Many small business owners that come to us already understand the importance of social media. They get that there are hundreds of thousands of potential customers on Twitter, Facebook and other online communities, but they aren’t quite sure how to get started.
Instead of just jumping in and creating accounts on a number of social networking sites, we recommend to our clients to take a step back and create a plan, just like you would for any other part of the business.
Here are some basic steps to build out a social media plan:
- Define your purpose/goals – What do you want to get out of the time and energy put into social media? Do you want to build brand awareness? Generate new leads? Become a leading source of news and information regarding a specific topic? By defining your purpose and goals, you create a overarching guideline for every tweet, post or message you deliver via social networking sites. If a particular message does help reach those goals, you are wasting your time sending it.
- Determine your target audience – There are millions of users are social networking sites and you certainly can’t reach them all. So define your primary, secondary and tertiary target audiences based on your main purposes and goals. Be specific. Beyond your basic customer, what other audiences are important to your business? Think about related associations, societies and organizations. Don’t forget about editors and reports from target publications that can potentially help spread your message.
- Understand the social media environment – There is much more to the social media environment than just Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Hundreds of niche social networking sites exist, each with specific target markets. Take the time to research these networks to determine the most relevant online communities and outlets for your target audience. Where are you more likely to be able to engage in conversations most effectively? Be sure to track your clients, competition and industry leaders to find which platforms they use most.
- Develop valuable content you expect to deliver – Now it’s time to develop a list of key messages and topics relevant to both your purpose and target audiences defined in first two steps. As mentioned in our previous blog post, “Connecting the Dots Between Traditional and Digital Marketing,” be sure that your online and offline messaging is consistent. Also, keep in mind that social networking sites provide opportunities for two way conversations so the content you develop should attempt to engage conversation with your audiences.
- Identify a spokesperson – A business/brand needs one, single voice. Whether the spokesperson is the small business owner, a marketing person or even an intern, be sure the messaging and voice is professional, well-crafted and consistent.
- Develop specific strategies and tactics for each social network – In order to reach as many of the ‘right’ customers as possible, you are more than likely going to need to use multiple social media outlets. Web sites, blogs, share tools, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online communities each has its own benefits, and each requires its own strategy and set of specific tactics to maximize those benefits. Research best practices for each social media outlet and use the tools offered to your advantage. Also, be sure to use the “Multi-Touch” approach by cross-referencing your social media efforts. If you post pictures on Flickr or a video on YouTube, be sure to tweet a link to your Twitter followers. Blog posts on your corporate web site should be shared across all your other networks.
- Measure your results – Finally, be sure to measure your results. Has your online traffic increased? Were you successful in creating customer interactions and conversations? Did you generate new sales leads? Did your brand awareness increase? Using online tracking tools, you can quantify your impact and answer all of these questions and more.
Written by Twitter Handle @jabraha7
