Throughout my career, I have developed and outlined numerous internal company processes, policies and strategy documents. With experience and practice, it became clear that a process cannot withstand time and changes if it is not scalable and replicable. The same principles hold true for a social media marketing strategy; it must be a process that can adapt to growth over time and to change.
New social media channels are popping up left and right, especially for niche social media communities and geo-targeted business networks. To reach new potential customers, you will need to continually expand your reach through the appropriate new networks. With every expansion, whether you’re launching your initial social media marketing campaign or launching into a new social network or space, there are four key considerations. This article does not go into the details of your social media game plan to include your business strategy, goals, and actions needed to make it happen, but instead offers a repeatable approach that can be applied throughout the lifecycle of your campaign.
1. Start small
If you’re just venturing into the world of social media for your business or decide it’s time to get serious about your social media involvement to really take advantage of this incredible marketing opportunity, step back, focus, and start small. . It’s easy to get caught up in the possibilities of social media marketing and quickly jump into too many areas at once. Not only will this be overwhelming, it will dilute your campaign. Do some research or hire a specialist who can advise you to choose two or three social networks that are most applicable to your business. Set up your profiles, identify your target audience and start building your presence on those select networks making sure you stay aligned with your business strategy.
2. Get comfortable
Building comfort and familiarity with forums and social media technologies is very important, especially if you are new to the social media space. You must be comfortable with not only using technology, but also interacting with your target audience. Your interactions should be natural and pleasant. A key benefit of social media is the ability to speak “with” your audience and not “at” your audience. You’re sharing ideas and providing value to your prospects and leaders in your industry. There are countless ways to connect with your audience depending on your business and area of expertise. A little trial and error is fine. Test the water, try different approaches, and be sure to track and measure the results so you can determine what works best.
3. Establish a routine
This can be a difficult area for many companies. Yes, it takes some discipline, but once you establish a routine that works for you, you’ll have the consistency that’s essential for social media. If you only post an update on Twitter once a week, an article on your Facebook page once in a while, and reply to a discussion on your niche social network once a month, you’re not gaining visibility. The more you contribute, the more visible you are. Staying active and providing value will generate a return on influence or brand recognition, which in turn will generate a return on investment. The routine that works best will be different for every business and will depend on whether you are running the campaign alone or with the help of colleagues or a social media specialist.
For some, it’s better to bundle social media activities into one time of day to focus on other tasks for the rest of the day. For others, it’s easier to spend small amounts of time throughout the day to focus on a specific social network. There are great tools for scheduling your posts ahead of time on various networks, like Hootsuite (my personal favorite) and Tweetdeck. This can save you time and help you maintain that constant level of interaction. Not all updates and releases need to be pre-scheduled, but incorporating some that are scheduled is a good practice and also a great way to utilize the services of a specialist. By delegating some social media marketing activities, you’ll have more time to personally engage with your target audience by responding to comments and responding to discussions on a routine basis.
4.Expand
Once you’ve fine-tuned this process for two or three social networks, you can expand to new networks, but do your research first. You need to determine the best social networks or the best social media space where your business should have a presence. Maybe this time you want to reach niche communities. Maybe it’s time to get into video marketing, a really exciting space in internet marketing with so many chances to go viral if you do it right. You may be ready to start your own social network. There are readily available tools to make this happen. Decide which social networks should be next on your list and start the process of building your existing strategy starting at number one.
Regardless of the direction your campaign takes, by staying within the framework of these four considerations as you develop your strategy, you’ll maintain the control and consistency that are key to the success of every social media marketing strategy.
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