Lots of people approach us frustrated and under the presumption that social media doesn’t work and all is a BIG fad! It is actually a new way that we communicate. A new communication tool we can use to engage with existing and prospective clients online.
The first thing we ask when approached by a business who are not having much success with social media is “Have you got a social media strategy plan” and 99.9% the answer is “no”.
In order for your social media activities and goals to be achieved you need to put together your company’s social media strategy.
Your Social Media strategy is just like your business plan; it enables you to define your social media goals and objectives, and gives you a vision to head towards. Without these “what are you trying to achieve?”
Your social media goals should align with your business goals and objectives and be SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely).
You then need to do your research, look at where your competitors are engaging, where your target market are hanging out, and from this determine which social media pillars you should be using.
Within your social media strategy you need to think about key centres of influence; key people who can get your message out to the masses.
Think about who are the key people who have a lot of credibility within your industry as these are the people to start engaging with to get your message out there.
One of the most important areas to consider is content. Many people struggle with what to post and tweet. Look for industry bogs, news sites and consider these four areas that ZC Social Media always discuss with their clients; Conversation, Articles, Tips, and Promotion. DON’T spam people by constantly sharing links and selling. Share good quality information and content that can build a know like and trust factor in order for people then to come and buy your products and services.
An important aspect of your strategy is your blog. Blogging will enable you to direct more people (traffic) to your website rather than a third party website.
And lastly coming onto measurement; measuring your social media activities and progress is essential, otherwise how do you know if you are improving or achieving your goals. There are various tools out there that can measure various parts of your social media progress. From a tool called Tweetreach that will measure how far your tweets travelled, to using Hootsuite which can analyse the number of new followers on twitter, mentions and how many people clicked on your displayed links. Depending on your preference can depend on which tools you use.
Analysing and measuring your social media activities and results will enable you to review and change anything going forward, always make sure you keep an action plan. As the biggest task of all with your social media is to take BIG ACTION.