Although most “experts” agree your business must incorporate social media of some sort into its marketing plan, you could spend days implementing the various suggestions being thrown out on the Internet. Here we talk about the four essentials of making social media work for you.
1. Time
Building an empire does not happen overnight. Plan to invest some time in your social media marketing. You must have patience while you build a fan base and determine which strategies work best for your company. For some companies, posting photos works well. For others, it may be holding contests. For most, it is a combination of interesting photos, questions, contests and discount offers. The goal is to post items that compel your fans to re-share, which promotes your business.
At the same time, you must choose your platforms wisely. Facebook is usually a given. Twitter is a close second. Past that, you may have to do a little digging into your customer base to figure out which other social media sites, if any, are worth your time, including Tumblr, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, etc.
There are many, many social media websites available. However, if the majority of your customer base is on Facebook and/or Twitter, you may not find that spending time on other sites justifies the cost.
2. Consistency
You cannot post one status update to Facebook each month and expect to be flooded with new business. Over-posting is also a problem. You may need to experiment with how much you can post without frustrating your followers. Some experts recommend daily posting. Some will say weekly. Consistency, however, is key.
Use analytical tools to determine when users are most likely viewing your page, and then schedule certain posts to go up at that time. The majority of Facebook fans rarely visit a fan page again after they have “liked” it (likewise for followers on Twitter). Therefore, you need to post items at times they will show up in the news feeds of the most fans. If you are posting at odd hours, your fans may never see your posts.
In addition, make sure there are some personal posts and responses to posts made to your page(s). Only posting links to your website and products/service to buy can cause customers to no longer “like” your Facebook fan page or to un-follow you on Twitter.
3. Money
Unfortunately, social media is no longer free. Sure, you can set up your fan page on Facebook or your account on Twitter for free. But to reach the friends of your fans and expand your presence, you have to spend time creating and responding to messages. You may also want to consider paid ads. Almost all of the big social media sites now offer them.
In addition, if you are spending too much time monitoring your pages, your money could be well-spent hiring a social media management company, or buying software to help with the scheduling of your posts.
4. Website
A Facebook fan page is not enough. Every business needs its own website. In fact, in order to help raise your ranking in any search engine, all of your social media pages should include a link back to your website.
Think of your website as a train hub station, with your social media accounts acting as the trains racing in and out of the station. At some point, all of those trains will need to come home.
Is your social media plan working for you? Using social media to promote your business doesn’t have to be painful. If you are struggling to find the time to build a successful social media plan, give Social Sonar a call!
