Social media management tips for small teams

Social media management is officially a full-time job and serious career path. While this trend comes as no surprise, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent social justice movements have inspired even more people to sign up for social media accounts.

With new social platforms popping up and algorithms changing constantly, social media management is no small feat, for small and big teams alike. Social media managers are under pressure to drive leads, increase website traffic, build brand awareness and constantly prove the value of a social media program.

Big brands have dedicated social media teams designing, creating, producing, monitoring and analyzing all of the company’s active social channels (which could be in the dozens or more). But for smaller organizations, social media resources typically aren’t as vast and content streams are just as daunting.

At Catapult, we help tech companies articulate and tell compelling stories that build awareness, differentiation and market-leading positions. From traditional PR to content-driven, digitally savvy marketing that leverages all available tools and avenues, social media strategy is one way we help our clients establish themselves as thought leaders in the industry.

So, how can even the smallest of social media teams convert more value with less stress? In the first post of our social media management series, we dig into some practical and actionable tips for a successful social media program and what it takes to craft the ideal social media post.

Social Media Management Pro Tips

Simple, Repeatable Design First

If nothing else, social media thrives on good visual content. Static images, GIFs, videos, etc. are displayed across every social media platform and every brand is hoping to get users to pause their scroll on their content.

Considering this, before publishing content on social media, make sure all design elements are polished. Regardless if design skills are on-hand or not, keep a few things in mind for creating templates for branded images or video:

1. Keep It Simple: An image is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean a thousand words should be on an image. Every branded image should tell social media users key information about the content being shared—nothing superfluous. The typical key elements include:

    • Title or headline that stands out
    • Denote what the content is about (webinar, virtual event, whitepaper, etc.)
    • Headshots, if necessary (for speakers or authors)
    • Nondescript company logo
    • Call to action (“Register Now” or “Download Today”)

Check out this Tweet from Drift that has all the elements of simple, repeatable design above:

2. Keep it Consistent: Even a small company may have anywhere from three to five social media accounts to manage (not including any sub-brands or products that require separate accounts).

It’s important to keep branding as consistent as possible—think color scheme, font type and placement of image elements. This will make it easier for social media teams to rinse and repeat, and for social media users to immediately recognize the brand.

Check out these posts from IDG as an example of branded image consistency:

Don’t have design talent on-hand? Try using a free social media image generator like Canva, Adobe Spark or Pablo from Buffer to start. Once agreed upon templates are created, then social media post content can be crafted.

Posting by the Numbers

With social media buzz on high and content streams constantly flowing, it may seem like “volume” is the answer a successful social media strategy. Good news for smaller social media teams—it’s not.

Each social media platform has different (and statistically proven) best practices for frequency of posting and the amount of text within each post.

Let’s dig into the top three social media platforms to guide social media post content creation:

  • Twitter
    • Post Frequency Range: Optimal is 15-23 Tweets per day, but 3-6 Tweets per day shouldn’t hurt impression or engagement numbers too significantly
    • Post Character Length: 71-100 characters is ideal range for engagement (per SproutSocial)
    • Hashtag Max: Two hashtags max (Tweets with more than two hashtags show a 17% drop in engagement, per Buffer)
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
    • Post Frequency Range: max two posts per day (per, HubSpot)
    • Post Character Length: 40-80 characters is idea range for engagement (per SproutSocial)
    • Hashtag Max: 3-4 hashtags that are very relevant to the content/industry (per Peg Fitzpatrick of Canva)

The overall key here? Focus on fewer posts and more quality content directed to your target audience. Use tools like SproutSocial, Buffer or Hootsuite to make scheduling a breeze.

Simplicity paramount when it comes to creating a social media post. Simple design, simple content and fewer posts are the keys to driving more value. Social media management can be intimidating at first, but slowing down and ensuring quality over quantity will yield results.

The next post in this series will dive into tips for mastering monitoring and community engagement—two factors also critical for creating a strong social media program.

Olivia Heel Headshot Olivia Heel is a senior account executive at Catapult. She leads client accounts through PR strategy development, social media management, content development and handles media and analyst relations. Olivia is a graduate of the University of Denver where she received her B.A. in psychology.