Create a goal
Who would have imagined when Twitter or Facebook began that the most famous brands in the world would be competing for space with people posting updates from their bedrooms? But that’s what has happened – social media is still sociable and fun but it has also become a serious platform on which to do business, and one-person bands can compete with the big players.
However, there’s no point getting involved in social media and just setting up accounts here and there because everyone else is doing it. Take an inventory of what you are already doing and what your competitors are doing, then SMART:
▪ S is for Specific. Be specific with your goals. Set some objectives for how many channels you are going to use, and what you are seeking to achieve.
▪ M is for Measurable. All your goals should be measurable so you know whether you are achieving them or not.
▪ A is for Achievable. What is it going to take to achieve your goals? Do you have the resources available? Can you make it happen by yourself? If not, who can help you?
“Media was very one way … Now the internet is allowing what used to be a monologue to become a dialogue” Joseph Gordon-Levitt
one minute wonder Be specific about what you want to achieve by marketing your business on social media. An increase in customers? Growth in market share? A rise in net profit? A jump in average order price per customer? Total revenue growth?
▪ R is for Realistic and Relevant to your business. Do you need to do this? What will happen if you do? What will happen if you don’t? What won’t happen if you do or don’t?
▪ T is for Time. All good goals have a timeframe attached. Think about the long term and the short term. Then consider what is the easiest first step for you to take.
Create Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Relevant goals with a Timeframe attached.
The social media landscape is rather like the old Wild West gold-mining towns. There’s definitely gold out there but if you don’t put a stake in the ground to claim your territory then someone else will get there first and your brand is gone.
Once you have your brand make sure you start buying the websites, Twitter name, Tumblr accounts and blogs with the right name or names for your business and any products or topics you want to stake a claim to.
But even if you’re not sure whether you are going to use a particular social media channel immediately, it is worth grabbing your place, especially with a new channel launch. The social media and digital worlds are so fast moving that a small channel may have hundreds of millions of users next year. If you’ve already got your brand name set up you won’t need to worry about someone else taking it. Choose a consistent name across the channels, or if you have more than one brand, think through which channels are suitable for which brands.
Make sure you get your accounts ‘verified’ or authenticated where appropriate so that people know the accounts are real. You will notice on Twitter, for example, that verified accounts have a tick next to them.
one minute wonder Social media can be used as a way of reducing the costs of training staff. You can post videos and content online for your staff or run interactive seminars through apps like WizIQ. Interesting, interactive content will increase the learning experience.
The average user has more than one social media account and this number is likely to rise. However some users do still find a community they enjoy most and spend the majority of their time there. It’s a complex situation for business. You need to know your users and also not spread yourself too thin.
Make sure you buy all the relevant account names you need before you begin, even if you don’t use them immediately.
Free content is everywhere on the web. It’s one of the biggest changes that the digital world has brought us. It is said that there is more information around in the last five years than in the whole of human history. Your content needs to make an impact to be noticed.
In the past people expected to pay for content. Now, users get it for free but they are still greedy for interesting new content every day.
Consider what products or services you are going to produce and promote. Then think how you can do this through interesting content that people will want to search for, print and save or forward to their friends.
Content can take the form of long or short blogs (posts about a particular subject, product or service), short tweets on Twitter, webinars, slideshares, photographs, videos on YouTube or Vine, e-books or infographics. This gives you a lot of scope for interesting, visual ways to present what you do.
Think about your three top products or services. Why would someone want them? How would they help them? What would make them buy them? Now think about how you can create three short pieces of writing which you can use as blog posts. Or perhaps you would like to write an e-book and promote it through ten or so regular blog posts that you post over a series of weeks?
“The first lesson of branding: memorability. It’s very difficult buying something you can’t remember” John Hegarty
one minute wonder When you are planning your content, only post when you can answer the three ‘why’ questions: Why this form of content? Why now? Why this channel? If your answers aren’t clear then delay or ditch the idea and think again.
There are so many choices. What about presenting the same information visually? How about laying it out as a PowerPoint? Or as a series of webinars? Would do you want to present? What if you could engage experts to present that information for you and interview them in a collection of videos? Perhaps you are going to present the information in multiple ways. Are you going to do it all at the same time or create anticipation by posting over a period of time?
You can present the same content in long blogs, short tweets, in photos or videos.
Social media is a two-way conversation. Part of it is driven from the ‘bottom up’ with millions of people all over the world active online. However, your approach to social media needs to be ‘top down’ – driven by a clear strategy – and aligned with the rest of your business.
Your social media strategy will only make an impact on your bottom line results by being part of your broader
