Social media is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. If you use it correctly, you can create a strong personal connection with your prospective customers. social media as a marketing toolHowever, marketers often make the mistake of diving into social media without a clear plan. At best, this is a waste of time – and at worst, it can lead to a PR disaster. To benefit from social media, you need to build a clear strategy that takes into account what you’re trying to achieve, who your customers are and what your competition is doing. We all know that social is a key part of modern marketing, but how do you get started? How can you be sure that your efforts on social are strategic, and that you aren't just "marketing at random"?To be successful on social, your social marketing strategy needs to include high-level objectives, as well as specific, granular action items. In other words, you need a social media tactical plan. As with any journey, the first step in creating a social-media marketing strategy is to understand where you want to go. What is the purpose of your social media marketing efforts? Do you want to create or raise awareness of your brand? Are you looking to increase sales, or website traffic, or both? Is your goal to build customer loyalty and increase retention? These goals aren’t mutually exclusive, but you should focus on one or two: If you spread yourself too thin, you’re not going to accomplish anything.It’s time to set clear objectives based on your goals. Focus on the S.M.A.R.T. strategy for goal setting to ensure your objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based.For example, if you’re a B2B marketer looking to increase sales, you might decide that you want to generate an additional 100 online leads a month.
On the other hand, if your goal is brand awareness, then you might want to increase the number of times your brand is mentioned on social media by 50 percent. social media marketing pricing In all cases, these objectives should be directly tied to your business goals, and they should be achievable. Otherwise, they’re just wishful thinking. Also, make sure your objectives are time limited. For instance, you need to achieve that 50 percent growth in brand awareness within six months, not at some undefined time in the future.Once you set your objectives, make sure you can measure them. Find the right tools to track and analyze each one, so that you can quantify your progress. Not only will this let you know when you have arrived, it will also help you to spot problems early and adjust your course if you need to.Now you know where you’re going, but you still don’t know how to get there. A successful social-media strategy is all about targeting the right people with the right messages. To do this, you need to understand your audience. For instance, there’s no point in targeting everyone in the 18 to 35 age group if you really want to get to upwardly mobile young professionals who are technology enthusiasts.The best way to do this is to create buyer personas. Sit down and create a detailed profile of your ideal customer. Start by giving them a name. How old are they? What is their income? Do they have children? What do they like or dislike? What motivates them? And so on. If you have more than one ideal customer, create a persona for each.When it comes to social media, your competition can tell you a lot about what works and what doesn’t. After all, they’re targeting the same customers you are. If you ignore your competition, you’re giving up a fantastic opportunity to learn from their successes and mistakes.
Finally, you need to develop a strong content plan that will deliver engaging material. The content needs to align with your overall messaging and be appropriate for the channels you’re using. social media marketing experts This is more than just product information – think about how you can deliver real value to your audience. Don’t just stick to one type of media – a mix of videos, guides, infographics and other styles will engage your potential customers more effectively. Also, don’t think of content as something you post once. You need to have an ongoing presence on social media, and that includes delivering fresh content on a regular basis. Who are you trying to reach? To plan an effective social media strategy, you need to have a clear picture of your ideal customer. Armed with this data, you can match up your social media marketing efforts with the social networks where your customers are spending their time.Women between the ages of 18 and 29 comprise Facebook’s primary audience, for instance, while LinkedIn’s users are predominantly males with graduate-level education. Find out where your target customers are networking online. Competitive analysis is a key component of any marketing tactic. Katherine O’Hara, founder of The O'Hara Project, a WBENC and MBE-certified firm specializing in advertising, public relations and social media, recommends performing a competitive deep-dive to get a sense of not only your competitors’ strengths, but their weaknesses. Tap into those topics and start generating discussions, and you’ll be carving out your place in the social sphere from the start.A strategic social media marketing plan requires more than just throwing out a few tweets or status updates.
