Monday 8 May 2023

The 7 Steps to a Successful Social Media Workflow (Templates)

Do you want to improve your social media workflows?

Social media managers are often faced with a difficult job, juggling many accounts, managing complicated campaigns and working with stakeholders.

It can be difficult to coordinate all of these moving pieces. However, there are some simple ways you can make your workflow more effective.

Take a look at these 7 top tips for creating an effective social media workflow.

Download our free bundle of customizable social media workflows and create a clear approval procedure for your team within minutes.

What is social media workflow?

Social media workflows are a way to manage your social media posts, including creation, publication and promotion. This includes tasks such as drafting posts, posting them at certain times, reviewing content before sharing with your followers and analyzing results.

You may have several social media workflows. They can include:

Basic social media workflowsSocial media posting workflowsSocial media content workflowsSocial media approval workflows

Each workflow streamlines the social media process and ensures each post is completed consistently.

Social media workflows have many benefits

A social media workflow that is effective ensures each post is strategically aligned, well-crafted and timely. This helps your team to stay on track and organized.

It is easier to create content when you have all the steps laid out ahead of time. This ensures that your brand will be consistent and in compliance with any industry regulations.

The following are other benefits to creating a workflow for social media:

Improved efficiency and productivity: A well-designed workflow eliminates guesswork, saves time, and reduces the risk of errors.Higher-quality content: Clear workflows ensure your content is accurate, up-to-date, and offers the best possible reflection of your brand.Greater accountability: By assigning tasks to specific team members and setting deadlines, everyone knows what they are responsible for. It promotes collaboration and reduces redundancy. A clear overview allows you to better manage time and budget. It also helps you make better decisions about future content strategies.

Social media workflows: Types

There is no perfect social media workflow, but there are some common ones you can start with.

Basic Social Media Workflow

Your daily activities should be included in a basic social media workflow. Each stage can be divided into several broad categories.

The 10 steps of an essential social media workflow include:

Ideation: Coming up with ideas for your posts or social media campaigns.Content sourcing: Collecting or creating the visual assets and resources for your posts.Copywriting: Writing captions or campaign slogans.Revisions: Copyediting and reworking based on feedback.Approvals: From both internal and external stakeholders.Scheduling posts: At the optimal time and date for maximum engagement.Post promotion: Implementing paid and organic strategies to boost posts.Monitoring: Tracking performance and engagement once posts are live.Community management and customer service: Responding to comments and messages, routing customer service inquiries.Optimization: Making daily content adjustments.Not your usual creative self? You can’t always be on.

You can always refer to our Social Media Toolkit for new ideas. You can easily get inspired to post great content. Get your creative mojo back https://t.co/I5FncKqXkx pic.twitter.com/Zxj8czrkc3

— Hootsuite

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(@hootsuite ) March 30, 2023

Social media posting workflow

The creation and scheduling content for social media involves a variety of workflows.

Eight steps are involved in a workflow for social media posts:

Ideation: Creating new ideas for social media posts. Remember, you can always find fresh ideas using OwlyWriter AI or Hootsuite’s Inspiration feature.Content sourcing: Including research and finding relevant photography, animation, and video assets.Drafting: Writing copy and designing visuals.Editing: Spell checking, copyediting, and reviewing all visuals.Approval: Obtaining agreement from stakeholders.Scheduling: Setting the content to post at specific times or intervals.Monitoring and reporting: Monitoring performance after posts go live.Ad-hoc posting: Even the best-laid content plans are rarely perfect, so ad-hoc posting allows you to respond quickly to trends and publish timely content when necessary. See this post on Instagram

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Social media approval workflow

Approvals are the backbone of any successful social media workflow. Without a structured approval process, you could post content that does not align with your brand. Or, even worse, does not comply with industry regulations.

The four steps of a social media approval workflow are:

Ideation: Collecting ideas. Keep in mind, campaign and post ideas may need approval before being sent to the creative team.Creation: The creative team develops and designs content according to the agreed-upon concept.Review: The content is reviewed by various stakeholders (e.g., the marketing team, legal department, outside clients, etc.) to make sure it meets the brand’s standards and any applicable regulations.Approval: Once all stakeholders have given their approval, the content is ready to be posted.

