Social. Social. Social. Everyone’s talking about their social media strategy and yet there are still a lot of businesses who haven’t worked out how to make social media work for them. It’s clear for us that social media has become a key part of a digital engagement strategy, it can’t be avoided any longer and if you aren’t on board, you’re going to miss out!
So what are the top five unmovable facts you need to know about a social media strategy.
1) Don’t think Social Media is easy.
Just because you don’t use social media, it doesn’t mean its only being used by Gen Y & Z, and nor does it mean the youngest person in your office should manage your social media pages! In fact the largest increase of Facebook users from last quarter was from the 40+ age group. Social Media takes time and dedication to get it right. It should be guided by the passionate people in your team, who know your business and know your customer.
2) Facebook may not be the answer.
Facebook may be the safe bet as ‘everyone’s on Facebook’, but they are most likely on LinkedIn, Tumblr, Twitter, etc as well. The good news is, you don’t need to have a profile for all of them, instead decide which one or two or three (if you have the capacity) is right for your business and your customers (ahem – see 3)
3) Don’t forget who your customer is?
When was the last time you took some time to reflect on;
- Who is my ideal customer?
- What problems do I solve for them?
- Who is my target market?
It’s time to dust off your customer profiles as times, they are a’ changing and you have to keep up. So review your audience and make sure your strategy is giving them what they want.
4) Want a result? Have a plan!
So what if you have a 100 Likes or 10,000? It might be nice to have but how are you going to leverage those “Likes”? Do you even know what those likes mean? You can dish out and ‘pay for likes’, and some companies do, but how can a like you pay for bring you any real benefit. Having a large number of Likes doesn’t equal engagement. It doesn’t mean they visit or engage with your page, share or talk about you or have the slightest idea of what you may be able to offer them. You don’t want a ton of likes; you want to build an engaged, two-way relationship with your community and the only way to achieve that is to have a well though-out strategy for engaging you audience.
5) Who you gonna call?
So you’ve decided after point 1) it’s best to get some experts to work with you on your social media strategy. So what’s your decision process? Are you going to appoint the company that gives you the cheapest rate? Maybe they are good, maybe they aren’t. These days you get what you pay for and it’s important to remember that they will be creating social media communications for your business, your brand and engaging with your customers. Who ever you chose to partner with, they need to know your business inside and out, and should have no qualms representing your brand with the same pride and dedication that you have.
6) Before you jump in, check your ducks are in a row.
Fantastic! You’re getting an increase in traffic to your site from your social media – let’s break out the champagne. But before you pop the cork, your website analytics show that the quality traffic coming from social channels are only navigating through two pages on your site? Why – something as simple as a broken link, slow page load or complicated checkout process could be the reason. Don’t think this doesn’t happen. How many times have you been on a website when the slightest set back makes you go back to Google and look at the next company, or decide to wait until the next day to make your purchase – which you may or may not get around to doing?
Don’t let the simple things let your site down, make sure your customer is going to get the ideal solution and result every time.
Hope you find these basic tips helpful. If you’re still looking for answers, why don’t you fill in this 1 minute survey. We may have the answers you are looking for.
