5 steps to refresh your social media channels

We all know the feeling; your social channels are lacking the ‘pizzazz’ they need but you’re lacking the inspiration or the motivation to do something about it.

You know what works for your followers, but your content calendar’s looking a bit bare and the numbers have plateaued.

So, you’re posting the same old content and your engagement has stopped increasing… You’ve got social media marketers’ block! What do you do?

Here are 5 simple steps you can take to reignite your own enthusiasm, as well as that of your social media following.

1. Re-evaluate your social media marketing efforts

You may or may not have been the person who came up with your current social media strategy (if you have one), but if it hasn’t been looked at in a while you might want to revisit it. Things change, so check that the aims set out in your social strategy still align to those of your business, and set some time aside to update them if not.

Oh, and if you don’t have any kind of strategy, it really does help to focus your efforts when it comes to social media marketing. Writing one would be a good idea at this point, even if it’s just a few thoughts you scribble down.

Above all, ask yourself what you’re looking to achieve through your social channels. This is probably different for each one, so take some time to think about each of your accounts and distinguish between them. Some questions you may want to pose to yourself are:

• Who am I talking to when I post on social media?
• What are my followers interested in?
• Which types of content do my followers engage with?
• How am I going to attract new followers?
• How will I convert my followers into paying customers?

Once you’ve got your strategy down, this is where number two comes in…

2. Review your content

You might be great at consistently posting new content, but are your social media marketing efforts providing that added value that your followers are looking for?

Go back and review what you’ve been posting over the last few months and try to look at it from an ‘outsiders’ perspective. Even better, ask a selection of people who fit your target demographic to look at your social media channels, and tell you the impression they get from them. You may want to come up with some quick questions for them to answer, but ensure they are open-ended.

Is your tone right for the impression you’re wanting to give? Is it relevant to the audience you’re trying to attract?

If you haven’t already, take a look at your analytics for the answers to these questions. Your website analytics as well as your social media analytics will be helpful at this stage. Take note of what’s performing well, as well as what’s not, so that you can produce more of the content that your audience responds well to.

3. Research

It can be hard trying to think of new and interesting things to say all the time, so have a look around at what other people are doing for a bit of inspiration.

Take a look at your competitors’ channels and find some examples of ideas that you like, or that seem to be working well for them. Don’t forget what you’ve already learned about the content that your own audience likes to engage with though. If you can see these new found ideas working for your own social media following, why not try them out?

Of course, no-one likes a copycat, so adapt ideas for your own business and your own audience. And don’t forget to continually check your analytics to see if your new ideas are having the desired effect on your followers.

4. Plan and schedule your content

Now you know what you want to say and how you want to say it, it’s time to make a plan of action.

Use your research and knowledge around which content works best for your followers to come up with lots of interesting new posts. Look back at your analytics (can you tell we like analytics!?) and determine a schedule for each of your social media channels based on the most successful time of day to post.

Don’t worry, this isn’t set in stone. Your social media channels and audiences are both moving beasts. All of this can and should be tested, which is where number five comes in!

5. Test and repeat

Testing what works is important for continued success. Trends (and your audience) are changing all the time, so monitor your social media channels to see how your new content is performing. And here we are, back at number one again…

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