Social media content management is now one of the most important parts of a digital marketing strategy - and is by no means easy.

You not only need a clear strategy and capable people to pull it off, but these days, you also need tools to curate, manage, and schedule all that high-quality social media content.

Fortunately, businesses have access to quality social media management tools that can help ensure they meet and exceed industry standards. 

In this article, we discuss social media content management, its main challenges, and the most important steps toward developing a good strategy. With that, let’s get into it. 

What is social media content management?

Social media content management is a multifaceted process that provides the backbone of a social media strategy. It’s constant and ongoing, revolving around the following operations. 

• Developing a content strategy
• Content conceptualisation
• Content creation
• Content scheduling
• Content monitoring
• Reporting and analysis

Depending on the scope and objectives of a company, content management could involve managing posts for up to ten or more platforms.

Regardless of how many accounts your business uses, social media remains integral to your overall marketing strategy and generates significant revenue. 

Social media is no longer just a way to build your brand and spread awareness. It must be strategic and contribute toward the company's overarching goals. Modern marketing tools allow for precision in all areas of social media, from scheduling content at the right time to in-depth analysis. 

Working with a social media content management tool like Sendible allows you to compound your work, create quality content, and reach audiences at scale. 

Main types of social media content

Some social media platforms are flashes in the pan. They come, have their moment, and are gone soon after. Others stick around for the long haul. It seems like every year or two, businesses need to add an extra social media platform to their wheelhouse. 

This is the main reason companies hire specialist social media managers or expand their teams with new, innovative marketing roles. Even so, it’s difficult to manage multiple accounts across different platforms. 

Marketing software, like Sendible’s social media management tool, is essential to take care of your social media efficiently. 

Before you get started with your strategy, it’s important to know what type of content resonates with your audience. Here are the main forms of content you should be focusing on.

• Images: Even in an era when video is the most trendy medium, static photos and images remain some of the most consumed types of content. Instagram is the go-to platform for images. Facebook, Pinterest, and X are also known for static image posts. Images can be anything from high-quality photography to memes. 
• Short-form video: Short-form video has been the hottest type of content for several years, mainly since the arrival of TikTok to the mainstream. 30 to 90-second clips are the go-to for many content creators. However, short clips of 10 seconds or less also perform well. Depending on your audience and content type, certain times and days are better than others. 

With the popularity of TikTok and Instagram Reels, as well as the quality of modern smartphone cameras, there’s never been a better time to create short-form videos. That said, some editing software comes in handy to ensure your content hits the mark consistently. 

 Source: Sendible TikTok

• Stories: Social media stories are limited-time posts, usually lasting 24 hours. Users will be familiar with Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook stories, which have since been replicated by other platforms, including WhatsApp. 

Stories typically appear in a slideshow format and are designed for engagement and interaction. You can usually add graphics to your stories (photos and videos) or include polls, questions, and other interactive components. 

• Text: A word-only post may be the simplest form of content to post but it’s often the most difficult to get right. X (Twitter) and Threads are the only predominantly text-based social platforms, yet they still reward posts with images and visuals. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to keep text posts short and to the point.
  
  If you struggle with social media captions or copywriting, social media tools, like Sendible have integrations that can help. 
  
  
• User-Generated Content (UGC): UGC is content that’s created by followers relating to a particular brand. For example, an unboxing video or an unpaid review about a product or service would be regarded as UGC.
  
  UGC is effective as it’s a form of social proof or validation of a brand. The best part is that a brand only has to curate and reshare UGC to get value from it. 
  
  
• Audio content: Audio remains an important medium today, particularly at a time when podcasting and live streaming are at all-time highs. Audio clips are used for a wide range of content, including social media commentary and voice-overs, even over static images. 

Music is extremely important for gaining virality or traction on TikTok and Instagram. Certain audio helps your content go further. 

Main challenges of social media content management

Just like with any sector of marketing, social media management presents a unique set of challenges. The priority channels, target audience, budget, and other factors will determine specifically what are the most difficult aspects. Below, you’ll find the most common challenges you’ll face with social media content management.

