Many companies decide to include links to their social media profiles in their website’s design. However, not as many companies consistently post updates to each platform.
By definition, a social media account encompasses regular activity and allows for two-way communication between a company and their partners, customers and prospects. Additionally, regular postings and management of each social media account can benefit a company by enhancing their online persona and contributing to customer satisfaction.
Identifying Your Social Media Strategy
Social media is not a one-size-fits-all venture, however. If your company has made the decision to prioritize your social media presence, it’s wise to proceed with some kind of strategic direction as you get moving with your efforts. Although not all encompassing, here are five topics to address before you commit to your social media strategy.
What Social Media Platforms Will You Be Active On?
Just because your website includes links to your company’s Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr profiles, it doesn’t mean that those are the right places for your business to actively engage with your targeted online audience. In addition, trying to be active on every single social media site simply isn’t an effective use of time. Rather, each company should focus their efforts on being active in the social communities where their competitors, clients and future users are most active. When a company can show that they are actively engaged in their online social media community, and positions themselves as an expert in their field, they can enhance their reputation in the marketplace.
Who Will Be Responsible for Your Social Media Postings?
Once you’ve decided that you want to move ahead with a social media marketing strategy, one of your first decisions will relate to the person or team that will be responsible for creating and/or managing your posts. Instead of just assuming your team will split the responsibilities evenly you really need to make sure that a particular person or team is accountable for the work, even if that means hiring a 3rd party social media marketing team to do the work on your behalf.
What Resources Will Be Committed to Your Social Media Marketing Efforts?
It’s also important to consider how much of an effort your organization wants to put behind your social media marketing strategy in terms of resources. Whether you choose to allocate five hours of time or $1,000/month, you should determine your maximum financial and/or time commitment so that you can better manage this effort alongside your other marketing endeavors. Additionally, when you compare your known effort to month-over-month gains in terms of new followers, new business or some other metric, you’ll be better able to identify accomplishments and attribute them to related inputs.
What Topic Categories Will Your Company Post About?
Before your jump into the social media milieu it’s always a good idea to put together a list of topics that you’ll focus your shares or social media posts on. Having such a list will help you conduct more thorough planning and brainstorming tied to your niche and make better use of your resources. Another key reason that you should outline your topic categories ASAP is that you’ll ultimately want to post about matters that your audience cares about. A little bit of research and outlining will help you to better target your posts to your audience’s interests.
What Efforts Will You Make to Boost Your Social Audience?
Unfortunately, simply posting to your social media accounts isn’t likely to increase your sales or customer numbers. However, if you can supplement your social media postings with additional marketing and audience-boosting efforts you can make your social media push work harder in support of your goals. A few ways that you can take your social media marketing intentions to the next level include:
More frequent social posts- Posting during optimal times on each platform
- Using a social media management tool
- Following customers and other active industry social accounts
- Retweeting or sharing posts from influencers or other industry experts
- Encouraging current customers to join your networks through marketing outreach or specific calls-to-action on your website
- Asking questions to solicit ideas, input or reactions
Taking Your Social Media Marketing Efforts to the Next Level
After a few months of effort, or if you still can’t manage to get the rhythm of regular social postings down, there’s always professional social media marketing help just a phone call away. With a little bit of guidance, or a more persistent helping hand, your organization can be on its way towards social media marketing success.
