Why are you using social media? Have you defined clear goals and objectives for your social media? Or are you simply using it because you feel like you have to? Using social media “because you have to” or because “everybody else is” is not a good business plan and it’s most certainly not a social media strategy.
So take a minute to think, really think about what your business is on social media. What are your goals? What are you hoping to accomplish through social media? What does your business post on social media? What social media platforms are you on? Why are you there? Are you customers there? Do you know the answer to any of these questions?
Having a social media strategy in place is key to having social media success. If you don’t know why you are on social media, how can you possibly be successful at social media marketing? A strategy helps you answer the why and the how of social media. First, decide why you are there. Second, find your audience. Then, find out what content attracts the most engagement. This is different for every single business so you have to do the research.
To get you started with your social media strategy, here are some objectives to think about:
Customer Service
A lot of businesses, especially big brands like Walmart or Dunkin Donuts, use social media for customer services. When a customer has a problem, they can simply write on a business’s Facebook wall to get an answer. Many companies have employed customer service representatives specifically for social media customer service support. One company that does a particularly good job at social media customer service is Buffer, a social media marketing tool. Buffer has a policy to answer customer service tweets within 15 minutes and 99% of the time, they stick to it. Another approach to social media customer service is to have social media pages specifically for customer service. Some examples of this are Twitter and Nike. Both brands have Twitter pages that are set up just to answer customer service questions.
Remember, around 80% of customers have bailed on a brand or product due to poor service. Give your customers the service they deserve and use social media to help them as quickly as possible.
Entertainment
This doesn’t seem like the best objective for a business but it has its benefits. People buy from people, not brands. By using social media you can create a culture and relationship with your following by entertaining them. The more you share things that are fun, new, cool, and interesting to your audience, the more they will engage with you. Graphics and videos have the highest engagement rates on social media. In fact, videos are shared more on social media compared to any other type of content. So drop your sell, sell, sell mindset and try something fun. You may be surprised by the results.
Drive Web Traffic
If you want website traffic, social media can help but certain platforms are better for this objective. Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest are the best social platforms for web traffic. Twitter has to be done right for it to work. By this I mean you need to post multiple times a day. For the best results, post on Twitter between three and twelve times a day. Thousands of tweets go out each minute so you need to post several times to stay relevant. Additionally, Twitter is the easiest platform to grow your audience on and the most engaging social media platform making it likely to get more web traffic.
Google+ and Pinterest are the SEO social media networks. SEO is the main reason they are used for business. In Google+, get clicks and engagement through the use of Google+ communities. These communities make it very easy for you to find your audience with very little work. Simply search for a topic that you want to talk about, find a community to participant in, and post. You will find web traffic as well as comments and sharing. Pinterest is great for web traffic because it keeps your links alive the longest. If you do Pinterest right, links to your website could be shared across the internet for weeks or months. Pinterest is a bookmarking site so if someone pins your link, they are likely to go back to it and share it with friends.
To Sell
This is the least effective strategy you can have on social media. Social media isn’t about selling. It’s about building relationships and making connections. You do not want to constantly sell to your audience. It won’t impress them and they won’t engage with you. By using the three strategies above, you can build relationships with followers and turn them into customers as opposed to constantly selling and seeing no results from social media.
There are many ways to use social media for business and each business has its own needs. Make sure you do your research and figure out exactly what you want to be doing and why before you start. Build a social media strategy and stick to it. Track your progress and make changes when necessary. For help getting started with your social media strategy, give us a call!
