Before You Start
Professional social media work is different from managing your own accounts. Read through this page before your first client meeting — it will give you the vocabulary and platform knowledge to show up prepared.
These will come up constantly. Come back here any time you see an unfamiliar term.
Reach — The number of unique people who saw your content. If 500 different people saw a post, the reach is 500. This is your primary measure of how many people your content touched.
Impressions — Total number of times your content was displayed, including repeat views. One person seeing a post 3 times = 3 impressions but 1 reach. High impressions with low reach means you're showing content to the same people repeatedly.
Engagement Rate — Percentage of people who interacted with content (likes, comments, shares, saves) out of those who saw it. Formula: Engagements ÷ Reach × 100. Above 3% is considered strong on most platforms.
Organic — Content that reaches people through the algorithm without paid promotion. Your regular posts are organic. Organic reach has declined on most platforms over the last several years, which is why strategy matters more than ever.
Paid / Boosted — Content you pay to show to a broader or more targeted audience. Boosting a post can significantly expand reach but requires a budget and a clear goal.
Content Pillars — The 3–5 recurring themes your account posts about consistently. Example pillars: Behind the Scenes, Education, Client Stories, Community Highlights, Promotion. Pillars keep an account cohesive and make planning easier.
CTA (Call to Action) — The specific action you want the audience to take: "Click the link in bio," "Share this with someone," "Comment below." Every post should have one. Vague posts get vague results.
Algorithm — The platform's system for deciding which content to show which users. On Instagram, saves and shares signal the algorithm to push content to more people. On TikTok, watch time and replays matter most. Understanding what each platform rewards helps you create content that actually gets seen.
UGC (User-Generated Content) — Content created by your audience or community, not by you. Reposting a customer photo or an associate's story is UGC. It builds community and trust because it's not the brand talking about itself.
Hashtag — A keyword preceded by # that makes content discoverable. Using very popular hashtags (#love, #instagood) means your post gets buried instantly. A mix of mid-sized and niche-specific hashtags typically reaches a more relevant audience.
Visual content — photos, Reels, Stories. Algorithm heavily rewards Reels right now. Strong for brand-building, community, and showcasing creative work. Best age range: 18–34.
Short-form video. The highest organic reach potential of any major platform right now. Trend-driven — authenticity and hooks matter more than polish. Skews younger but growing across all ages.
Older demographic (35+), but strong for event promotion, community groups, and paid advertising. Organic reach is low for pages — boosting and groups are where it still works well.
Professional network. Best for B2B content, employer branding, job/internship campaigns, and thought leadership. Engagement is lower but audience intent is higher.
Project Setup
Before anything else, name this project and answer a few quick questions. This information will appear throughout the playbook to keep you grounded in the goal.
Client Discovery
Talk to the client and collect their goals, audience insights, and expectations. Use this discovery to shape the content strategy.
- What is the purpose of this campaign — inform, inspire, promote, recruit, or build awareness?
- Who is the audience? Age, context, platform habits, and what do they already know?
- Where will the content live? Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, email, website, event screen, or another platform?
- What is the hard deadline for launch? Are there earlier review or approval dates?
- Can you share examples of content you like? What specifically makes those examples work?
- Who are the decision-makers and approvers? Who signs off on the final deliverable?
- What brand guidelines, tone, colors, imagery, or music rules must we follow or avoid?
- What does success look like for this project? How will we know it worked?
If this project is for social media, also ask:
- What content formats are needed — posts, stories, reels, short videos, or graphics?
- Do we need captions, hashtags, campaign copy, or ad creative?
- Will this be organic only, or are paid promotions part of the plan?
- Who will monitor comments, respond to messages, and engage the audience?
- Are there legal or permissions issues for talent, locations, music, or logos?
Creative Brief
The creative brief is a living document that captures what you and the client agreed on. Build it together, share it with the client, and use it to resolve disagreements later.
Your brief should cover all of these. No blank fields — if you don't have the answer, that's a question for your next client touchpoint.
Checkpoint: Strategy Review
Before diving into audience research, review your initial strategy with Maria & Kayt. This ensures your social media approach aligns with DCS standards and client goals.
- Is this approach consistent with our DCS social media quality expectations, brand voice, and platform strategy?
- What platforms should we prioritize for this audience?
- Are there existing brand guidelines or past campaigns to reference?
- What are the key performance indicators for success?
Audience Research
Understand who you're talking to. Research your audience demographics, interests, and online behavior to create content that resonates.
Content Calendar
Plan your content in advance. Create a calendar that outlines what you'll post, when, and on which platforms.
Checkpoint: Content Plan
Before starting content creation, review your audience research and calendar with Maria & Kayt. Ensure your plan is solid and aligned.
Checkpoint: Content Kickoff
Start content creation with a quick check-in. Confirm your tools, resources, and creative direction.
Content Creation
Create engaging content according to your calendar. Focus on quality, consistency, and audience value.
Every platform has different technical requirements. Posting the wrong size or length is an easy mistake that makes professional work look amateur.
