Ready to let the world know that your business is here? Then you need to get yourself so some social media! Here are four must-haves that we think every business needs as part of a successful social media strategy.
Social Media Plan
While it might not always appear like it, social media isn’t a total free for all — there are guidelines and standards you’ll want to adhere to, not to mention, you’ll want a plan in place before you start tweeting random bits of information.
After all, no one takes random tweeters seriously anyway!
First things first, settle on your goals; decide what you want to gain from your social media efforts:
- Are you all about gaining followers?
- Do you want to become an influencer?
- Do you want to grow your customer base or reach?
- Are you focused on growing your brand recognition?
After you’ve locked down your goals, you’ll want to do a bit of research. Check out the competition to see what they are doing, how often they post, and what platforms they hang out on. Also, spend a bit of time on the Google Keyword Planner tool to find out what keywords customers are using to find the services and products you use.
From here, you’ll have a good idea of what social media platforms and keywords make the most sense for your business. Lay out a plan for what days and times you want to post, what type of content you want to post (blogs, landing pages, emails, simple social posts), and on what platforms. Finally, define your metrics (how many followers you want by the end of the month, how many shares or likes you want, how many click-throughs you want, etc.).
This will become your social media plan and will be something you’ll want to revisit and tweak monthly depending on performance.
Social Media Management Tools
Now that you have a social media plan in place, it’s time to develop a system via which to put your plan into action. While you can handle it manually, we’re here to tell you that it’s going to be super time consuming, so we recommend you select a social media management tool to help you tackle the job.
Here are just a few you might want to check out:
Social media management tools can save you time and headaches down the road, not to mention they make overall management and reporting much easier.
Social Media Policy
No matter how big or small your business is, having a social media policy is an absolute must-have item.
Having a social media policy for your business is the best way to make sure your employees know how to act on various channels. It can also help stave off legal or security problems.
Not sure what to cover in your social media policy? Check out this article from Forbes for tips on how to create a policy and what items you want to make sure to include in your guidelines.
Social Optimization
Before you begin your social media journey, make sure your website is ready for the ride! You’ll want to fully optimize your website for search engine performance and make sure that all blogs, articles, videos and other shareable content are ready to be shared.
What does that mean? Glad you asked! In a nutshell, ensure you have included social share options throughout your website. You want to make it as easy as possible for users to share content they like to their own social pages.
Additionally, you want to share content you find that pertains to your industry or that you think your audience will find funny. This practice is called content curating. Not only does this allow you to show your audience that you do more than simply create and push content, it shows them that you are part of the community.
Remember, social media is about creating relationships —- no one wants to be pitched to all day, so having a social optimization strategy in place that allows you to share information from a variety of places and on a wide range of topics (and not just about your services or products) is a great way to foster communication and cultivate a relationship with your audience.