What works on Facebook will fall flat on Twitter, and vice versa.Assign someone to act as a customer service rep. It’s vital to be responsive to user generated content, comments, social media marketing dallas and feedback (positive or not). CRM (customer relationship management) is a fundamental to social media marketing success.Schedule metrics reporting. Reporting metrics can occur weekly, monthly, or bimonthly depending on your goals and desired outcomes.Reanalyze your plan on a regular basis. If something in your plan isn’t working, switch it up or do some A/B testing to determine what your audience responds to better. Use 2 versions of your content simultaneously and measure to see which one is more successful and use it going forward. “Social media is like a party; barging into a group already talking and saying ‘buy my stuff’ is rude,” advises Michael Procopio, co-author of 42 Rules for B2B Social Media Marketing and a 15-year veteran of the marketing industry. Procopio says the route to success in social media is finding a way to offer value without over-selling. This can be done by offering discounts, but also by providing information around your products or services. Megan McManus, digital and social content coordinator at Blueview Agency, suggests figuring out solutions to frequently asked questions and offering those ideas through original photo or video content. “In social media strategy, the business should also conduct some trial and error to see what kind of posts their audiences like. Some audiences will respond well to product information while others may prefer to hear about a business's community involvement,” she explains. Social media audiences are finicky. They don’t appreciate hard sales pitches, and they like to be engaged—but not over-saturated with content. Finding the right balance is essential to your success, and it’s another aspect of your campaign requiring a trial-and-error approach.
On the other hand, if your goal is brand awareness, then you might want to increase the number of times your brand is mentioned on social media by 50 percent. social media marketing pricing In all cases, these objectives should be directly tied to your business goals, and they should be achievable. Otherwise, they’re just wishful thinking. Also, make sure your objectives are time limited. For instance, you need to achieve that 50 percent growth in brand awareness within six months, not at some undefined time in the future.Once you set your objectives, make sure you can measure them. Find the right tools to track and analyze each one, so that you can quantify your progress. Not only will this let you know when you have arrived, it will also help you to spot problems early and adjust your course if you need to.Now you know where you’re going, but you still don’t know how to get there. A successful social-media strategy is all about targeting the right people with the right messages. To do this, you need to understand your audience. For instance, there’s no point in targeting everyone in the 18 to 35 age group if you really want to get to upwardly mobile young professionals who are technology enthusiasts.The best way to do this is to create buyer personas. Sit down and create a detailed profile of your ideal customer. Start by giving them a name. How old are they? What is their income? Do they have children? What do they like or dislike? What motivates them? And so on. If you have more than one ideal customer, create a persona for each.When it comes to social media, your competition can tell you a lot about what works and what doesn’t. After all, they’re targeting the same customers you are. If you ignore your competition, you’re giving up a fantastic opportunity to learn from their successes and mistakes.
Research and know your audience
What topics and interests are they are most social about? What problems are they trying to solve? What are their pain points? For example, social media marketing blog if you sell snowboards, do your competitors talk about how their snowboards perform, or do they post amazing snowboarding videos that just happen to include their products? Then, see how well each competitor is doing (e.g. how much engagement -- comments, shares, likes) -- they get on their Facebook updates.) This will let you determine which strategies work and which ones don’t.Now you have a handle on your ideal customers and your competition, it’s time to start building your messages. This isn’t detailed content; rather it's the top level set of key messages that you think will resonate with your customers based on the personas you have created. Choose two or three messages, then break each one down another level creating a simple messaging hierarchy.There’s nothing wrong with adopting some of your competitors’ successful messaging ideas but also try to create original messages that set you apart -- this will help you to create a unique brand voice. Don’t be afraid to get creative as your social media presence should be exciting, not boring.Not all social-media platforms are the same. You need to choose the right ones for the products or services you’re selling.For example, LinkedIn is a good platform to target for business-to-business sales while Pinterest may be better if you’re in the fashion business. Some of these channels will become obvious when you look at your competitors but see if any relevant channels were overlooked.You should also identify influencers who can reach your target audience. Good bloggers command high levels of trust in their readers and are indispensable in creating buzz around your brand. Take the time to target the most appropriate bloggers – sites such as mine, Tomoson, can help you to do this.Finally, you need to develop a strong content plan that will deliver engaging material. The content needs to align with your overall messaging and be appropriate for the channels you’re using. social media marketing experts This is more than just product information – think about how you can deliver real value to your audience. Don’t just stick to one type of media – a mix of videos, guides, infographics and other styles will engage your potential customers more effectively. Also, don’t think of content as something you post once. You need to have an ongoing presence on social media, and that includes delivering fresh content on a regular basis. Who are you trying to reach? To plan an effective social media strategy, you need to have a clear picture of your ideal customer. Armed with this data, you can match up your social media marketing efforts with the social networks where your customers are spending their time.Women between the ages of 18 and 29 comprise Facebook’s primary audience, for instance, while LinkedIn’s users are predominantly males with graduate-level education. Find out where your target customers are networking online. Competitive analysis is a key component of any marketing tactic. Katherine O’Hara, founder of The O'Hara Project, a WBENC and MBE-certified firm specializing in advertising, public relations and social media, recommends performing a competitive deep-dive to get a sense of not only your competitors’ strengths, but their weaknesses. Tap into those topics and start generating discussions, and you’ll be carving out your place in the social sphere from the start.A strategic social media marketing plan requires more than just throwing out a few tweets or status updates.
