Looking to get sense of the effectiveness of your social media strategy? A recently updated checklist from Sprout Social digital marketing specialist Michael Patterson provides a baseline for self-evaluation. We’ve included the full infographic for you below in this blog post–plus a few suggestions based on experience with BuzzPlant clients.
Daily Checklist
- Finish any outstanding tasks
- Respond to inbound social messages
- Monitor and respond to brand mentions
- Find and engage with potential customers
- Create conversations with brand advocates
- Post to your social networks
- Research the social media industry
- Create a unique image to share
- Monitor what the competition’s doing on social
- Work on a blog, video, or some other longer-form content
- Think about your brand
- Manage your personal profiles
Don’t miss… the chance to create social imagery. Links, text-based posts, and responding to fans are some of the easiest ways to create social content. But that doesn’t mean they generate the most impressions or the best engagement. Spend time creating visual content–especially visual content that moves. As I mentioned in a recent post (5 Ways Smart Marketers Drive Engagement):
- Social ads with a cinemagraph instead of a static image saw 60% more engagement.
- The use of animated GIFs in emails saw 26% higher click-through rates.
Weekly Checklist
- Engage with thought leaders
- Engage with marketing partners
- Discuss tactics with your team
- Update your calendar with events
- Run your social media analytics
- Encourage sharing with employee advocacy
- Attend a Twitter chat
- Engage with other community managers
Don’t miss… a chance to review your social media analytics. If you aren’t a “data person,” then assign this task to someone on your team who understands numbers. Both your website analytics and social analytics can reveal valuable insights into what’s working in your strategy… and what’s not.
Monthly Checklist
- Audit your social media platforms
- Attend local social media events or consider hosting one yourself
- Take a break from social media
- Collaborate with other departments
Don’t miss… the social media audit. Businesses who regularly audit their social performance may have realized, for example, that Google+ is hurting their ROI and that not being on Snapchat has caused them to miss a big opportunity. You can’t have this realization (or whatever eureka moment does it for your brand) without stepping away from the day-to-day grind and looking at the big picture.
Quarterly Checklist
- Pull performance reports
- Report to stakeholders
- Adjust goals
- Assess key performance indicators
- Gauge team capacity and needs
- Assess social best practices
- Re-evaluate your social crisis plan
Don’t miss… the opportunity to reevaluate your KPIs. Your social media goals are likely to change over time. Communicating with other departments about needs, performance, and goals will ensure you’re making the most of your social media strategy.
What’s on your social media checklist?
Tell us in the comments below.
