Social media moves fast. The trends move fast. Remember “Damn Daniel”? Probably not—or if you do, you remember it as a meme that lasted about one week. Two months later, businesses were still trying to capitalize on it, despite the fact that social media had motored on to different memes. How can you possibly stay ahead or even on top of social media when things move so quickly? You definitely do not want to be behind the curve, so here are a few resources for helping you stay ahead of it:
Sprout Social’s social media holiday calendar
You don’t want to find out the day of that today is National Pancake Day, especially if your business is selling pancakes. There’s a “national day” for just about everything now, and lots of them could relate to your business. But how do you know which day is which? Sprout Social has a calendar for you. They keep track of these holidays, both the serious ones and the silly ones, which will make it much, much easier to leverage them for your business. While National Donut Day might not seem like it relates to your business, you could find a way to celebrate it and promote yourself (like bringing donuts to your team and then posting a picture of you all eating them on your social media platforms). But, again, you can only do this if you know about those days.
Meltwater’s weekly email
If you don’t have time to go to your content calendar every single day (or even every week), to see what types of posts are going out and what days they are going out on, Meltwater is here to help. They do essentially the same thing as Sprout Social’s calendar, but instead of printing off a PDF, they send you an email, letting you know what holidays (both the funny/silly and serious ones) are coming up the next week. This gives you plenty of time to incorporate those holidays into your content schedule or, at the very least, to make sure that what you are posting doesn’t conflict with those holidays.
Follow Days of the Year on Facebook
If you get most of your news and social media updates from Facebook, you might want to consider following Days of the Year on Facebook. They post the same kind of information that you can get form Sprout Social and Meltwater, but you get it in your own social media feed, instead of through a PDF or email. They also research other buzzworthy topics and post about them on their page. If you want to know what exactly is going on with social media, this is probably one of the best places to get your information. They also have a website, if you just want to check it every day to make sure you have the information you need.
Read Social Media Today
You need a source of information that is going to tell you what exactly is happening on social media. No matter how plugged in you are (or consider yourself to be), you’re not going to be able to stay hip to everyone’s jive. Especially if you are trying to reach the younger demographic, you are going to want to look for content that is tailored to their social media experience. Social Media Today is a great source of that content. They always have a good variety of choose from, which means that you can get a good idea of what’s happening, even if you don’t have time to scour every inch of every social media on a daily basis.
Reevaluate your demographic
When you first started on social media seven years ago, your demographic might have been largely on Facebook. If you’re trying to reach the eighteen to thirty-three demographic these days, however, you won’t find them on Facebook. You’ll find their parents on Facebook and maybe their younger brothers and sisters, but that target demographic is now on Twitter. Facebook isn’t as cool as it used to be, so while most people still have an account that they check occasionally, a lot of switched over to other social media. If you’re not getting the response you need, it might be because you’re not in the right place anymore.
Use an RSS feed aggregator
You only have so much time and can only devote so much of it to figuring out what’s happening on social media right now. A good way to cut down on the amount of reading that you have to do is to use an RSS feed aggregator. There are more than a few to choose from, ranging from Mashable to The Next Web. All of these enable you to get the information you need in a reduced format. It’s a good way to stay on top of social media and you can usually read the feed on the bus or while walking to work.
Find a social media expert
If you find that you really do not have the time or ability to stay caught up with social media, it might be time to outsource the task to someone who really understands the platform and can do what you need done.
Social media moves fast. The trends move fast. Remember “Damn Daniel”? Probably not—or if you do, you remember it as a meme that lasted about one week. Two months later, businesses were still trying to capitalize on it, despite the fact that social media had motored on to different memes. How can you possibly stay ahead or even on top of social media when things move so quickly? You definitely do not want to be behind the curve, so here are a few resources for helping you stay ahead of it:
Sprout Social’s social media holiday calendar
You don’t want to find out the day of that today is National Pancake Day, especially if your business is selling pancakes. There’s a “national day” for just about everything now, and lots of them could relate to your business. But how do you know which day is which? Sprout Social has a calendar for you. They keep track of these holidays, both the serious ones and the silly ones, which will make it much, much easier to leverage them for your business. While National Donut Day might not seem like it relates to your business, you could find a way to celebrate it and promote yourself (like bringing donuts to your team and then posting a picture of you all eating them on your social media platforms). But, again, you can only do this if you know about those days.
Meltwater’s weekly email
If you don’t have time to go to your content calendar every single day (or even every week), to see what types of posts are going out and what days they are going out on, Meltwater is here to help. They do essentially the same thing as Sprout Social’s calendar, but instead of printing off a PDF, they send you an email, letting you know what holidays (both the funny/silly and serious ones) are coming up the next week. This gives you plenty of time to incorporate those holidays into your content schedule or, at the very least, to make sure that what you are posting doesn’t conflict with those holidays.
Follow Days of the Year on Facebook
If you get most of your news and social media updates from Facebook, you might want to consider following Days of the Year on Facebook. They post the same kind of information that you can get form Sprout Social and Meltwater, but you get it in your own social media feed, instead of through a PDF or email. They also research other buzzworthy topics and post about them on their page. If you want to know what exactly is going on with social media, this is probably one of the best places to get your information. They also have a website, if you just want to check it every day to make sure you have the information you need.
Read Social Media Today
You need a source of information that is going to tell you what exactly is happening on social media. No matter how plugged in you are (or consider yourself to be), you’re not going to be able to stay hip to everyone’s jive. Especially if you are trying to reach the younger demographic, you are going to want to look for content that is tailored to their social media experience. Social Media Today is a great source of that content. They always have a good variety of choose from, which means that you can get a good idea of what’s happening, even if you don’t have time to scour every inch of every social media on a daily basis.
Reevaluate your demographic
When you first started on social media seven years ago, your demographic might have been largely on Facebook. If you’re trying to reach the eighteen to thirty-three demographic these days, however, you won’t find them on Facebook. You’ll find their parents on Facebook and maybe their younger brothers and sisters, but that target demographic is now on Twitter. Facebook isn’t as cool as it used to be, so while most people still have an account that they check occasionally, a lot of switched over to other social media. If you’re not getting the response you need, it might be because you’re not in the right place anymore.
Use an RSS feed aggregator
You only have so much time and can only devote so much of it to figuring out what’s happening on social media right now. A good way to cut down on the amount of reading that you have to do is to use an RSS feed aggregator. There are more than a few to choose from, ranging from Mashable to The Next Web. All of these enable you to get the information you need in a reduced format. It’s a good way to stay on top of social media and you can usually read the feed on the bus or while walking to work.
Find a social media expert
If you find that you really do not have the time or ability to stay caught up with social media, it might be time to outsource the task to someone who really understands the platform and can do what you need done.
Published on January 5, 2017
About the Author: Olivia Haymond
