Many businesses forge into the realm of social media without a real strategy. But just like any form of advertising, companies need to develop a marketing plan for all their online efforts including social media.
Define your objectives. Be specific. What do you want to get out of your social media efforts? Are you trying to create awareness of your brand? Are you trying to drive traffic to your website? Are you trying to increase your conversions?
Know your audience. There are tons of social media sites and each of them are developed for specific target audiences in mind and not all of them may be appropriate for your business. For example, if your clients are business professionals (35-55) then you shouldn’t be targeting people on mySpace which is popular among 13-18 year olds. A more appropriate channel for your business would be Facebook since that demographic matches their fastest growing user base. If you would like to find out audience demographics for different social media channels then check out http://www.quantcast.com.
Pick channels/tools that fit your marketing goals. There are two types of online marketing campaigns: brand awareness and direct response. Much of the social media channel is about building brand awareness by engaging with customers in cyberspace. But much of it is direct response advertising – getting your customers where they are already. Did you know that 20% of all internet ads are served on Facebook. Maybe that’s because the network has over 600 million users and is growing exponentially.
Develop strategies that will help you meet your goals. If you are trying to promote your products to drive sales then you might want to create ads and target people on Facebook that fit your user profile. Or you could keep people informed of new product launches via Twitter.
Develop a communication plan. In your plan include the social network you are targeting, the frequency of updates, key messaging used on the channel, your objectives for that channel, and how you will measure your results (metrics). Estimate the time you will need to accomplish your goals.
Know your competitors. View you competitors social media channels. See how they are engaging customers. What can you do better?
Track your metrics. Keep track of number of your connections. How many channel views did you have last month? Which videos performed the best? Did you notice any referring links, ping-backs or track-backs? Are people commenting on your content and engaging with you in the social media space? Did you get any sales as a result of your ad? Most channels have basic metric data, but if you would like to see engagements there are a variety of social media analytics tools available for tracking your efforts.
Analyze your data. What things did you do well? What could you do better?
Ask for help. Social media can be a daunting task for businesses. If you are not sure where to start starwebgraphics can help.
I love working with small businesses, non-profits, and entrepreneurs. Contact me today!