The social media landscape is constantly evolving. What worked yesterday may not work today, and what works today may not work tomorrow. That’s why it’s important to have a social media workflow that you can rely on to keep your content strategy organized and effective.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for every business, but there are some best practices that can help you create a social media workflow that works for you. Here are eight of them that you can implement to create a streamlined and successful social media workflow.
What is a Social Media Workflow?
A social media workflow is a system for managing the creation, publication, and promotion of your social media posts. Managed by different members of the social media team, it includes all of the steps involved in creating, preparing, publishing, and promoting your content, from ideation to analysis.
via Research Gate The best social media workflows are flexible and adaptable; they can be tweaked as needed to fit the changing landscape. They should also be easy to use and understand to help your team manage their social media tasks as efficiently as possible.
The Benefits of a Streamlined Social Media Workflow
There are many benefits to having a social media workflow management , including:
- Streamlines the content creation process
, thus saving you precious time - Ensures that all of your content is high-quality, error-free, and impactful
- Helps you better measure the results of your (social) media campaigns
- Resource allocation becomes a lot easier
Prevents redundancy and duplication of effort
Now, before digging into specific social media workflow practices, let’s go over a few general aspects to keep in mind to get you started:- Keep it simple. The last thing you want is a convoluted, byzantine system that no one understands or knows how to use. Keep your social media workflow as simple as possible so that it’s easy for everyone on your team to use
- Make it flexible and adaptable. Your social media workflow should be flexible enough to accommodate the ever-changing landscape of social media and your team. It should be easy to add new steps or remove unnecessary ones as needed
- Automate where possible
. Automation can help you save a lot of time and effort when it comes to the social media workflow process. Look for ways to automate repetitive tasks, such as scheduling posts : - Social media manager: Social media managers are responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of social media channels, creating effective social media strategies, and ensuring a smooth social media workflow for the team. This can include tasks such as publishing content, responding to comments, and monitoring analytics (though, again, this depends greatly on the organization).
- Content creator: This role is for those who help turn content ideas to life and create content .
Optimize your workflow with AI social media tools !
What about specific situations?
There are a few specific situations that you may need to consider when creating your social media workflow. Here are a few examples:
- If you’re working with multiple team members, you’ll need to establish who is responsible for each task. This point warranted a repeat because many social media teams gloss over this aspect and don’t invest as much attention as needed in dividing responsibilities
- When collaborating with outside contractors, you’ll need to establish clear guidelines for their work — deadlines, deliverables, expectations, and so on. These guidelines must also include things like brand voice and tone. Few things are more time-consuming and productivity-halting than having to constantly edit and supervise content for brand consistency
- Chances are you’ll be working with multiple social media accounts, so you’ll need to establish separate workflows for each of them. This doesn’t mean creating a comprehensive workflow for every account— rather, it needs to account (pun intended) for the specificities of each page. A customer support page won’t have the same requirements as, say, a brand page
What about legal, HR, and other stakeholders? When should they be involved?
This section will cover the approval processes more than social media workflow per se, but it still warrants its own clarifications.
So, should HR and legal be involved in your workflow? It all depends on the size of the organization, the shared goals of your entire organization, and the scope of the content. If the goal of the content is employer branding, then HR should definitely be involved from the start due to their expertise and knowledge of the organization. Legal should step in to ensure that the content is copyright-safe and legally sound.
2. Plan ahead: Know what you want to post and when
The next best practice involves planning. You should have initial ideas on what kind of content you want to post and know when to post them in a timely manner. This will help you stay organized, on track, and prepared.
Watch our explainer video of the ClickUp Content Management Template to learn how to view custom calendars across multiple channels
To do this, you’ll need to create a content calendar . A social media calendar is a tool that helps you plan and schedule your content. It can be as simple as a spreadsheet or an online tool like Google Calendar or a Calendar view in ClickUp.
Use the ClickUp Content Management Template to create content calendar views across your marketing team. Give specific views for email, social, and the blog team to all use separately but also have insights into the complete content calendar .
Try ClickUp’s Content Management Template
We’ll dig into this later in the article, so for now, here are a few tips for creating a content calendar :
- Start by brainstorming social media content ideas. This may include blog posts, images, infographics, or videos
- Once you have some ideas, start determining the timeline and plan when you want to publish them. Consider things like the news cycle, holidays, and other events that could impact your content
- Once you have a plan, you may begin to assign tasks to create content and schedule social media posts in your social media calendar ### 4. Know your social media platforms
When it comes to social media, there are a lot of different platforms to choose from. Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, so before you start creating your social media content, you need to choose the right platform for your strategy.
Here are a few things to consider when choosing a social media platform:
- Goals: What do you want to achieve with your social media strategy? Conversions? Brand awareness? Lead generation? For example, if you’re aiming to increase conversions, Twitter might not be the right platform. Or it might be, depending on who you ask.
