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Social Media Strategy in 8 Steps

When working in an industry like social media you can’t create strategies for the present. By the time you complete your marketing strategy, all the tools and networks you rely on will have changed. In order to be strategic and be ahead of your competitors, you have to look into the future. What trends are on the horizon for social media? What’s coming next that we need to prepare for? Here’s what we think:

Step 1: Build an Ark

Nobody should “own” social media strategy in your organization. Social impacts all corners of the company, and should be more like air (everywhere) than like water (you have to go get it). Thus, the first step in the process is to create a cross-functional team to help conceive and operate the rest of the strategy.

 

Step 2: Listen and Compare

It’s an old social media strategy chestnut by now, but “listen” is still good advice that’s often ignored. The reality is that your customers (and competitors) will give you a good guide to where and how you should be active in social media, if you broaden your social listening beyond your brand name.

 

Step 3: What’s the Point?

Yes, you can use social media to help accomplish several business objectives. Butthe best social media strategies are those that focus (at least initially) on a more narrow rationale for social. What do you primarily want to use social for? Awareness? Sales? Loyalty and retention? Pick one.

 

Step 4: Select Success Metrics

How are you going to determine whether this is actually making a difference in your business? What key measures will you use to evaluate social media strategy effectiveness? How will you transcend (hopefully) likes and engagement? Will you measure ROI?

 

Step 5: Analyze Your Audiences

With whom will you be interacting in social media? What are the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your current or prospective customers? How does that impact what you can and should attempt in social media?

 

Step 6: What’s Your One Thing?

Passion is the fuel of social media.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you sell, your product features and benefits aren’t enough to create a passion-worthy stir. How will your organization appeal to the heart of your audience, rather than the head? Disney isn’t about movies, it’s about magic. Apple isn’t about technology, it’s about innovation. What are you about?

 

Step 7: How Will You Be Human?

Social media is about people, not logos. 

The mechanics of social force companies to compete for attention versus your customers’ friends and family members. Thus, your company has to (at least to some degree) act like a person, not an entity. How will you do that?

 

Step 8: Create a Channel Plan

Only after you know why you’re active in social at all, and how you’ll measure social media strategy success should you turn your attention to the “how” of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the rest. This channel plan should be distinct, in that you have a specific, defensible reason for participating in each.

 

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Retweet With Class

As a small business, one benefit to using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms is the ability to connect with your audience in an informal environment.However as a business, it is just as important to remain professional on social media. There are a few simple rules that should be followed when it comes to social media.

Be polite on Twitter.

When you are re-tweeting, credit your source. Twitter’s 140-character limit makes this a little bit challenging, but crediting the author and/or source with a simple ‘@username’ can go a long way. Let’s say you tweeted out a personal thought or opinion about a hockey game. If one of your Twitter followers agreed with you, it is likely they would simply retweet your original thought. Now, wouldn’t you want to be informed that someone supported your thought enough to retweet it?

Give shout outs when your blogging.

When you are blogging, simply include an “article source: (insert original article link) at the end of your post. This lets readers know where the information came from, and it gives credit to the original author.

The beauty of the Internet comes from access to information. In the same sense, the beauty of social media is the added ease and convenience of sharing that information. If we continue to share, and share politely, the social media world will continue to grow and develop in the big-hearted and giving way that it has already.

The Takeaway: Give credit where credit is due.

Article Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/chrissyme/1503106/social-media-etiquette-101-attribution

 

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Stay Current With Your Social Media Strategy

You should be regularly evaluating how your audience is reacting to your social media presence. If you are constantly up to date on your social media progress, you will find it easier to identify your strengths and weaknesses and ultimately improve your social media presence!

  1. Are your friends and followers increasing? It is very important to remember that an increase in friends and followers does not mean that profits will immediately increase too. An increase in friends and followers does mean you are doing something to attract attention, which is a good thing! If the number is decreasing, it is definitely time to change your strategy. You may be sharing content that is not relevant to your audience.
  2. Monitor the engagement of your followers. Are your posts and pictures getting comments and likes? Are tweets getting re-tweeted? Do your events have a significant following of people that will ‘attend’? These numbers can be monitored very easily. Make sure to be aware of them. You can also apply various tools (like Google Analytics) to receive deeper insights. Pay attention to which posts and pictures seem to be the most popular – and ask yourself why.
  3. Analyze what is working for your audience.  If you are seeing an increase in sales, consider what it is on social media that could have been responsible for the spike. In other words, what is your audience responding too? Was it a promotional discount or the free shipping option?

