Social media marketing has become a a fairly standard part of marketing programs today for lot of companies and of course everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. If you haven’t made the leap yet, here are some very basic tips to get started.
No Social-Media-for-Social-Media’s Sake
If your motive for adding social media is because everyone else is doing it, think long and hard before you leap. Social media endeavors should always be in service of clear business goals, not merely an abstract notion of user engagement. Only do it if you can commit the time to it and develop a social media plan that supports your business plan.
Start Slow
Just because there are 100s of options doesn’t mean you have use them all. Someday you may want to create a presence on more than one social media site, but you don’t have dive into all of them at once. It will quickly become overwhelming and too hard to maintain. Instead pick one site that you are most comfortable with or that is the most relevant to your company and/or products or customers, and create an account and a public profile.
Watch and Learn
Check out how others in your industry, including your competition, are doing and how they are participating on the social media platform you’ve chosen. Write down what seems to work and what does not, and what you like and don’t like. Watch how people interact. Is it a monologue or a dialogue? What’s the tone of the conversation?
Develop a Plan
It’s one thing to participate in social media but to do so without a plan can be frustrating and even damaging to your business. Think through your goals – what are you hoping to gain from your social media interactions? Then work backwards to create a plan that will accomplish your goals.
Monitor Your Brand
Part of an effective social media campaign is keeping track of what is being said about your company, who is saying it, and how others are reacting to it. Using a set of social media monitoring tools will help you stay on top of this and may even help you find new business opportunities.
Be Authentic and Human
Even though you are representing a business, don’t ignore the importance of the social element. Be yourself. Be authentic. Allow your interactions to retain the human side that will facilitate genuine connections. And don’t think you need to be all business, all the time. Giving a personal feel to your presence will make your business more approachable.
Engage and Be Responsive
Despite the far-reaching power of social media networks, these services are not bullhorns. Use them to engage in dialogue with potential and current customers, not merely to push information out to them. While social media can be a great place to share information, promote a service, and so on, it is even more important to listen and be responsive. Once you commit to a social media marketing effort, you need commit to responding to questions, complaints and other input from your customers.
Ask for Feedback
Instead of waiting for a customer to air a complaint, use social media as a way to engage and interact with your audience. Ask for feedback, reviews and insight to help you reach your target more effectively. And be sure to thank everyone who chimes in individually.
Be Consistent
Your profiles, comments, posts and conversations should stay true to your company’s overall mission and values. If more than one person is posting on behalf of your company, it’s vital to have a standard tone and guidelines for consistency. Once you expand your reach to more than one social media site, consistency is even more important.
Track, evaluate, and adapt
Many services offer analytics tools so you can monitor your traffic levels and engagement. Be sure to check these regularly to evaluate the ROI of a platform. And as the field of social media is ever changing, be prepared to adapt. For example, just because a service like Foursquare is popular now does not mean that you should be forever wedded to location-based marketing.
