How can social media management be successful ? The BVDW (German Association of the German Federation of German Industries) has created a useful infographic on the subject. It illustrates how social media marketing can be strategically managed, measured, and optimized through the use of appropriate marketing management processes.

Social media management processes

As a social media manager, you usually manage several online presences within a company. It’s easy to lose track of everything. Therefore, it’s important to establish social media management processes. Social media managers should be familiar with these processes for successful management and implement them systematically, as they make their work easier. The graphic provides an overview of tools that support social media activities from the very beginning.

Infographic: Social Media Management (BVDW)

Checklist: Efficient Social Media Management

The following checklist can help you with efficient social media management.

1. Monitoring: What are online users saying about your brand? Social media monitoring  provides you with an overview and provides guidance for strategic content marketing. It also helps identify potential customers and influencers. Tools like Google Alerts can also be helpful here. 
2. Analytics:  Social media is a dynamic space, and it’s easy to lose track, but you should focus on key performance indicators (KPIs). Depending on the platform, strategy, and goals, these could include reach, engagement, and fans/followers. A useful tip for measuring success by analyzing content distribution is SocialCount.
3. Competitor monitoring:  Sometimes the pace of social media can be overwhelming, and then you have to keep track of your competitors. However, this offers a lot of inspiration and is an essential task for the social media team. This naturally includes tracking the industry for potential trends. Tools that can help with this include Tableau and Rival IQ.
4. Content marketing with an editorial plan:  Content for the networks should be planned in advance using content marketing tools (e.g., Hootsuite). This makes it possible to collect content and share it on a scheduled basis to keep the content pipeline constantly filled. Feedback can also be recognized and analyzed, and responses can be created.
5. Network building:  Customers want to communicate with people, not with brands. A profile picture of social media employees increases engagement. Social media profiles also serve to build reputation. Community building is particularly successful after networking events, for example. It’s also important to cultivate your network, congratulate people on their birthdays or new positions, and share interesting articles. This all contributes to your reputation and promotes customer acquisition.
6. Practical tools such as  best practice cases, case studies, and white papers are effective marketing tools that, in exchange for contact information, promote lead generation. Read our guide to marketing automation and our tips for using effective social media tools .
7. Referral marketing: Tools like ProvenExpert enable customer surveys and promote online reputation. They help new customers build trust in the company and promote referral marketing, see the following illustration from ProvenExpert using the example of Hilker Consulting .