How Long does it take to (re)launch social media? by FAMEsolutely

How Long does it take to get visible on Social Media with organic reach? When is the best time to (re) launch social media? Let’s find out how long it will take to grow organically, to be ready before a specific season.

It’s difficult to imagine the World without social media. Social media is a huge opportunity for businesses to be known and to gain new customers. Social media should be taken seriously, to provide a result.

Social media management is a process that involves creating content, scheduling it or publishing live, developing a strategy, interacting with users, growing reach, and monitoring the performance of a company’s accounts on social media. A great social media manager will use analytics and metrics to analyze each post and campaign. The analytics will help to make tweaks and improvements, this is why social media is a constant work in progress.

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How to prepare yourself to (re)launch social media in terms of time, and to be ready before a special season?

The information below is for businesses with inactive, stagnating, or new accounts.

Two Factors

When to start working on SMM to get visible for a specific season will depend on 2 main factors.

First: The time your customers will take to make a decision (to use your service/buy your products) & where they are located;

Second: where is now your social media in terms of engagement, and quality of content? & how long will take to correctly work with the algorithm to grow it organically + starting time for SMM agency or in-house staff

Social Media Success = Satisfied Client/Guest + Correct work with Social Media Algorithm

The time needed before a special Season =

How long before guests will take a decision to use your service

+ the time to satisfy the Social Media Algorithm with enough quality content with proper hashtags, alt tags etc

+ time to create the strategy and content (copywriting, hashtag strategy, photo shootings, visual designs etc)

How long will your clients/guests take to make a decision?

This question is important, as, for example, the time to take a decision to use your service will be different if you are a massage salon, a retreat centre, a kebab shop, or an International Hotel on a tropical island. It’s important to know how long it will take to your guests to take a decision to address the right customers at the right time with the right Social Media.

Let’s see the examples of our main business directions: Restaurant or Local business & Luxury Villas or Hotels.

Restaurant (Or local business, like a Beachclub, Bar, SPA, weed shop, or travel agency)

For a restaurant, we will have two kinds of clients, which could be attracted by Social Media:

those who will just pass by for a basic meal, and
those who will book a special meal, like a New Year’s Eve Dinner, or your Friday night special dinner.

Approximate time for clients to take a decision*

For Daily meals: 1 week – 1 day

For Special meals: (for Example Christmas dinner / Friday Night live band dinner): 1 month – 1 week

*This is not a rule, but what we have noticed over a decade of Marketing practice

If your guests are local, they will take a decision fast. And they will most probably already know about you if your branding was done right.

If they are tourists, well first they will need to book their flight tickets and Hotel/villa. Of course, most probably they will start doing some research for restaurants before travelling. Then as soon as they will arrive at the destination, they will get the information in the same way as the locals. And also take a faster decisions. They will be just less aware of your brand, compare to the local customers.

If for example, you want to promote the New Year’s Eve Dinner, you need to know in advance the number of guests. Then you will need to add this time of preparation in the estimation too.

The time needed for Social Media to work before a specific date for a Restaurant =

Time for the guests to take a decision

+ Time to satisfy the Social Media Algorithm to get organic reach

+ The time to launch the SMM

+ Number of days before the event

Total time until first organic reach to potential customers for a restaurant or local business: approximately 6-8 weeks

See: Successful Restaurant Social Media Formula

or Monthly packages

Luxury Holiday Villas or Hotels

With Hotels and holiday villas, the situation will be different, as the guests will be located in different regions or even countries. The time they will take to make a decision will depend on factors like the availability of flight tickets, how long will be the flight, and how long they will stay.

As well as how important is the holiday, guests will plan longer important holidays, such as birthdays or family gatherings, like Christmas, but will faster take a decision for a casual vacation.

Approximate time for clients to take a decision*

Locals (Same country, other regions): 1 week – 1 day (& Shorter stay)

For Nearest countries (Same continent or direct flight): 1 month – 1 week (Normal or Shorter stay)

For Far away countries (Other continents): 3 months – 2 weeks (Normal or Longer stay)

*This is not a rule, but what we have noticed over a decade of Marketing practice

Usually, guests who stay longer, will take more time to take a decision, as they will need to be sure that they like the villa/hotel, as they plan to live there for a week, or two or more. This travel experience is something more special for them, compare to those who live in the nearest countries. On the opposite, the guests who travel for a few days will take a faster decision.

Then Villas and Hotels will be different, because of the different quantity of rooms available. The Marketing strategy for these two kind of businesses will be slightly different.

With Villas and Hotels, as with the Restaurants, we will have two kinds of clients, which could be attracted by Social Media:

those who will stay during a special period (for example peak season with a longer minimum stay and higher rates), or
the one who will just book for a later time

Total time until the first organic reach to potential customers for a hotel or luxury villa: approx 8-10 weeks

See: Successful Villa or Hotel Social Media Formula

See: Successful Resort Social Media Formula

or Monthly packages

How long does the Algorithm need to start showing posts organically to the right customers?

Organic reach takes time, usually in 3-4 weeks will be visible first results. It will vary with each social media platform. For example, Facebook will not give organic reach, as much as will give Instagram or TikTok. And Pinterest will give a return in the long run compared to Twitter. And TikTok’s reach will be different from Instagram’s by the way in which it shows content first. There are many small details which will have a big influence on the final result.

Indeed to reach the best level, it’s necessary to work with the insights and adjust the content, which bring us to 2-3 month, to get a stable organic result from Social Media. After this step is achieved, it’s important to support social media on a monthly basis, and maintain it as it is, or search to boost it more. Only one month without activity will get your reach to only 2-5 views on platforms like Instagram or Facebook.

The size of the actual audience and engagement will also influence the results, a new account will take a different time to get visible, compared to a medium engagement account, and fake followers will also have an influence on the account reach. Additionally how available is your product, as it will be easier to find somebody who wants to pay 50$/night, than 500$/night for a hotel, or easier to sell easy-to-understand burgers, than an exclusive molecular fine dining experience.

How long is required to start social media management with a Digital Marketing Agency?

At FAMEsolutely we take 1-2 weeks to start an SMM project after the prepayment for the first month is done.

The starting time will include the creation of the social media strategy, research, and content creation for 2 weeks in advance, then 2 more weeks, and after that, we start to produce content on a monthly basis. The starting time can be influenced by the availability or absence of visual media, brand guidelines, or a need to art direct a photoshoot, which can request additional time. Find details in the Q&A of each service.