Content batching workflow

Content batching is the process of creating multiple pieces of content at once and then scheduling them for release over a set period. This allows you to plan ahead and get content out on a regular basis, keeping your brand top-of-mind for your followers.

The eight steps of a content batching workflow are:

Ideation: Brainstorming content for a set period of time, often one week or one month.Calendar creation: Creating a content calendar for your timeline, and get it approved before content creation starts.Content sourcing: Gathering all necessary assets for post-creation.Content creation: Creating posts based on the approved content calendar. This includes copywriting and graphic design.Revision: Editing the content as needed to ensure accuracy and quality.Approval: Reviewing and approving all content before it is published.Scheduling: Scheduling the approved pieces of content to be released at pre-determined times.Analytics and optimization: Monitoring analytics from each piece of content and optimizing future content.

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Social media workflow templates for free

Are you ready to create your own workflows for social media? To help you get going, we’ve created a collection of templates that are easy to use and fully customizable.


Social media workflow template

Download our free bundle of customizable social media workflows and create a clear approval procedure for your team within minutes.

Social media workflow tips: How to make it efficient

It’s now time to build your own social media workflow.

Here are a few tips for creating high-quality and efficient workflows.

1. Roles and responsibilities

It’s important to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each person involved in social media workflows. It’s important to clearly define the expectations, deadlines and accountability for each role.

Here are some common roles with their respective responsibilities.

Social media manager: The role of social media managers includes managing social media channels daily, developing successful social media strategies, and ensuring seamless social media workflows.Copywriter: Copywriters are responsible for creating engaging posts and captions for social media channels.Designer: Creator of graphics, keeper of brand guidelines, and responsible for producing visual content that meets the social media manager’s expectations.Editor: The editor reviews all content created by content creators before sending it for approval.Community manager: Community managers interact with the audience, respond to comments and messages, monitor for negative sentiment, and answer customer questions.Approver: The approver reviews all content created by content creators before posting on social media channels. This may involve multiple levels of management and outside stakeholders.Analyst: Analysts track and evaluate metrics to understand what works and what doesn’t. They produce regular reports for the team.Legal: The legal teams review content before it is posted and make sure that the content adheres to the company guidelines.

Each social media team is unique, and therefore not all these roles are relevant for your needs. Whatever the structure of your team, it is important to communicate expectations clearly to everyone to ensure that they are on the same page.

2. Clarify the rules that govern your industry

For industries such as finance, healthcare or government, regulatory compliance is crucial to maintaining a proper social media presence. You must first understand the regulations and best practices to be followed before you can begin any social media management workflow. HIPAA is a healthcare regulation.

It is important to understand the legal implications when using user-generated material (UGC), keep records of all communication, etc. You should also be aware of restrictions that your industry may have on certain hashtags and terms.

Before you start, read up on the social media compliance and compliance tool.

3. Plan ahead with a social media schedule

You can plan, track and manage content with a calendar. You can plan out topics, frequency and timelines for posting to ensure that all content is in line with your brand and industry standards.

You can also schedule your posts in advance by creating a calendar of content ahead of time. This will save you time and money throughout the month. You can then focus on creating content and engaging with your audience, instead of worrying when to publish.


social media content calendar using hootsuite planner

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4. Make sure that everyone understands the process

Your social media posting workflow must be as organized and efficient as possible. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) help new employees, clients and stakeholders to understand your processes.

You should also ensure that your workflows can be easily replicated across different clients, platforms and campaigns.

The following information should be included in a social media workflow SOP:

The roles and responsibilities of each person involved in the process.The details of how posts are created, reviewed, and published.Any rules for specific types of content or brand guidelines.Policies regarding when posts should be approved or rejected.Instructions on how to measure social media performance.All legal, compliance, and regulatory requirements.

You can make sure that everyone is on the same wavelength by creating a SOP that is clear and concise for your social media post workflow. This will help to improve collaboration among team members, reduce mistakes and ensure that your company is compliant with all applicable regulations.

5. Stay safe

When developing a workflow for social media, security should be a top priority. Only allow trusted employees to access passwords and confidential information. Take measures to prevent data leakage, such as using two-step authentication and encryption.

