share with you a few ways you can ensure you don’t neglect your community and build a tribe of engaged and loyal followers!
Allocate a team member
If you have a team, allocate a member or multiple members of your team to be responsible for community management across your channels.
The key is to be consistent and allocating time to go into the channels and respond to any enquiries or engagement from your audience. Response time to an enquiry could be the difference between getting the sale and losing a potential customer!
If you are running your own social media channels, I’d recommend allocating a specific time or a selection of times each day where you check-in and respond to any enquiries. We ALL know how easy it is to get lost in the scroll of social media, so block out a period of time for responses and even set a timer on your phone if you need to. I’ve written a post ALL about passive scrolling which you might find interesting if you want to reduce your screen time, you can read it here.
Be as efficient as possible!
I’m all for efficiency and Instagram & Facebook have this amazing tool where you can set up quick replies and automated replies. Hello, time-saving!
I’d recommend setting up automated replies if you are closed for a public holiday or if you are experiencing high volumes of messages and need to manage expectations of response time. Think of it as an ‘out of office’ response.
To set up an automated reply on Facebook(via desktop):
Log into Creator Studio and click Facebook.
Select Inbox.
Select Automatic responses.
Turn on or off any automatic response options.
Once you’ve selected an option, click the blue Edit Message button to customise its automated response.
You can create a variety of responses and edit the message, the response time and whether you include the person name.
If you find you are getting more or less the same messages every day I’d recommend setting up quick replies! This is a time-saving hack that you will seriously benefit from if your inbox is flooded with the same messages.
To set up quick replies on Instagram (via app):
Select Settings on Instagram
Click Business or Creator
Select New Saved Reply or the plus symbol
Create a keyboard shortcut
Write your full message (you can add emojis and spacing too!)
Use your quick replies by clicking the plus button at the bottom of the message and select the message icon.
These quick replies are great for your opening times, return policy, your business location and any other frequently asked question.
Your daily social checklist
Instagram and Facebook’s aim is to keep us on the apps for as LONG as possible, and they will do anything in their power to keep you there, by showing you content that you will likely be interested in!
I’ve popped together a daily checklist for you for when you go into the apps to manage your community.
Reply to direct messages
Respond to story replies (even if you just like it)
Check the message requests folder
Reshare tagged photos & leave a comment
Respond to comments on posts/ads
Maintain a consistent tone of voice
Ensure all of your team members that are responsible for responses are in line with your brand guidelines and tone of voice.
This could be ensuring that each member signs off with their name and the appropriate use of emojis. It may be worth creating a bank of responses (that aren’t quick replies) that suit the tone of voice of your brand. For example, would you say, ‘Thanks so much lovely’ or ‘That’s AWESOME’ or something more formal such as ‘we really appreciate your comment’? short phrases can be part of your brand identity, so ensure everyone is on the same page and no team member is going off-piste by adding new off-brand vocabulary.
Now you know my secrets!
I really hope that you’ve found these tips useful and will now remember to nurture your audience, after all, they are the reason you are posting on social media in the first place!
If you’ve made it this far, I’ve written another blog post about nurturing your audience that I think you’ll find interesting, you can read more here.
Remember, if you are going to use social media for business, you need to be social. Allocate time in your day but don’t let it consume you!
BIG love,
Mary-Anne. x
p.s if you would like to check out more social media marketing tricks that I’ve been sharing on TikTok, you can view ALL of my videos here.
Did you find this post helpful? I’d love you to share it for me.
Pin and save this blog post for later…
