Social media has become a necessity for both small and large businesses alike – some just don’t realize it, yet.
With people constantly online and connected, whether it be dedicated internet service or mobile internet, it has become a necessity for businesses to build a social media presence, but for those not schooled in the world of social media building the correct strategy and footprint can seem like a demanding and difficult task. Thankfully, picking the right strategy and moving forward with it does not have to be particularly difficult.
The first step to picking a social media strategy that works for a particular business is figuring out the demographic the business is trying to reach. For example, a business whose audience is young, college students might head towards Facebook and Twitter as their preferred social media platform, as that demographic spends the most time on such social media sites.
On the other hand, if one is looking to reach professionals Linkedin and Pinterest might be the best platform.
After honing in on the demographic, it is best to figure out exactly what the company hopes to achieve via social media platforms.
Is brand exposure the most important goal? If so, a larger platform with many different demographics would likely be the best fit. A company looking for brand exposure is simply looking to reach as many potential customers as possible. To do so it is important to use a platform that has a large consumer base to begin with.
The simple rule is, the deeper the pool of people the more likely you are to garner exposure. A company looking for customer engagement, on the other hand, might look towards smaller, more tightly-knit communities where users prefer to interact with the brands they are interested in. Twitter and Pinterest are well-suited for customer engagement.
After choosing platforms and deciding on major goals, a company has to decide how they are going to monitor and engage their customers. Getting a page “liked” on Facebook is only half the battle. Once someone likes the page, there has to be important and above all useful information to keep them coming back for more.
Many companies find that asking relevant questions, offering special discounts, and announcing new products works well to keep “fans” engaged and interested in the brand. To do this, however, it is necessary to have a team or group of people managing the campaign.
While small campaigns can be managed by the owner of a small business, larger campaigns are often handed off to a team that can best help with keeping the social media strategy in place and growing.
Because social media is constantly changing a plan to change with it for the best results should also be set into place for success.
Once a social media strategy is in place, it is important to go back, look at what is working and what is not, and constantly rehash and change the strategy to get the best possible results. While it would be nice to be able to simply leave a strategy in place and hope for the best, the best results are yielded when campaigns are tweaked to meet consumer’s needs.