- Instagram Feed Post — Square 1:1 (1080×1080) or portrait 4:5 (1080×1350). Captions up to 2,200 characters, but front-load the key message — only the first 1–2 lines show before "more."
- Instagram Reel — Vertical 9:16 (1080×1920). Keep it 15–90 seconds for best performance. The hook in the first 3 seconds determines whether people keep watching. Many viewers watch without sound — use text overlays.
- Instagram Story — Vertical 9:16 (1080×1920), 15 seconds. Disappears after 24 hours. Great for behind-the-scenes, polls, countdowns, and quick announcements.
- TikTok — Vertical 9:16. The first 1–2 seconds are everything. If they don't hook, people scroll. Authenticity and energy beat professional polish on this platform.
- Facebook Post — 1:1 or 4:5 images perform best. Keep captions concise — long text gets truncated. Works well for event promotion, link sharing, and community posts.
A great visual with a weak caption loses engagement. A strong caption can make an average visual perform well.
- Lead with the hook. The first sentence determines whether someone keeps reading. Ask a question, make a bold statement, or start with the most interesting thing. Don't start with the client's name.
- Keep it scannable. Short paragraphs and line breaks. Dense walls of text get skipped.
- End with a specific CTA. "Drop a comment," "Share this with someone who needs it," "Link in bio." Vague posts ("hope you enjoy!") drive no action.
- Match the platform's tone. LinkedIn captions are more professional and narrative. TikTok captions can be minimal since the video does the work. Instagram sits in between.
Hashtags make your content discoverable to people who don't already follow the account. The goal is relevance, not volume.
- Avoid only using giant hashtags. #Love has 2 billion posts — your content disappears in seconds. Go specific.
- Use a mix of sizes. 2–3 broad hashtags (100K–1M posts), 5–8 mid-tier (10K–100K), 3–5 niche (under 10K). Niche hashtags reach a smaller but more targeted audience that's actually interested in your topic.
- Research before you post. Tap on a hashtag to see how active it is and whether the content quality matches your brand. If the top posts don't look like your content, it's not the right hashtag.
- Keep a hashtag bank. Save sets of relevant hashtags for each content pillar so you're not reinventing the list every time.
Checkpoint: Content Review
Before publishing, review your content with Maria & Kayt. Ensure it meets quality standards and strategic goals.
Publishing
Launch your content according to the calendar. The first hour after posting matters more than most people realize — here's what to do.
Posting time affects how much the algorithm distributes your content. General starting-point guidelines:
- Instagram: Tuesday–Friday, 9–11am or 5–7pm in your audience's time zone. Avoid posting late at night or early Monday morning.
- TikTok: Tuesday–Thursday, 7–9am or 7–9pm. TikTok's algorithm is less sensitive to timing than Instagram's, but early engagement still matters.
- Facebook: Wednesday 11am–1pm and Thursday–Friday 1–3pm tend to perform well. Evenings (7–9pm) also work for community-type posts.
- The real answer: After a few weeks of posting, check the platform's native analytics for YOUR account's audience activity. Those numbers beat any general guideline.
Platforms measure early engagement to decide how broadly to distribute content. What you do in the first 60 minutes matters.
- Reply to every comment immediately. Early comments signal to the algorithm that the post is generating conversation. Even a short, genuine reply helps.
- Don't edit the post. Editing after posting resets the algorithm's distribution — the post essentially starts over. Proofread before you publish.
- Share to Stories. On Instagram, sharing your new feed post to your Story immediately gives it a second push and puts it in front of followers who might have missed it.
- Engage with similar content. Spending 10–15 minutes engaging with posts in your niche right after publishing can improve your account's visibility signal on the platform.
Engagement
Interact with your audience. Respond to comments, build community, and foster relationships.
Checkpoint: Performance Review
Review campaign performance with Maria & Kayt. Before the meeting, pull your numbers and know what they mean — don't show up with a raw screenshot.
Pull these metrics from each platform's native analytics before your checkpoint meeting.
Reach — How many unique people saw the content? Compare to the previous campaign or the account's average. Growth here means you're expanding your audience.
Engagement Rate — (Likes + Comments + Shares + Saves) ÷ Reach × 100. Above 3% is solid on Instagram. Below 1% is a signal that content isn't resonating. Saves are especially valuable — they mean someone found the content worth keeping.
Top Performing Post — Which post got the most engagement or reach? What made it different — format, topic, caption style, timing? Document this so you can repeat it.
Follower Growth — Did the campaign grow the account? Net new followers during the campaign period shows whether content attracted new people, not just engaged existing ones.
Story Views / Completion Rate — For Stories, what percentage of viewers watched all the way through? High drop-off early usually means the hook wasn't strong enough.
Link Clicks / Profile Visits — If the goal was to drive traffic (to a website, sign-up form, or event page), this is your most important metric. Engagement without clicks means people liked the content but didn't act on it.
Client Review
Present your social media campaign results to the client. Gather feedback and document lessons learned.