Social Media Strategy 101

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY 101 According to research conducted by Constant Contact, over 50% of small businesses need help with social media. While many businesses have a social media presence, many are not engaging on those platforms and thus not meeting their goals. With planning, your small business can use social media effectively. Here are 20 ways to build a social media strategy for your business. Know Your Audience Your customers are people. They have desires, and they have necessities. Find out what those are, and you have a foot in the door of their attention. *See chart at the end Giving Away Information Any time someone wants to learn more about your industry, chances are they'll look for quick tips. Provide those tips and you've hooked a long-term reader. Spice Up Your Content Spice up your content creation with a bit of a voice. Content that looks written by a robot drives off customers, while a distinct voice will draw them in. Choose Perfect Pictures The brain loves the unexpected so make it work. Give it a puzzle. The strategy here is to create some cognitive dissonance that only you (and your words) can resolve. Be Conversational Reach down to your customers with a plain and level voice. Social media is social! Your customers are there to talk, not to listen to lectures. Promote Events Use posts on your multiple social sites to advertise your events. If you're holding a job fair or a product demonstration, you can draw in a larger audience with a few social posts. Keep your Brand Identity Consistent You're going to have social media accounts on a number of different sites. You need your brand to be consistent between them. Your customers need to know if they come from a Facebook account to a Twitter account, they're still talking to the same company. Ask Questions End your blog posts or your social updates with questions to encourage readers to comment & share those posts. This gives you a deeper insight into your customers as well as engaging them to the topic at hand. Outsourced Content Your social media accounts need to be updated constantly. That means you need significant amounts of manpower invested in social management. Often, this manpower is taken away from content generation, or vice versa. In these cases, don't be afraid to outsource some of your content. Network on Every Platform Even if it doesn't seem useful at first, set up profiles on every social media site. Make sure, at minimum, you have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ & LinkedIn. If your users have a presence, yoU cAn set up Instagram, Pinterest or other specialized sites Implement Responsive Mobile Design Your users are using mobile devices to browse. It might be a smart phone or a tablet. Your site needs to be accessible on all of these devices. Responsive web design is the easiest way to achieve this, but mobile- friendly site design works as well. Be Proactive, not Reactive Social media, like SEO, is constantly changing and evolving. It's as minor as trending hashtags and as major as new Facebook layouts or new sites opening up. It's far, far easier for you to look ahead and take advantage of these changes when they happen than it is for you to scramble to react when they catch you unprepared. Post Frequently Post during work hours, when people are distracted and browsing their favorite social sites. Post 5-7 times a day on Twitter, but only 1-4 times on the slower sites like Facebook and Google+. When you post new content on your blog, share it on these social sites. Don't be afraid to post more frequently if an issue comes up, but avoid spamming your users with low-content posts. 1 Utilize Infographics 67% Says Images Inforgraphics are tricky to make, but they are a very attractive means of presenting information. Generally, all it takes is a fevw choice colors, a visual way to represent statistics & some clip art. They're very attractive, & they require the user to open the image to view the content, leading to a higher initial involvement with the post. are important in purchasing the product Use Google Social Reports Google Analytics now offers Social Reports. These reports give you plenty of information on what posts are being shared on what sites and in what manners. Use this data to tailor your posts to these methods of sharing for maximum visibility. Analyze Trending Social Data Looking to the current trends will give you something to talk about. It really is that simple. Analyze the mood of your users, the subjects they're talking about and how best to work it into your posts. Take advantage of the data they're giving you simply by taking part in social media. Engage With Customers Conversations are a great way to make your company more real. Speak to them like people, act like a person and they'll trust you more. Simply setting up a queue of autoposted articles and event notices gives you all the conversational skills as a billboard - and makes your profile about as effective. Always Work Towards Success Pick a goal and work towards it. If a strategy doesn't work, kill it and start again. If you're always moving towards SUccess, you're more likely to reach it. Having a goal in sight gives you a target for step by step planning. Don't Wait to Act It's easy to be overwhelmed by social media and hesitate. It's easy to put off registering for these sites until you have content to post. It's easy to lose out on traffic because yau're too busy making sure every last detail is perfect. Opportunities pass you buy if you wait before you act. Engage your Team Your social media team isn't an autonomouS unit. They need feedback to function. Make sure you're engaging with your team and keeping them appraised of your goals and policies. Happy and knowledgeable social media managers are much less likely to cause social scandals. AUDIENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Just how many people your page can reach? Below are the most recent* figuers on the number of monthly active users for each platform (*2013) FACEBOOK GOOGLE+ TWITTER PINTEREST LINKEDIN YOUTUBE 1.11 B 343 M 200 M 20M 200 M 01 B Sources : Quantcast.com | Wikipedia.org | Semiocast.com | Searchenginewatch.com| wizler.com Youtube-global.blogspot.com | Techcrunch.com| Venturebeat.com | constantcontact.com Socialmediaexaminer.com infographic by www.digitalinformationworld.com f fb.me/blogpad.digitalworld ET@ irfanahmad1989 8* gplus.to/digitalinformationworld P Pinterest.com/digitaliworld