Running business social media that works isn’t easy. You can’t automate it or walk away from it and expect it to “do its magic.” (Not unless you have a really awesome assistant).
Some business owners might wonder if it’s really worth it. As long as you have a Twitter and maybe a Facebook page and don’t let it go totally dormant, it’s still doing something, right?
Depending on your definition of not dormant, it could do a little something — or it could do more harm than good, if people locate your social media and find it’s not very active.
The fact is, most business social media pages that are updated casually with no real plan in place flounder. That’s a waste of a very valuable resource.
Of course, creating a social media strategy and putting it into place requires resources too — primarily time. As a business owner, time is money, but a good social media strategy is worth it.
This 3-part strategy is not only simple and effective, it’s time efficient once you get into the habit of it.
3-Part Social Media Strategy that Actually Works
#1 Know Your Mission and Set Goals Accordingly
Every week and every month should have a set of goals to meet, and these goals should align with your business mission.
Your mission is something you should have included in your business plan, but if you don’t have one, it’s never too late to make one.
For example:
“To become an industry leader in the field of marketing.”
Simple, right? Now, how do you become a leader? When it comes to social media strategy, you’ll need to get your posts shared by as many people as possible, and to establish yourself as an expert in the field.
A popular method for goal setting is Project Smart’s SMART Goals, which helps set achievable goals by making goals SMART:
- S: Specific. Each goal should be clear and actionable. If your goal is vague, how will you know when you reach it. Don’t set a goal for more interaction, for example. Instead, set a goal to respond to at least 10 tweets this week.
- M: Measurable. Don’t set a goal for more followers, set a goal to increase your follower count by 50 by the end of the week, for example.
- A: Agreed Upon: Make sure everyone involved is on the same page, whether it’s you and a business partner, marketer, or assistant — especially if you plan to divide social media duties between two or more people.
- R: Realistic: Don’t set a goal to have 10,000 followers by the end of the month if you have 1,000 now. Sure, you could go viral and have a big spike, but that’s not the type of thing you plan for. Set a goal for a number that is attainable based on the work you plan to put in.
- T: Time-Based: Make sure you give yourself enough time to meet your goal, and don’t give yourself too much time, or it loses its urgency.
Your goals can be set, so, for example, you commit to sharing 10 articles every week, or you can make a new set of goals each week, depending on how you’re doing. For example, if you’re follower count is climbing thanks to some well-received blog posts, keep them coming and up your follower goal.
Goals should always fall into the following areas:
- Increase salesGoals that increase sales include posting a set number of new high quality blog posts a week, and designing sharable graphics for each one.
- Heighten brand visibilityGoals that heighten brand visibility include increasing your number of followers (organically, of course), and starting up or building up on a new platform. An example of heightening your brand visibility might be to run a contest that involves re-tweeting or broadcasting a live mini-seminar or tutorial on Periscope.
- Drive TrafficIt’s always important to use social media drives traffic to your blog. In addition to your new post, you should have an archive of evergreen posts that you can post to social media. That way, even on days when you don’t have a brand new blog post to share, you’re still sharing content that leads back to your blog.
- Increase customer satisfactionYour social media followers aren’t just along for the ride, they’re your customers, even if they’re still potential customers. When someone interacts with you on social media, you need to respond as if a customer was calling your business on the phone. Respond immediately if you’re available, as soon as possible if not — and work to decrease your response time or keep it down.
#2 Have a Daily Strategy
Each week, plan out your content strategy in an organized way. This will give you and your followers a routine, which can increase interaction and have followers looking for your posts.
Each day should have a focus along with your regular evergreen content and link sharing.
For example:
~Monday: For many people, Monday is the beginning of the busy work week after a weekend off — start the day with something fun, entertaining, and light to ease them back into the grind. Monday content can include:
- Inspirational quote
- Funny work-related memes
- Polls
- Videos
~Tuesday: Launch brand new content on Tuesdays. This can be a long blog post, or even an eBook or guide. Make it engaging, and make your followers come to expect and wait for the valuable new content you put on each week.
~Wednesday: Open your Twitter or Facebook to questions during a specified time frame and answer them as they come in. Setting a specific Q&A time weekly encourages interaction between you and your followers.
~Thursday: Throw a weekly giveaway. Prizes can include a sample of your product, a free session, an eBook — things with value that won’t set you back much.
Make your giveaways fun and interactive — for example, on Facebook, you could have a 10-question trivia quiz each week, and the person who gets the most correct answers wins.
It’s easy and it helps builds a community around your brand (whereas contests that involve retweeting and sharing posts can come off as spammy and don’t encourage interaction between followers).
~Friday: Make Friday your Feel-Good Day. Choose a person or organization to feature each week — it could be a charity, a young entrepreneur, an author who has just published their first book, etc.
Encourage your followers to show their support, and take suggestions for future Fridays. This ends the work week on a positive note.
~The weekend: Schedule a few pieces of evergreen content to auto-post over the weekend, assuming you take weekends off.
You should try and take a day or two off social media each week, regardless. Just make sure that when you do take social media breaks, you’ve queued up some content.
#3 Measure Your Effectiveness
It’s important to measure the effectiveness of your social media strategy at least weekly. Facebook Insights makes it easy to see how your Facebook page is doing, with graphs, charts, and lists.
On Twitter, users have access to Twitter Analytics, which measure impressions (the number of people who saw a tweet) and engagements (the number of people who retweeted, liked, commented or clicked a link) over a 28-day period.
These analytics will show you what engages your followers the most, the most active times for your followers, which content doesn’t work.
Use this information to update your social media strategy as needed.
If your Thursday contests aren’t as engaging as the Wednesday Q&A, look at ways the two are different to try and make your Thursday plan better (this includes considering that your followers just don’t care for contests and maybe you should go in a different direction altogether).
Final Thoughts
Despite the challenges of creating a business social media strategy that works, it can be done.
If you’re SMART, focused, and flexible, you can meet your goals and reap the benefits of successful social media.
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