Evaluating the strategy on a regular basis is crucial. Remember to stay current!

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Are You Loosing Twitter Followers?

You’ve been building your Twitter presence and you feel good about it. It is great to increase that number, but it is equally important to maintain that number. Use these tips to find out what may be behind your declining follower base.

Are you delivering the content you promised you would? If you own a clothing boutique, your followers are likely expecting you to tweet about fashion trends, clothing tips, store deals, etc. If your tweets are about your political opinions, or the new frozen yogurt place you tried yesterday then your followers are not getting what they signed up for by following you. Make sure that any personal opinion tweets go to your personal account and not your business account.

Are your tweets original? If you are abusing the retweet button, that may be why you are loosing followers. The retweet feature is wonderful for sharing content, but when you retweet something you should add your own opinion. Use a few words to share why you decided to retweet something. Your followers connected with you on Twitter to hear what YOU have to say – give that to them.

Do you use Twitter solely for promotion? Remember that Twitter is a social media platform. People join to be social – they do not check their twitter solely to read promotional messages. If you are doing some promotion tweeting, be sure to provide a value to your followers. If you are promoting something on Twitter, make sure your followers get a benefit from reading that tweet. For example don’t tweet “Buy our new perfume…” instead consider tweeting, “Mention this tweet for 10% off our new perfume.”

Do you respond? If your followers ask you a question, or reply to your tweets they probably want a response back.  Being responsive on your account assures users that they are tweeting to a real person, and not a pre-scheduled system. Twitter is about building relationships. If you are not building a relationship with your followers, they are not going to stick around to build one with you.

 

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The Hashtag Basics

Hashtags can be a great marketing tool, but it is important to know exactly when, where, and how to use them to help you market.

Hashtags are the words, or sometimes just jumble of letters that you see following the # sign. Hashtags are not essential, or appropriate for every tweet. Before going hashtag crazy, it is important to know how they can help your business. Hashtags work for categorizing content. Adding a hashtag into your tweet makes it easier for other users to find. This can be extremely useful when discussing a topic other Twitter users may be discussing as well. For example, during the Superbowl you could search #Superbowl on Twitter and a display of Superbowl related tweets would be the result.

As a marketer, you can use hashtags to create buzz around your product or service. For example, say you are the owner of a shoe boutique and you are having a sale on winter boots.  Tweet something about the sale, and then use the hashtag #winterboots. This is a broad category, and someone in the market for winter boots is likely to search “#winterboots.” By incorporating the hashtag into your tweet, your tweet will show up in the search results. It is important to keep the hashtag brief and easy to read. If you use the hashtag #WinterBootsAreHalfOffAtTheShoeBoutique it is not only hard to read, but it is also likely that nobody will search for that hashtag – and your tweet will not appear in any searches.   Your tweets are already limited to 140 characters, so use those characters wisely! Hashtags should be used to get your point across, yet still remain brief.

For hashtag success, be consistent. There is no point in using a hashtag if you do not keep using it. If you do not repeat the hashtag, your tweet may go unseen by potential customers. Make sure to use your hashtags. Be sure your hashtags are relevant and easy to understand. Twitter is about simplicity – so be nice and do not confuse your Twitter followers with a confusing hashtag.

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Need Ideas On What To Tweet?

Have you run out of ideas for what to tweet for your small business?  Here are 5 ideas for things to tweet about on a regular basis:

  1. If there is any positive news about your business or even your industry – share it! That is absolutely something to tweet about. A good mention about your industry reflects well on you, and if it is about your company in particular that is even better.
  2. Tweet tips!  For example, you could start hash – tagging #TuesdayTweetTips in which every Tuesday you would share a helpful hint that goes along with your product or service. If you own a brewery, tweet tips on which beers compliment which burgers.
  3. Post questions that clearly urge people to respond. This way you can interact with the tweets that are responses to your questions. Once you have created some dialogue, you can post a tweet with a link to your company blog that holds the correct answers.
  4. Tweet a secret word or code that is only available to your Twitter followers.  When customers use the secret code, they receive a discount.
  5. Share things that are behind the scenes of your business. Tweet photos that provide access to things your customers can’t get or see in other ways.  That will build incentive for fans to follow you on Twitter.