Use the same social networks as your audience
Are Facebook and Twitter their platforms of choice? Do most of them use Pinterest and Instagram? Go where your target audience is to create awareness,engagement, and brand ambassadors.Identify your KPIs (key performance indicators. social media marketing articles They measure progress toward your goals. What do you want your social media efforts to accomplish? What does success look like in quantifiable terms?Write a social media marketing playbook. The playbook should detail your KPIs, audience profiles, brand personas, campaign concepts, promotional events, contests, content themes, crisis management plan, etc. Make sure to tailor strategies that are unique to each of your social media channels.Align the people at your company with the plan. Get everyone on board with your strategy. Divide responsibilities among your team, such as who is in charge of posting to your blog and each social media network, who will respond to comments and @mentions, and who will own metrics tracking and reporting.Set aside some time at the beginning of each week to prepare. Take 30-60 minutes to schedule tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts, Pinterest pins, and other social media content. Come up with some original ideas, links to your own content, and links to outside content that is useful or interesting to your audience.Develop a content marketing calendar. Use one of the example spreadsheets I’ve created as a starting point to plan content topics, headlines, related links, desired scheduling, name of authors, etc.Post content that is relevant to newsworthy topics and events. As soon as breaking news comes out about anything related to your brand or industry, you should share your opinion and become part of the conversation.Treat all of your social channels differently. Don’t post the same message everywhere – remember who the audience is on each platform and how they interact.What works on Facebook will fall flat on Twitter, and vice versa.Assign someone to act as a customer service rep. It’s vital to be responsive to user generated content, comments, social media marketing dallas and feedback (positive or not). CRM (customer relationship management) is a fundamental to social media marketing success.Schedule metrics reporting. Reporting metrics can occur weekly, monthly, or bimonthly depending on your goals and desired outcomes.Reanalyze your plan on a regular basis. If something in your plan isn’t working, switch it up or do some A/B testing to determine what your audience responds to better. Use 2 versions of your content simultaneously and measure to see which one is more successful and use it going forward. “Social media is like a party; barging into a group already talking and saying ‘buy my stuff’ is rude,” advises Michael Procopio, co-author of 42 Rules for B2B Social Media Marketing and a 15-year veteran of the marketing industry. Procopio says the route to success in social media is finding a way to offer value without over-selling. This can be done by offering discounts, but also by providing information around your products or services. Megan McManus, digital and social content coordinator at Blueview Agency, suggests figuring out solutions to frequently asked questions and offering those ideas through original photo or video content. “In social media strategy, the business should also conduct some trial and error to see what kind of posts their audiences like. Some audiences will respond well to product information while others may prefer to hear about a business's community involvement,” she explains. Social media audiences are finicky. They don’t appreciate hard sales pitches, and they like to be engaged—but not over-saturated with content. Finding the right balance is essential to your success, and it’s another aspect of your campaign requiring a trial-and-error approach.
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