Your business is growing, albeit slowly perhaps and you want to give it a boost by focusing more on social media. Great. You are not alone in thinking this. You can picture it now. You know that building your brand is what you need to accomplish. No problem. You can post your message on your Facebook page, then Tweet it and then post it on LinkedIn. Maybe Pinterest too while you are at it. That should cover all the bases. Right?
There are too many things wrong with this thinking. Let’s briefly address them.
The Social Media Calendar
The most important thing is that in all your hopes for using social media successfully, you didn’t mention a Social Media Calendar. I’ve talked about this before and have provided one free. You can get it by clicking on this link.
Your Social Media Strategy
Right up there in the list of importance is the lack of a social media strategy. All social media platforms are not created equally. Once you understand this, you will also understand the need for a different strategy for the different platforms you have chosen to invest your time and energy in.
The difference in platforms is the different audiences that they attract and how they interact. With this in mind, start your strategy by identifying your target audience on each platform. Even things like the number of links in your posts can make a difference in how your message will be received.
Also consider the times of the day, week and month that your target audience is engaged in social media activities and schedule your activities to coincide as much as possible.
Content Matters
What you say is as critical as when you say it and to whom. Your content needs to be fresh and have value to the reader. Whatever you do, make sure that your sales-focused posts are kept to a minimum while your informative and interactive posts are what will engage and attract new and loyal followers.
Get Ahead of the Curve
Setting your strategy and defining your content can also mean you can organize and write your posts well in advance of actually posting them. This will help keep you and your message consistent and really take the pressure off at points when you are crunched for time. Of course, always allow for flexibility so that you can take advantage of opportunities or special events.
Your Job Doesn’t End There
One of the biggest downfalls I see with business on social media is the lack of follow up. You can’t simply put it out there and walk away. The purpose of social media is engaging other people, after all. If there are comments, whether positive or negative, you need to take note of them. You also need to make the time to respond to them. A lack of response or a time lag in responding can lose you followers very quickly. And once gone, they are unlikely to come back.
Pay attention to the negative comments. If you are getting a lot of them, that’s a huge message. Change your strategy right away. Conversely, if you are getting a lot of positive feedback, this might be cause to trigger a change in strategy too, so that you focus more on what got you the positive notice.
Does all this sounds like a huge amount of work? Do you wonder if you can accomplish this and still run your business? Making a commitment to a social media content strategy is a major undertaking, especially if this is not your area of expertise.
Consider asking Make It Happen Services to outline how you can outsource your social media marketing and successfully achieve your goals.