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Are Social Media Management Tools Dead?

social media navigatoraimee Aimee mcwhorter compton

You may have read the many recent articles that social media management tools like Hoootsuite and Buffer are dead. The claim that scheduled posts aren’t getting the reach that they used too and that readers know that its scheduled and aren’t interested. This is the second round of management tools death talk. The first round was around 2012-2013.

I talked about this with my colleagues. For me a red flag went up. Not that it isn’t possible but how would the average Facebook reader know. They look at the pictures and maybe the first line. They don’t care that it says #navigatoraimee aimee mcwhorter compton or even know what that means.

I did some investigation on the pages I manage to see if engagement and visibility is actually down when posts come from Hootsuite. I compared it with Facebook scheduling, realtime posting and included automatic posting from Mailchimp and WordPress.

What mattered most? Time of day and not where it came from. The sweet spots for most of my clients this past week was between 8-10 am and 7-9 pm.

There was one exception – a nonprofit garden page. This is the perfect example of why it’s critical to know your audience. Looking at the Insights for this page, I can see the average fan is between the ages of 55 – 64. The sweet spot to post for this page is between 2-5 pm.

The only posts with a reach in the single digits-
*made 2 posts without a picture. One with hashtags one without.
*made 2 posts, same time of day from the same site but different blogs. They both had the same picture (government funded site) the second post was in the single digits.

I also compared posting multiple times a day to multiple times a month. The more posts the higher the reach over all. Now that doesn’t mean go crazy and post 20 times a day on Facebook. Every post isn’t a winner but overall higher with the exception again of the nonprofit garden page. It’s because their fans are actually visiting the page. I do manage one page that’s an anomaly but that’s a story for another day.

For me at this time I’m not seeing lower visibility from Hootsuite posts so I asked a friend that uses Buffer what he’s noticed. He hasn’t noticed a change yet either. He recommended this blog from Buffer on the subject.

We decided it’s something we’ll continue to watch, not that we wouldn’t. We’ll also continue to use all of our resources and not rely on Hootsuite or Buffer for everything. Please share your experiences in the comments.

Want to learn more? Follow me on social media channels for information on Podcasts, Click-through Classes, Blogs and Learning Events.

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Do I Have to Follow Back on Twitter?

aimee mcwhorter compton social media

NO… N.O.

A client asked me this, she was worried about being rude but one of her new followers had an obscene account. She had been following every single new follower back.

I talk a lot about building a community. Check out your new followers before you follow back. Ask yourself these questions.

  1. How relevant to your community are they?
  2. Are you interested in what they have to say or in their business?
  3. Most importantly do you want to be associated with their name? You’re working on building your brand and people do look at who you follow.

On the flip side of this I also look at how many people they are following. If someone has 500 followers but are only following 20 well that is rude. You’re building a community not a kingdom.

You can ask yourself these same questions for Instagram.

Want to learn more? Follow me on social media channels for information on Podcasts, Click-through Classes, Blogs and Learning Events.

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How Many #Hashtags Should You Use?

social media aimee mcwhorter compton

Have you ever seen the share on Instagram or status on Facebook that has 20 hashtags?

You will find many differing opinions. One blog says 11 hashtags is the sweet spot another might say 3. Hootsuite recommends no more than 5.

One of the worst mistakes you can make is to use too many hashtags. You look inexperienced and spammy.  Ever see the person on Instagram that puts 20 hashtags and spaces in between each one? Don’t do that! It annoys your followers.

You may ask why? Well, using too many hashtags attracts the wrong crowd. Its kind of like hanging out behind the gym in social media. Instead of just using every hashtag that pops into your head give it a bit more thought. Think about your community. Who are you try to attract? Search the hashtag see who else is using it. Do you want to be associated with them or that?

Quick tips to hashtags-

  1. You should always use your company or brand name.
  2. What are you selling? #shirts #cookies #blankets
  3. Connect with others about a particular story or group. #sportsteam #scifi #NationalMargaritaDay   *One tip here. Do NOT cash in on someones misery to promote yourself. Very bad!
  4. Don’t use something so original no one will find or even understand what it means.
  5. No more than 5 hashtags.

Hashtags are actually pretty simple. Have fun with it and HAPPY #hashtagging!

Want to learn more? Follow me on social media channels for information on Podcasts, Click-through Classes, Blogs and Learning Events.

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