Social media marketing

Most social media problems are not posting problems. They are decisions that were never made: who the content is for, what it should make them do, and who has the time to keep it going. This is how I approach social media work, what it involves, and where I would tell you to spend less.

Start with the job each channel has to do

Before any calendar exists, I want to know what each channel is for. Instagram might exist to show the product and the people behind it. LinkedIn might exist to get a founder in front of buyers. A channel with no stated job usually becomes a place where content is posted because it is Tuesday.

I write the job down in one sentence per channel, along with the audience and the action we hope for: follow, save, message, visit, enquire. That sentence becomes the filter. If a post idea does not serve it, it does not get made. It also tells us which channels to drop, which is often the most useful outcome of the first month.

This is also where I check the basics people skip: whether the profile explains what you do in the first line, whether the link goes somewhere useful, and whether a stranger could tell in five seconds why to follow you.

What the work actually involves

Social media marketing is a chain of small pieces, and the weak link decides the result. I usually split it into direction, planning, creative, publishing and review, and agree in writing which of those I own and which your team owns.

Direction covers audience, themes and formats. Planning turns that into a monthly rhythm your team can really sustain. Creative covers copy, design and video formats. Publishing and community replies are the daily part. Review is where we look at what happened and change the plan. Some clients want all five from me; others only want direction and a monthly review while their own team executes.

• Channel and audience review, including what is currently posted and how it is received.
• Content themes tied to real customer questions, not generic industry topics.
• A monthly plan with formats, owners and approval steps.
• Creative briefs or finished creative, depending on the agreed scope.
• A regular review of what worked, what did not and what changes next month.

Content that earns attention without chasing trends

Trends are fine when they fit. Most brands are better served by a small set of repeatable content types that they can produce well every week. A clinic might run patient questions answered by the doctor; a manufacturer might show how a product is made; a consultancy might break down one decision per post.

I look for formats that use what the business already has: expertise, process, people, product, customer questions. These are cheaper to produce than invented campaigns and harder for competitors to copy, because they come from how you actually work.

Each format gets a short brief covering the purpose, the structure, the length and the call to action. That brief is what lets a new team member or a freelancer produce something consistent without asking me every time.

Organic, paid and where the line sits

Organic social builds familiarity over time, and it is slow and uneven. Paid social lets you put a specific message in front of a specific audience on a specific date. They solve different problems and I do not treat one as a substitute for the other.

If you need leads this quarter, organic posting alone is rarely the plan. If you need people to recognise your name when a sales call arrives, paid alone will not do it either. I will tell you where I think the weight should sit for your situation, and when budget should wait until the creative is working.

Paid campaign setup and media buying sit under the paid media side of my work; I link the two so that organic posts that perform well can inform what gets promoted.

Common mistakes I see

The most common one is volume without purpose: daily posting with no theme, no call to action and no one assigned to reply. The second is treating followers as the goal. A large audience that never enquires, buys or recommends you is a number, not a result.

The third is separating social from everything else. Posts promise something the website does not deliver, or the sales team has never seen the content that brought the lead in. I try to close those gaps early because they waste good content.

A further trap is borrowing a format that suits a different kind of business. A short dance clip may work for a consumer brand and look strange for an industrial supplier. I would rather build a quiet, credible presence in a format you can sustain than imitate a trend that makes your team uncomfortable. People notice when content feels forced, and they notice when it feels useful.

• Posting on every channel instead of the two that matter.
• No owner for comments and direct messages, so enquiries sit unanswered.
• Copying competitor content, so nothing distinguishes the brand.
• Measuring likes when the business needs enquiries, bookings or sales.
• Changing direction every few weeks before any pattern can be read.

How I measure success without inventing numbers

I agree the measures at the start and keep them few. Reach and engagement tell you whether content is being seen and noticed. Profile visits, link clicks and messages tell you whether it moves people. Enquiries and sales attributed through UTM-tagged links, forms or a simple 'how did you hear about us' question tell you whether it matters to the business.

Social attribution is imperfect. People see a post, then search your name a week later. I say that plainly in reports and use directional evidence rather than pretending the data is cleaner than it is. Where a clean number is not available, we look at trends over several months instead of one post.

What I need from you

Access to your channels, a view of your brand material, and an honest description of who your customers are and what they ask before buying. I also need to know who on your side can approve content and how fast, because slow approvals are the most common reason a good calendar falls apart.

If you have past content that worked or flopped, share both. Patterns in your own history are more useful than benchmarks from other industries.

It also helps to name one person who owns the relationship with me, with authority to say yes or no. Many social projects stall because feedback arrives from four directions and contradicts itself. A single decision-maker, even for a short period each week, keeps the calendar moving and the quality steady.

How a typical month runs

In a working month, the first week goes to review and planning: what last month's content did, what is coming up in the business, and which themes get priority. The second and third weeks are for production and approvals. The last week is for publishing buffer and the review that feeds the next plan.

Keeping this rhythm fixed matters more than any single post. It lets your team know when they will be asked for input, lets approvers block time, and stops the scramble that produces rushed, off-brand content. I also keep a small reserve of flexible slots for news, launches and timely questions so the plan can bend without breaking.

Publishing is only half of social. Comments, direct messages and mentions are where people actually talk to you, and a slow or careless reply can undo a lot of good content. I help set simple response guidelines: who answers, how fast, what tone, and what gets passed to sales or support.

For negative comments, the rule is to respond calmly, take detail offline, and never delete legitimate criticism. For enquiries that arrive by message, I recommend a short template that gets to the useful questions quickly. These small habits often change results more than another round of creative.

When this is not the right move

If your website does not explain the offer, or enquiries are not being followed up, fixing social first will waste money. The same applies if nobody inside the business can spend a few hours a week on it and you are not willing to fund someone who can.

In those cases I would start with a conversion optimisation review or a content and copywriting pass, then come back to social when there is something solid to send people to.

A smaller plan that gets done every week beats a large plan that lasts a month.