09/07/12
Social media is not a big fad
by Zoe Cairns of ZC Social Media
Lots of people approach us frustrated and under the presumption
that social media doesn’t work. They think it’s all a BIG fad.
But it is actually a new way that we communicate, a tool we can
use to engage with existing and prospective clients online.
The first thing we ask when approached by a business which is
not having much success with social media is: “Have you got a
social media strategy plan?”
In 99.9% of cases, the answer is “no”. Your social media
strategy is like a business plan, enabling you to define goals and
vision.
Your social media goals should align with business goals and be
SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely).
You then need to research, look at where your competitors are
engaging, where your target market is hanging out, and determine
which social media pillars you should be using.
You need to think about key centres of influence, key people who
can get your message out to the masses. Who are the key people with
credibility in your industry? These are the people to start
engaging with.
One of the most important areas is content. Many people struggle
with what to post and tweet. Look for industry blogs, news sites
and consider these four areas ZC Social Media always discuss with
their clients: conversation; articles; tips and promotion.
Don't spam by constantly sharing links and selling. Share good
quality information and content that can build a know, like and
trust factor to make people come and buy your products and
services.
An important aspect of your strategy is your blog.
Blogging will enable you to direct more people (traffic) to your
website rather than a third party website.
Measuring your social media activities and progress is
essential, otherwise how do you know if you are improving or
achieving your goals?
There are tools that can measure various parts of your social
media progress.
TweetReach will measure how far your tweets travelled, Hootsuite
can analyse the number of new followers on Twitter, mentions and
how many people clicked on your displayed links.
Analysing and measuring your social media activities and results
will enable you to review and change anything going forward. Always
make sure you keep an action plan.
The biggest social media task is to take BIG ACTION.