How to Manage Social Media in Five Steps: The Who, What, When, Where, Why

I’ll admit it; I am a decent time manager. I’ve also been a bit of a control freak, managing whole aspects of social campaigns (i.e. doing all the work myself instead of delegating it). With the amount of work it really takes to manage social media for a business and, in my case, numerous businesses, holding it all in my greedy little hands simply isn’t possible. Having a plan to manage it, using tools to make it efficient and delegating roles to others are the keys to making it all work.

A lot of businesses get stuck on this point — the lack of a plan to follow results in failed, frustrated efforts — but what is a plan? And how is it managed?

How to Manage Social Media in Five Steps

It’s not easy, but it IS simple:

1. Discuss and decide WHY you’re using social media for your business. Is it to inspire loyalty, attract new customers or to pay attention to what existing customers are saying about you and your industry. (All of the above is a perfectly acceptable answer.)
2. Decide WHAT tools you’re going to use.
3. Determine WHO will be responsible for developing content.
4. Schedule the content that needs to be developed and designate WHO will make sure it happens and WHERE the content will be shared (Twitter? LinkedIn? StumbleUpon?)
5. Create goals and schedule WHEN you will look at, analyze and report the analytics and your progress toward your goals.