As you know, a tweet can be a powerful tool for boosting your  online following – you just have to make sure you are using it right!

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Small Businesses on Social Media: Get It Right

Most small businesses feel a sense of urgency to get onto social media because of the tidal wave big brands have made on all social media platforms. Focus on your social media goals. Whatever they are, the bottom line should be to build relationships and grow customer trust. That means that social media is not the place to display your promotional copy. Get rid of anything remotely resembling a “BUY ME” button. Social media is about social engagement. Think of yourself in a social situation – do you spend the entire time talking about yourself? Hopefully the answer is no. This type of etiquette applies to social media as well. Just as you would in a social environment, strive to be interesting on social media. Post content that gives your followers or friends something to react too. If someone were to walk up to you and give you a compliment or ask you a question, you would never just ignore it. You would acknowledge it with a “thank you” or a reply. The same thing should be done on your social media platforms.

You are a small business. Your budget is probably much smaller than that of Starbucks. Inevitably, your social media strategy will be different than those big brands – that is okay! You don’t have to keep up with Pepsi. If you do not have the budget to giveaway the latest IPad – don’t do it. Offer a prize your company can handle such as a service, discount, or small product.  This also means that the participants in your giveaway are likely to be interested in your company, and not just in it for the free Ipad.

You have probably already picked up on the fact that there is no physical cost to join social media.  As a small business, marketing without fees probably sounds like the best kind.  But don’t be fooled – social media marketing is anything but free. Doing it right requires serious man-hours. The commitment to social media is unrelenting and endless. Engaging with followers and sharing valuable content is a full time job.

As a small business, you do not need to be present on every social media account. If you use Facebook over Google +, it does not mean you are a social media failure. The biggest error you could make is to have a Google + account that is completely neglected and shows inconsistent activity. It is better to have one or two active and up to date social media accounts than have five accounts that are not receiving adequate time and management.

Small businesses tend to make these mistakes, which can do serious harm to their social media success. Make sure your business gets it right!

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Holidays: The Season For Social Media?

People love the holidays! The chances are your business already has something planned to participate in the cheerful season. Holiday discounts? Holiday office party? Whatever it is, make sure it shows on your social media accounts!

December is already here, that means people are gearing up for the holiday season. This season is a great opportunity to adopt new social media tactics – with a holiday twist. People are already spending time on social media sites, and are getting excited about the holidays.  So why not get people excited about the holidays and involved in your company at the same time?

Give your followers another reason to engage with your company this holiday season.

  1. Start a Facebook Holiday themed promotion. There are several ways to do this. Consider a limited-time-only discount, supporting a charity, or giving a gift back to loyal customers. All of these promotions are ways to add a little something extra to your company’s Facebook effort.
  2. Promote a holiday-themed hashtag on Instagram. Encourage followers to upload holiday pictures using the hashtag, or pictures that are relevant to your brand. Make it a contest and award the contestant with the most “Likes” a holiday gift.  Make it easy for fans to enter the contest by just simply using the hashtag. Once a winner is selected, contact them to claim their prize through their social media account.
  3. Start a New Years countdown, asking users to share their resolutions. Try to think of ways your business could be part of a New Years Resolution.
  4. Host a gift giveaway that takes place between Christmas and New Years…this is sure to keep your fans in the holiday spirit!
  5. Use Twitter to show your holiday enthusiasm and excitement! Be sure to tweet any other contests or giveaways you have started on your other social media accounts!

The holidays are about giving back, so do something different and thoughtful for your fan base – thank them for supporting your business all year.  Even something small, like tweeting out holiday jokes or adorable pictures, can put a smile on a customers face! The holiday season is known for love, happiness, and positive thoughts for the New Year – make sure to be a part of that when it comes to social media.

 

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Twitter’s Updated Search Feature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter has recently announced new changes to the way users search on their database. This could have a measurable impact on how brands compose their tweets.

The new search update appears to resemble the Google search engine in some ways. As a user types in a keyword, it attempts to guess what they’re searching for, as options that are trending will appear below in a drop-down menu. This lets the users view options before they finish typing. The Twitter search now also fixes spelling, similar to the “Did you mean” Google feature.

