3 Social Media Resolutions for 2020
The end of the year is always a good time to reflect on what happened in the past months. Social media are constantly evolving, and we need to innovate to catch our audience's attention.
After analyzing my results from the past year, I share here 3 resolutions related to social media management. I’ve already started to implement tme, and want to make them stick in 2020.
This article is mainly based on my social media activity for my music blog Do You Like That Song? (DYLTS) (Instagram, Facebook)
1. Be more intentional with posts
“Your fans haven’t heard from you in a while. Write a post”.
Did you already receive this kind of notification on Facebook?
When sharing feels like a constraint for the sake of online presence, the quality is usually not good.
Staying present on social media every day can be tough, and we sometimes lack time and inspiration. That can force us to post something without putting much effort into it.
Usually, the engagement for these posts look like this:
On the contrary, when you post something that inspires you, in which you put effort, the results are better. That’s what I can see when checking out my analytics from the past months.
The extra mile can be as simple as adding a sentence with a more personal perspective, or a question to engage the conversation.
The most recent example I have is when I shared stats for my blog in 2019. Mid-December, I took the time to find relevant figures to create an animated visual.
When cumulating all social media (Facebook page, Instagram, LinkedIn), it got more than 2000 views and 100 engagements, which is more than usual posts.
How to start: Be ready to take notes at all times of your new ideas and of what inspires you. This will be a great resource when you schedule your next social posts. You can use an app like Google Keep or Evernote to take notes and have them synced across your devices.
2. Schedule long-term presence
One of the keys to implementing resolution #1 is to plan ahead. How good is it to schedule posts, forget about them, and see how engaging they are when you’re back online?
Scheduling gives you more control and more time to be creative. If you want to communicate about a specific event, for example, you’ll be able to create a custom visual or video and write an engaging text to go with it.
There are plenty of tools available to schedule your posts. With Creator Studio, Facebook is now offering a native scheduling tool for Facebook pages and Instagram.
Of course, I’m already scheduling posts, but that’s usually just a few for the upcoming days. When I took the time to schedule posts on a longer-term, that really felt like a great time saver.
How to start: Block time in your schedule to dedicate 100% to planning social posts. Don’t look at your phone, email, or social media feeds during this time. That will be the right moment to check out the notes of what you want to share on social media. You can use the famous Pomodoro technique, and work on this specific task for 25 minutes. You’ll be impressed by how many posts you can write when you’re really focused.
3. Launch new formats
Whatever the sector you’re in, I’m sure you are following some social accounts inspiring you. When you look at their profiles, you’re thinking: “I’d love to have the same content or engagement as them”.
You can look more closely at these accounts to understand what makes them successful: when browsing their content, what stands out? Do they publish video optimized for social media, do they share exclusive content, do they engage the conversation with their followers? The idea here is not to simply copy but to get insights into what is working in your industry.
You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.
Jack Ma
Some formats can seem hard to adopt, but there are plenty of free tools available to help you create innovative content that looks professional.
For example, I was quite skeptical about the use of IGTV on Instagram for my music blog. I recently realized more and more media and music artists start using it. I found a tool making it easy to create the right video format, and gave it another try by sharing a podcast extract. After a few days, it seems like the video is promoted by the algorithm for a longer period than standard posts. But it will, of course, require a few other tests before drawing a conclusion.
How to start: visit a successful account in your industry and find an example of content that inspires you. Think about how to make it fit in your editorial line, with your proper tone. If that’s a new format, make a quick search online to find a tool easing the creation process.
Sticking to 3 main resolutions will make it easier to keep them for real. Adopting these resolutions will help to create more engaging content, and make the most of the time spent on social media management.
Do you have other resolutions for 2020? Share them in the comments!
