PMDMC24

Below are some links that may be useful for your social media planning.

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Resources:

• Canva - for creating visual posts for each platform, both photos and video. Canva Pro is free for nonprofits.

• Buffer - for scheduling posts in advance. Free plan allows one user and up to 3 accounts.

• Social media calendar templates - there are lots of free options out there, here are a few from Buffer (though at The Colorado Sound, we literally just use a shared spreadsheet on Microsoft OneDrive)

• more to come….

Social media and tech news sites:

• Social Media Today

• Search Engine Journal

• CNET

Social media account examples:

• Minnesota Public Radio (easy-to-scan headlines right on the grid - and they engage you right there on the platform, which is user friendly)

• Washington Post (the slideshows are fun and keep you engaged)

• NPR Music (great examples of original content unique to the platform - though they have a team to create it)

• more to come….

Additional resources:

Social media TIPS for planning and posting

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Do you have tips of your own that you’d like to contribute? Please do! Just use the form below to submit.

Social Media Tips

Below are a handful of tips to keep in mind when planning and posting on your social media accounts.

Planning Process:

Know your audience

• Your current audience AND your ideal audience

• Know where they 'hang out' (which platforms, e.g. Facebook vs. TikTok)

Choose your platforms (focus)

• You don't have to be everywhere all at once

Ask yourself WHY:

• "Why are we posting this?" Or, "What is our goal in posting this?" In other words: know the purpose behind your efforts.

• Goals or purpose can be related to business, audience growth, community service, etc.

• This helps create focused messaging, avoids a scattershot approach

Create a shared social media planner

• Map out your social posts using a planner that everyone can easily access and share

• This can be as simple as a spreadsheet on Google Docs or Microsoft Sharepoint (OneDrive)

Content approval process

• This will vary by team; but know what this is, especially if managers need to view and approve before a post goes live

• This is also true if you use AI to help with creating posts. For instance, who is designated 'editor'?

• The shared social media planner (noted above) will help track the approval process

Brand guidelines

• Do you have brand guidelines? Make sure these are accessible and everyone involved in the social media process, and that they know know how to use them

Establish KPIs and measure

• Know ahead of time what you want to monitor ,and what success looks like

• If something is not working, pivot.

• Have a process in place to share information (e.g., weekly reports, monthly calls)

Posting Best Practices:

Graphics

• Always include a video or still image to draw the user’s attention

• It can also be useful to add text onto the image to say what it is quickly and easily (e.g., ‘Breaking News’ or ‘Concert Highlights’). However, make sure the text is READABLE on a small screen (and centered on the grid for Instagram)

Captions

• Always include captions for video content

• Assume people have sound off

• This also helps with accessibility

Call to action

• Know what you want people to do next

• One per post is best

Align your messaging

• Across all platforms, including email and broadcast

• Use similar language, so audience 'gets’ what you’re talking about no matter which platform they’re engaged on

• Same CTA for each instance

Monitor and respond

• Comments can come in fast - be sure to watch them, and your DMs

• Respond quickly - speed matters and can help build trust

• Know when to respond publicly (in comments) or privately (on DMs)

Test, Modify, Test Again

• The social media landscape is always changing, so be ready to pivot

• Not every post is a home run…and that’s OK

• Track engagement for post types, days of week, different platforms, etc.