Time constraints

Certain elements of social media are straightforward on paper. However, it’s a time-consuming responsibility. 

If you have accounts on multiple platforms, you have to log in and out of each and create your posts. You can easily spend hours every day on community management alone. If you want to post daily, you’ll need a scheduling tool to reduce the workload. 

Juggling multiple platforms

Each social media platform is unique. Certain content translates seamlessly from one site to another, but not always. Coming up with a range of engaging content for multiple platforms is tricky, particularly if you’re targeting separate demographics on each one. To boot, even if you use the same content, it will have to be reformatted for another platform. 

Establishing consistency

Although the algorithms differ between each, social media platforms tend to favour frequent and consistent posting. Establishing this frequency is difficult, especially if you use multiple apps. Unless you schedule content ahead of time using a dedicated tool, you will likely struggle to stay on course with your calendar. 

Engaging with the audience

Posting is just one aspect of social media content management. You also have to react to comments, respond to messages, and engage with other accounts. This takes time and resources. 

Keeping up with algorithm updates

Social media managers everywhere have nightmares about ever-changing algorithms. Essentially, a social media algorithm is the magic formula that determines impactful content. 

The criteria for highly engaging media and what it takes to create a viral piece of content occasionally change. To boot, algorithms are different for each social media platform. 

Analytics

These days, there’s no room for guessing when it comes to social media. Content must be carefully analysed to determine what works, what doesn’t, and why. Analytics are also key for determining the return on investment (ROI) for your social media efforts. Knowing what metrics to focus on and what performance markers are actually important is a big challenge.

Source: Sendible

Crisis management

A social media crisis is when one or more of your social accounts experience severe negativity. This doesn’t mean a controversial post or a single negative review. A crisis occurs when the negativity could potentially damage your brand. As you might expect, a crisis is a high-stress time for a social media manager. 

Social Media Content Pillars: The Secret to a Brand’s Social Media Success

Take a look

Content saturation

Social media managers face a very tricky problem. They’re expected to stand out among the competition while also adhering to the latest trends. With the sheer quantity of content available in virtually every industry, it’s hard to be innovative and effective. 

Signs of good social media content management

Depending on the type of business you run as well as the industry you’re in, your social media content strategy might look very different. That said, effective campaigns tend to share a lot of the same key components. 

Here are some of the key indications that you’re on the right track with your social media content management. 

• Clear strategy with well-defined goals
• Target market with accurate buyer personas
• Content calendar with posts planned in advance
• Tailored content for each social media platform
• High-quality content for each platform
• Relevant posts that resonate with the target audience 
• Active community management with the account manager responding to messages, reacting to comments, and engaging with mentions and interactions
• Regular performance analysis and tracking 
• Data-based decision-making and strategy adjustments
• Consistency in branding, voice, tone, and style across all platforms
• Awareness of industry trends
• Willingness to adapt according to data, analysis, feedback, or other information
• Utilisation of reliable social media management tools 

Steps toward developing a killer social media content management strategy

If you’re ready to start putting together a quality social media content management strategy, carry out the following steps. 

Step #1: Conduct social media audit

Most companies already have at least some social media presence. They’re not necessarily starting from scratch. In this case, the first step is to conduct a social media audit. Here are the basic steps.

• Make a master list of all social channels along with the handles, mentions, display names, and other key details. 
• Determine if the core information and general messaging are consistent and align with the company's goals. 
• Publish social media reports for each channel and analyse the performances across each one. 
• Identify the top-performing content (and the poorest-performing content). 
• Compare the performance of your content with industry benchmarks. 
• Perform a SWOT analysis. 

Step #2: Align goals with broader company objectives

If your audit shows that your content is already doing well, check that the social media objectives align with the broader company goals. If necessary, refine goals to ensure they’re clear and concise. 

