With
the majority of people spending more time online these days, businesses have
come to realize the value of an online presence. If you need to reach
customers, you need to go where the customers are. Everybody, from teachers to
lawyers to students, uses social media. Most people spend more time on
Facebook, Twitter and a lot of other forms of social media. If you run a
business, it has become
important, no, necessary that you reach out to your
customers via social media.
So
you’ve decided to create social media accounts for your business. There’s just
one problem. You’re plagued by the same question all business owners looking to
implement a social media marketing strategy face:
“Where
do I start?”
Well,
for starters, calm down. Relax. Don’t worry. Be happy. Because the answers you
seek are what this post is all about, and by the time you’re done reading, you
will not only have a better idea of how to start; you will also know how to
effectively manage and utilize your social media accounts.
Without
further ado, let’s begin:
Tip #1: Begin with the end in mind
It’s
human nature to follow the pack, or herd, if you will. There is a tendency in
everyone to look at what other people are doing and just do the same exact
thing. Most businesses create social media accounts because they see other
businesses doing the same thing. Eventually, at some point, they lose focus,
and move on to the next trend, without achieving any significant increase in
sales or customer base whatsoever.
You
don’t want this to be you.
Before
you even create any social media account, the first thing you should do is to
decide on what you want to achieve using social media.
Do you
want more sales? Do you want to increase the number of prospects you have? Do
you want to increase your business exposure?
Decide
on your business goal for using social media first. That way you can tailor
your strategy to achieve your goal. This tip alone will dramatically increase
your chances of success.
Tip #2: Know Your Audience (And Where They Hang Out!)
Someone
once said: “Humans were given 2 ears and one mouth so they can listen two times
more than they speak”. It might not be politically correct, but there is some
benefit to adopting that mindset.
More
so, if you’re a business owner. The customer does not really care about you or
your product. He does what he wants where he wants and when he wants. Don’t
expect your customer to change his habits. Instead, adapt to suit him.
This is
important in social media marketing. You need to identify what social media
networks majority of your clients use. You can do this by running searches for
your product on social media and from the results, you can tell where most of
your customers hang out.
These
networks are where you want to focus a big part of your social media marketing
effort.
Tip #3: Start Small, Go BIGGER
When
you first start social media marketing, managing several accounts on different
platforms can be a nightmare. It can take up a huge chunk of your time, and
also because you have a lot to master on too many different platforms, it will
lead to less-than-stellar content. And that is a big no-no.
A
better approach would be to first begin with the social networks most used by
your clients and then spread to others from there. This way, you will get more
time to familiarize yourself with the network. Figure out what works and what
doesn’t for the first few you begin with, and then you can create other social
media accounts.
Tip #4: Have A Plan
“To fail to plan is to plan to fail” is a
statement so popular it has become cliché. When it comes to social media
marketing, no plan = no success.
It’s as
simple as that. But what is even crazier is that it’s even simpler to create a
social media marketing plan.
If you
followed the above tips, you should already have an idea of what you want to
achieve, who your customers are and where they hang out and what works on each
social network your customers use.
All you
have to do now is to create a marketing plan. Here are some pointers.
·
Have a schedule for how often you update each of your social
media accounts. Too much or too little is no “bueno”. This varies across
platforms, though. For example, 3-5 posts a week is good for Facebook. 3-5
posts a week on Twitter, on the other hand, implies inactivity.
·
Provide value. There’s already too much promotional content on
social media. Too much promotional content that gets ignored easily by your
clients. Don’t follow the herd. Create content that provides values to your
clients and they will love you for it. For every piece of promotional content
you post, provide at least 3 times more content with value.
·
Have a unique voice. People don’t buy from soul-less
corporations. Well, at least not anymore. People buy from people they like.
That being the case, your business needs to have a unique voice and persona
that your client can easily relate to. A persona that represents your brand’s
values and unique selling proposition.
Planning
a strategy and then acting on that strategy is absolutely necessary to achieve
your goals for social media marketing.
Tip #5: Get A Social Media Management Team
Yes,
you can manage all your social media accounts by yourself. Yes, there are
social media management tools such as Hootsuite that make it easy to do.
However, it is a lot easier and a lot more time efficient to hire a social
media management team. You can hire a team internally or outsource it. Ideally,
you will need a creative copywriter who can create status updates, a video and
photo editor (depending on what kind of business you do) for pictures and
videos on Instagram, and a social media marketing analyst to analyze what posts
and updates are getting more traction from your clients, and to improve on your
strategy as needed.
Social
Media Marketing has opened up a ton of opportunities to reach customers like
never before. With these tips, it should be pretty easy for you to get your
business started on social media today.