- Audience: Who are you trying to reach with your social media strategy? Does your target audience hang out on Twitter or LinkedIn? Or maybe Reddit?
- Content: What kind of content will resonate with your audience? Infographics? White-papers? Blog posts? Infographics, white papers, and blog posts are shared as Instagram Stories
This thought process will save you a lot of headaches in the long run. As tempting as it may be to be everywhere, there’s only so much high-quality content a team can produce. Don’t spread yourself too thin — focus on your team’s strengths and the places you know your target audience hangs out.
5. Use a social media management tool for scheduling posts
And now we get to one of the best parts of our blog *looks ahead and notices that there’s more than half an article to go* – social media publishing logistics!
One could say that scheduling posts are one of the pillars of a sturdy social media workflow, and for good reason. The most obvious one is that, by doing this, you’ll be able to ensure that your content is consistent and published regularly. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
Planable for social media management
Via Planable
Now, while some platforms support content-scheduling natively, there is a strong case to be made for using a dedicated social media management tool like Planable . That’s because a scheduling tool allows you to schedule posts for all of your pages in one place instead of logging into each platform and doing this manually.
Additionally, scheduling your posts in advance is a great way to ensure that your content is consistent and published regularly. However, it’s important to remember that you should also be prepared to post in real-time *insert International Cat’s Day anecdote*.
So, how can Planable help you make the perfect workflow? In many ways, but let’s just focus on two for now: Planable’s approval system and collaboration features.
Planable comes with 4 approval workflows (None, Optional, Required, and Multi-Level) designed to fit teams of all sizes. This approval system ensures that no piece of content goes live before being 100% ready and that it reaches the relevant decision-makers before being released into the wild. It can make the difference between a post being stuck in approval limbo and being published on time.
Then there are the collaboration features. Because Planable mimics the feel and flow of social media, feedback is displayed right next to the posts that need attention in the form of comments and replies. There, you can tag team members and clients to share their thoughts and drop assets (visuals, copy, you name it).
ClickUp for streamlining your content operations and tracking campaigns
Use ClickUp’s 15+ views to visualize and plan media campaigns
Another equally great tool to develop a streamlined social media team workflow is ClickUp . ClickUp is a project management tool that helps teams stay organized and efficient. It gives team members a place to track their work, communicate with each other, and collaborate on projects.
ClickUp also provides tools for managing deadlines, assigning tasks, and tracking progress. With its flexible features and intuitive interface, ClickUp makes it easy to manage any project, big or small. You could also use their ready-to-use and customizable templates to level up your current social media workflow. All in all, it’s a great tool to use in tandem with Planable to create a foolproof workflow for your team.
6. Don’t skip over the approval process
It’s important to have an approval process in place within your social media workflow. This is especially true if you’re working with a team. By having a consistent approval workflow, you’ll be able to ensure that all of your content is high-quality and on brand.
There are a few things to consider when creating an approval process:
- Who should be involved?
- At what point should the approval process take place?
- How will the approval process help you achieve your goals?
Who should be involved in the approval process?
The answer to this question will vary depending on your team and your goals. However, there are a few key people who should always be involved:
- Content creator/copywriter: Obvious, right? This person should be involved in the approval process to ensure that their content meets all of the requirements.
- A subject matter expert: To provide feedback on the accuracy of the content. Especially useful in sensitive and high-stakes campaigns or when there’s lots of content that need to be pushed and needs in-depth proofreading
- A copy editor: Ensures that content is error-free and, in some cases, on brand
- The final decision maker (approver): The person who ensures the content meets company policy and gives the stamp of approval on the content
7. Have clear posting guidelines
Regarding social media, it’s important to have clear posting guidelines. This is especially true if you’re working with a team. By having posting guidelines, you’ll be able to ensure that all of your content is high-quality, meets company policy, and exemplifies the brand’s tone.
Some things to consider when creating posting guidelines:
- What voice/tone should be used?
- What topics should be covered?
- What types of content should be posted?
- How often should content be posted?
8. Consider workflow diagrams
Alternatively, you could also consider a social media workflow diagram . The beauty of process diagrams is that they not only outline the tasks that make up a process (like a to-do list with a beginning and an end), but they can also help you visualize data and social media posts, decision-making journeys, and even key milestones in any given process.
Awesome, right?
And visualization is just one of many benefits. This documentation can help everyone involved understand the process and refer to it whenever necessary to speed things up.
Are You Ready to Make Your Workflow ‘Work’ for You?
A social media workflow is (and should always be) a vital part of any social media strategy.
Remember to establish clear roles, have clear guidelines, and always create your social media strategy around your workflow to the best of your ability. By following these practices coupled with social media workflow tools, you can ensure that your team delivers content fast without sacrificing quality.
More specifically, Planable’s firm focus on social media management and streamlining collaboration processes, as well as ClickUp’s social media project management features and templates.
Happy work flowing!
Marco Guiliani
is a Content Marketer at Planable, with expertise in content writing, SEO, and copywriting.