Organize Your Social Media Management Using SOPs – 9 Elements to Include

Social media management is crucial for small online businesses as it amplifies brand visibility, fosters direct customer engagement, and provides cost-effective marketing opportunities to reach a wider audience.

There is a lot involved in social media management which means a lot to remember, right? Technically yes, but you won't have to remember every single detail, constantly worried that you're going to make a mistake, if you document how to do the task.

Enter Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). These process documents are going to list all the steps you take from ideation to posting, to reviewing your social media content. A Social Media Management SOP is one of the 15 must-have SOPs for any online business.

SOPs allow you to follow the same steps each time you do the task. From finding your target audience to creating killer content, every step is detailed. It's not just a static document—it's a living resource that evolves with your business.

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What is Social Media Management?

Social media management involves the process of creating, scheduling, analyzing, and engaging with content posted on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. And with AI coming in hot, you can create your own CustomGPT for organizing social media as well..

It aims to build and maintain an online presence, interact with the audience, and ultimately goals. This can include tasks such as content creation, posting, community engagement, analytics tracking, and strategy development.

Effective social media management helps businesses connect with their target audience, increase brand awareness, and drive engagement and conversions.

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If you're looking for more information on navigating social media for your online business, check out Social Media Gen X. Stacey is Gen-Xer who specializes in small business social media and understands the unique challenges that are faced.

9 Elements to Include in Your Social Media Management SOP?

1. Goals

If you're following my 5W's SOP Template (you can get a copy of it above), then you'll notice that this is your “why”? Why are you doing social media? What are you trying to accomplish?

Are you trying to build brand awareness? Are you trying to gain lead generation? Are you trying to build an online community? What are your goals with this task – write them down.

Remember when setting goals, they should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

2. Target Audience

This is kind of two-fold for this SOP. The “who” part of the SOP refers to who is reading this SOP. If it's just you in your business, then you're the audience as you're the one completing the task and going to read this SOP.

If you have employed staff, virtual assistants, or other people helping in your business, your target audience will include them. More people in your audience means you need to be more detailed in your process description. Everyone must be able to replicate the steps the same.

The second part of this of the target audience for this SOP, is detailing the process for identifying and understanding who your business's target audience is, including demographics, preferences, and behaviours, if applicable. Who are you targeting when doing social media posts?

3. Social Media Platforms

Each social media platform is going to have either its own section within your Social Media Management SOP or you're going to have separate SOPs for each platform. Either is fine and completely up to you.

I like shorter documents myself, so I create SOPs for each platform. That way, it's only a few pages long, versus a 10-page (or longer) document where I've included multiple platforms.

Also, if I decide I'm no longer using Instagram, for example, I can just scrap that SOP instead of having to update a combined Social Media Management SOP.

4. Content Creation and Graphic Design

Include steps for designing and creating visual content using tools like Canva. Where do you get the photos you're using? How do you save them? (Pro tip: make sure to save the photos in folders labelled with where you got the photos. For example, if you're using Creative Fabrica, make sure the folder indicates it so that you know what your usage rights are).

Do you have templates set up in your design programs? If you don't, you absolutely should. Content creation templates are going to save you hours and hours of time.

If you're in love with Canva like I am, then you really need to check out Canva Creations with Pam. Pam has been using Canva since it was first developed and knows that program better than anyone I've ever come across.

She also has a fantastic membership called The Canva Clubhouse that gets you tons of Canva templates, tutorials, etc. It's so worth it!

5. Content Calendar Creation

Outline the procedure for planning and scheduling social media posts using a content calendar. When are you posting content? Do you have a reason for posting it at a certain time? Document it. Then you won't have to try and remember why you always post Mondays at 12:00pm EST (this is the ‘sweet spot' of timing according to Hootsuite).

6. Brand Voice and Style Guide

As with anything in your business, you should ensure that you maintain your brand's tone of voice, visual style, and messaging guidelines for consistent representation on social media.

Another way you can do this is to just link to your brand kit. If you have created a brand kit (in Canva or even just a Google Doc that notes your colours, fonts, mission, audience, etc.) you can just link to it. Easy peasy!

7. Hashtag Strategy

Do you use hashtags in your social media posts? If so, how do you decide what you're using? Why? Describe the approach for researching, selecting, and using relevant hashtags to increase content visibility.

8. Engagement and Community Building

Detail criteria on when and how you're going respond to comments, and messages, and engage with the audience effectively. This doesn't have to be complicated, so don't get hung up on this one, but it is very important to respond to social media comments.

Engaging with your audience can give you new lead generation ideas, and product ideas, identify gaps in your content, and determine what areas of your content are connecting well with your audience and areas that are missing the mark.

9. Regular Review and Optimization

Document the analytics and metrics that you will monitor for your social media content and what criteria would prompt adjusting your social media strategy based on the performance data.

This is really important to document. You must have a plan in place that will tell you if your social media strategy is a) working and you should just keep on plugging away, or b) something isn't quite right and you need to adjust your strategy. Maybe the timing isn't right? Perhaps your posts are too hard to read? Perhaps they are too busy (lots of conflicting visuals)? Or are you not effectively targeting your audience?

Final Thoughts on a Social Media Management SOP

A Social Media Management SOP provides a structured framework for navigating your social media, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and strategic alignment with your business goals. It is also an important aspect of keeping your online business organized.

By following a well-defined SOP, you can confidently steer your online presence, fostering meaningful connections with your audience and driving tangible results.

It not only guides daily activities but also adapts and evolves as your strategy changes, ultimately leading to a thriving and impactful online business presence. With this SOP in hand, you have a well-defined path to creating a successful social media presence for your online business.

Have you written yours? Let me know in the comments below how it went. I'd love to hear from you.