As a small business grasping social media and all its parts as it relates to the impact it will have on your business is somewhat of a new concept for many. Small business owners wear a lot of hats and to add this to the mix brings to mind what will this do for me, what impact will it have on my business? Do I even want to expose my business to this? These are questions that so many small business owners have and the more they learn, sometimes the less they want to know. Social media marketing is not for every business today … tomorrow may be different as technology changes.
6 Steps to Social Media Strategy
1. Who are you? Really in 10 words or less who are you? Take the elevator pitch of yesterday and create a long “tagline.” Nothing very clever – just ear perking.
2. Why are you here? Identify where you are with respect to who you are attempting to communicate with and what do you need to convey to them?
a. Awareness. Entering an arena (platform or forum) where you have never been or slightly been before. Your goal is to let people know you are there.
b. Selling. If you are there to sell, then you have awareness and they are willing to listen and trust.
c. Loyalty. They have purchased a few or more items/services but you need more from them – not necessarily more sales but more advocacy of your brand.
3. How does target relate? How does our target perceive you? Where are they in relation to their buying habits? Who do they buy from and can you persuade them to by from you?
4. Where is your target online? Your strategy is many times changed for each platform as there different demographics or sociographics for each platform. LinkedIn is B2B, Facebook is friends and family that flirts with brands, Twitter is … B2B, B2C, explorers, sharers of information and conversations in 140 characters.
5. Target Interactions. How does your target interact online? In essence how do they behave online? has identified the behavior of online consumers into a ladder.
Company Voice. Indentify the voice of the company. 1 person or multiple people who share the same tone. Who is going to be your brand and company presence online? This can be internal or external with an agency. The voice of the company just needs to know how the company speaks.
6. Measurement. ROI in social media. Most look at how will my sales increase? Where the other side of it is to think of how much have we saved? Yes, there are certain measurement tools to consider: web traffic, mentions, engagement level, bounces, repeat visitors, etc. Identify what you want to achieve and then set goals for measurement.
Social media marketing is changing how we interact with people and engage them. A good strategy that has direction as to who you are talking to and building your brand within your target by knowing which group you are targeting is the pinpoint of success.
How have you created a social media strategy that works?
photo credit: webtreats