Phone? Account? You get it…

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Profile – Settings Security – Two factor authentication

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pic.twitter.com/DEaIClhYIb

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 1, 2023

It’s also important to create a chain-of-command so that all posts are reviewed by the appropriate people before going live. It will ensure that the voice and message of your brand is consistent, on-brand and prevent confidential information from falling into the wrong hand.

Hootsuite is a great social media management software that allows you to set up custom permissions. You can also create approval workflows. This will help keep your channels safe and consistent with your brand.

You can use social media monitoring tools to detect suspicious posts or activity from unauthorised accounts. Assign someone to monitor all of your social media channels and ensure that every post is legitimate.

Auditing your social media workflows and privacy settings regularly can reduce risks and help maintain a consistent image.

6. Use a unified social media inbox

Your team must also monitor private messages and comments and respond accordingly.

Use a social media inbox cross-platform that allows for task assignment and status tracking to ensure that all interactions will be handled and routed appropriately.

Hootsuite Inbox allows teams to create custom workflows which bridge social media engagement with customer service, and manage all messages on social media in one place. This includes:

Private messages and DMsPublic messages and posts on your profilesDark and organic commentsMentionsEmoji reactions

More…

It’s easy to use the all-in one agent workspace.

Handle messages with a team using intuitive messaging queues, task assignment, statuses and filters. Track response times and CSAT metrics



Free demo

Inbox also comes with useful automations.

Automated message routingAuto-responses and saved repliesAutomatically triggered customer satisfaction surveysAI-powered chatbot features

7. Keep it simple

Simplicity is key when designing your social media management workflow. It is more likely that your team will make mistakes or miss important steps if the workflow is complex.

Prioritize the steps that are essential to posting content. It should be obvious to your team, for example, that all copy must be approved prior to posting. Or that graphics for posts need to be internally approved because they can then be shown to clients.

If you allow them to, social media workflows will become complex. Start by mapping the basic steps of your workflow and approval processes, then add more details as necessary.

Create a system to track and measure the performance of your workflows. This can be done through internal or client surveys and feedback.

8. Be flexible to adapt when needed

Your social media workflows need to be flexible enough to adapt as your business changes or grows. You may have to change who is responsible for which roles and tasks. Or how often certain tasks and responsibilities must be completed.

Your workflow may have to be adjusted or updated as platforms change and new ones are introduced. Stay up-to-date with the latest trends by being ready to adapt and reassess as necessary.

Social media workflow tools

Are you ready to have your social media marketing flow like water? Start with the best social media tools for your workflow.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite simplifies social media workflows, including approvals, by providing a complete suite of tools that help you manage, create and approve posts. Hootsuite has everything you need, from content planning to analysis and post-publication reviews.

Hootsuite’s dashboard allows team members to create, edit and approve all content. All Business and Enterprise Plans include approval features, while the Team Plan was designed for small teams that need assistance managing social media workflows.

Hootsuite allows you to assign permissions to users to control the messages that are sent by your social media accounts. Users with the Limited, Custom, Responder or Custom Role with “Publish Message With Approval” must get approval before their posts are published. You can ensure that only high-quality content reaches your customers and followers.


#1 Social Media Tool Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

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Google Sheets

For those just starting out, Google Sheets can help you create a simple social media workflow. You can use it to organize and track the progress of posts that need approval, assign tasks to team members, and store any other relevant information.

When approvals are needed, tag team members to review posts, and include a column for comments on each post. This way, everyone can quickly see what is being posted and what has been approved.

Keep in mind, not everyone keeps their Google Suite notifications turned on. So, you may need to follow up via Slack or email to ensure tasks and deadlines are met.

No more notifications please
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— Hootsuite

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(@hootsuite ) February 13, 2023

Create a successful social media marketing campaign with less effort and time. Hootsuite has social media approval tools that will ensure your posts are not missed. You can assign work to colleagues, receive notifications when your content needs to edited, and give feedback to one another, all from a dashboard. It’s free to try today.

Get Started

Hootsuite is a powerful social media tool that combines all the features you need. Keep up with the latest trends, beat your competition, and grow.

Try it for 30 days free! 7 Tips to create an efficient social media workflow [Templates].

 

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https://www.affiliatemarketingbuzz.com/how-to-create-great-tiktok-advertisements-the-complete-2023-guide/

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