Say you’ve got some social media know-how and want to take it to the next level to really start getting some ROI.
Or maybe you’ve just set up your company pages and now you want a social media presence that promotes your brand, and still gives you time to tend to all the other things you need to do to grow your business.
These two simple steps will get you started with a social media strategy that will deliver results without you keeping tied to your computer all day.
1. Create some goals.
Let’s take a look at what a social media campaign is supposed to do. A good social media campaign should focus on building your community, increasing awareness of your brand and engaging with your audience. Ultimately you want to increase sales and drive people to your website, and all of that will happen as a by-product of a good campaign that really connects with your audience. So the point is that you want to focus on engagement and community first, and increasing sales second.
If you have goals in place you’ll be able to measure results as you continue. Think of each goal as a small milestone toward your larger goal. It’s more important to create realistic goals that you’ll be able to achieve, rather than overly ambitious goals that’ll leave you feeling overwhelmed and discouraged. You’ll be more effective making small, steady strides with your social media than if you try to do too much at once.
How much time will you have each week to blog, post and tweet? If you’re just starting out, your first goal might be to write one blog article per week for the next 6 months, with posts to your Facebook and Twitter pages. Once you have that routine firmly in place, think about adding another goal. Maybe you want to increase the number of Facebook likes by 3% over the next quarter, or respond to feedback within 24 hours for the next month.
Whatever goals you establish, make sure you use target numbers and a timeframe. This way you can create a daily action plan toward achieving your goal. If your goal is something vague like, “I want more Twitter followers”, there’s no pressure to reach the goal, and as a result, you may never be able to hit the milestone. It’s too easy to procrastinate and get caught up with other things throughout the day. Setting a timeframe helps you find the time to make it happen.
2. Decide your media
Don’t just jump on the bandwagon when it comes to choosing your social media channels. Just because one company is on Pinterest and Facebook doesn’t mean that’s where you need to be. Doing what everyone else does is the wrong way to approach social media. Everyone’s marketing message is different. Everyone’s marketing strategies are different. More importantly, everyone’s audiences are different. You need to know who you’re targeting, which social media channels they prefer and what they read, share and post. If you’re a local health club, Facebook is great for building brand awareness and creating a community among your members. Financial companies and other professional services firm will want to focus more of their social media efforts on LinkedIn.
As a small business owner, starting up a social media program can seem overwhelming. Here at Yellow Dot, we can show you how to use social media to increase awareness of your brand and grow your business to levels you hadn’t thought possible. We’ll take the time to understand your business and your target market, and help you set up key metrics to measure your efforts. Schedule a free consultation so we can start setting your goals.