In the case that your audit shows poorly performing content, you’ll need to adjust your strategy. This should start with the creation of new goals. When setting goals of any type, it’s generally best to follow the SMART goals process. This means your goals should be

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound 

Step #3: Assign metrics to goals

With goals established, the next step is to assign metrics to each of them. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are carefully selected to ensure you have a suitable way to measure progress. 

For example, if you have a goal to increase brand awareness, your goal might be to increase followers across all platforms by 5,000. As your campaign unfolds, you’ll need to check the follower statistics regularly to ensure you’re on the right path. If you’re off track, perhaps your strategy needs tweaking.

Even with a basic goal like follower growth, having assigned metrics helps you to determine what actually moves the needle with your audience. 

Step #4: Market and competitor research

The good news for social media managers is that they’re not expected to reinvent the wheel. You can learn a lot from market activity and what your main competitors are already doing. 

Your market and competitor research can be as deep or shallow as your resources allow. Naturally, you can track what competitors are doing by following them on socials. However, if you want to go a little further, consider surveying your customers. You can do this in various ways, such as:

• Focus groups
• Digital polls
• Incentivised surveys
• Video conferences
• Phone calls. 

You should also use a social media analysis tool to dig into the data surrounding your existing followers and customers. If you have enough data, create buyer personas to hone in on your audience even further. 

Source: Sendible

Step #5: Planning and scheduling

Planning and scheduling make all the difference in a winning campaign. 

It’s easy to lay out your calendar and earmark key dates. A good campaign goes a step further. In addition to the obvious holidays and sale events, look for opportunities to pencil in other campaigns to highlight your products and services. 

Consider things like product launches, service updates, email campaigns, newsletter highlights, and other smaller details that won’t necessarily appear front and centre. 

One of the best ways to nail this step is to assign responsibility to members of various departments to come up with relevant campaigns and dates that are most relevant to them. You’ll find that the financial services department will have a very different calendar in mind than the HR department. 

Step #6: Content Creation

The fact that content creation is the sixth step on the list is a testament to how tricky it is to nail your strategy. 

You need a consistent flow of quality content to keep followers engaged and hit the main KPIs of your campaigns.

To boot, your content must be varied.

Different types of content resonate in their own way and may be better suited to specific campaigns. To give you an idea of what’s expected, here are the types of content you’ll need to produce. 

• Images
• Short-form video
• Long-form video 
• Copy
• Live video
• Stories
• User-generated content (UGC)
• Links (to websites, stores, news articles, etc.)
• Sales content
• Collaborative posts (with influencers, sponsors, partners, other accounts, etc.)

Step #7: Analysis

The more analysis you do, the more you learn about your followers. Armed with this knowledge, you can adjust your strategy to satisfy existing and new customers as best as possible. Ultimately, this is what will reflect on the bottom line. 

Each social media platform has a built-in analytics section. However, using a dedicated analysis tool means you can access all the data from your accounts in the same place. This makes it easier to get a wholesale view of your audience. 

How can Sendible help with social media content management?

Sendible’s social media management tool improves content management for businesses and social media managers. It enables smooth content creation, scheduling, and analysis across multiple platforms. Our purpose-built system was created by marketing professionals for marketing professionals for the best experience possible. 

• Sendible users are not limited to our system. Our tool integrates with Canva, Pexels, Flickr, GIPHY, and other applications for seamless content creation. 
• Users can save best-performing hashtags to help you build high-performing campaigns. 
• All content may be indexed and categorised for efficiency and organisation. 
• Access millions of high-quality and royalty-free images through our integrations and save the ones you like to your custom folders (Google Drive integrated). 
• Customise all of your content with leading design tool, Canva. 
• Sendible’s workflow system helps well-oiled teams with custom approvals and permissions for members. 
• Never waste time mulling over captions with the help of our AI assist, which also comes up with ideas in your brand’s authentic voice. 
• Automate the scheduling of evergreen content and plan your calendar months in advance for consistency.

Gain full control over your social media content management strategy with Sendible. For more details on what we offer, schedule a call with one of our experts for a full product tour.