In addition, Twitter now will take your search and provide you with options of similar search terms. For example, when searching, “Social Media Strategy,”

Twitter might suggest, “Social Media Agency” as another good search option. This will be very useful when users are trying to follow a trending topic or find new content.

Another new aspect to the Twitter search is its ability to filter search results to the people users follow. This helps users when they’re searching their feed for older tweets they meant to favorite, or messages from friends. This is a fairly small update, but it personalizes Twitter in a new and interesting way.

Twitter is the go-to place for breaking news. News tends to hit Twitter before appearing on television, in the papers, or on websites. Because of this, Twitter is trying to become the go-to place for people to search for news. The new Twitter search feature still only lets user search things within the Twittersphere (as opposed to the Bing/Facebook partnership). However, search results will be free of Internet junk and full of more relevant and recent tweets.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this updated Twitter search is how it will affect brands using strong Twitter promotions. Brands need to start adjusting their tweets for searches since the site itself is now being structured for searches. Just like blog posts and websites are composed to show up in Google, tweets must be optimally composed for Twitter. This new optimization will impact Hashtags and Keywords on Twitter. Hashtags will be even more important in tweets because they will now have more of an impact in searches. Companies should start utilizing their hashtags with popular search terms. With regards to keywords, tweets should contain keywords to help them show up in Twitter searches. But companies need to be careful not to go overboard with hashtags and keywords in their tweets!

This new way of tweeting should help brands see increased consumer engagement on Twitter overall. It is likely that there will be more organized conversation and detailed tweeting within the site.

This new real-time search feature is available to all users on Twitter. The updated Twitter search will provide for a more efficient social site. Keep in mind just how important keywords and phrases used by brands within tweets will become with this new Twitter search. If you are managing your company on Twitter, always think about which search terms people might be using on the site and try to appropriately incorporate them into your tweets without coming off as spam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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7 Ways To Engage With Your Followers on Twitter

 

 

 

 

Twitter is a great social media tool for sharing information and building a community of loyal customers. It is ideal for keeping customers informed about your brand and can also be used very efficiently to drive traffic to your other social platforms. The most effective use for Twitter is certainly its ability to help build lasting relationships with people who share your same interests.

Here are some tips that will help you to boost your level of engagement with your target audience on Twitter.

1. Leave space, yet Tweet consistently

If you send out 10 tweets in one hour about your brand, your followers will be overwhelmed and annoyed. Your Tweets will end up looking like spam. However, it is important to Tweet consistently throughout the day so that your followers will come across valuable content that they will want to share. Leave at least 30 minutes in-between your Tweets to keep a good balance between informing and over-informing.

2. Connect people

On social media sites, people want to make connections with those who share their interests. When you help to connect your followers with similar people, your followers will be grateful and have more respect for you. In return, they will be more likely to engage with your brand.

3. Show your personality on your profile

Having a real picture of yourself or your company will make people trust your brand more. You will appear more human and more relatable. Add personal information into your bio to get people interested in what your brand is all about. This way, people will feel passionate and make connections with your brand and look out for your Tweets, and hopefully, will retweet more.

4. Ask questions, and give answers

By asking questions to your followers, they automatically become engaged with you. It gives them a moment to think about what you’ve asked and might spark an interest in them to give you a quality response that you can learn from. When they ask questions back, be sure to answer those questions to build a conversation with your followers.

5. Break the news first

Think about some issues that are relevant to your brand and your company’s interests and provide valuable content continually about those issues. This positions you as an expert in your field, and your followers will know they can count on you to keep them updated about certain topics. Try to be the first to spread news on issues to increase the number of retweets you get, and get the conversation started in your community of followers.

6. Promote your followers

A great way to engage with your followers is to retweet your most passionate followers’ Tweets. Take time to thank them for sharing content and #Recommend and #FF others.

7. Ask for a retweet

If you add, “please RT” to your Tweets, you’ll find that you will get an increased number of retweets. It’s a simple way to remind your followers about retweeting and shows that you want to spread your information and reach out to others.

Twitter is not a site you can use to gain customer loyalty through without engaging with your followers. Always stay active on your Twitter account and listen to your customers to build a strong, lasting, engaging relationship with them

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