1 – Before you start anything, you need to know your “why.” Keep it simple and be clear about why you are using Social Media, in other words, what are your goals? Understanding your goals is as important as anything else you will read here. You need to define your purpose for reaching this group.
Are you there to brand your product or service? create customer loyalty? create sales? create awareness? do you have a call to action?
2 – Next, you have to decide who you are trying to reach. Your business plan should define your target audience. We are talking about the traditional “brass tacks” of marketing (age, gender, location, income etc.) as well as the landscape of new media – in other words – you need to be where they are.
If you have a solid strategy for who you are trying to reach and why, it will translate across all platforms!
3 – Don’t forget to take advantage of customization so that all of your social media content delivers your message with similar look and feel. (Twitter background, facebook page, website, etc.) While it is impossible to make them all identical – you can ensure that the same logo is used across all etc.
4 – Content is King! This cannot be stated strongly enough. At the end of the day, if there is nothing to read or it doesn’t apply – you will lose interest and audience (if you ever gain them.) Make sure that the content fits the audience though or it will be another huge misfire.
The only thing worse than ill-fitting content is no content at all. For that reason, you MUST commit to creating (or outsourcing) content.
5 – HOW you talk to the audience is everything. Talk “with” your audience and not “at” them. If you are not engaging them in the conversation – it is nothing more than an ad and people have become experts at ignoring ads. If you are not engaging them – you are losing out on the largest benefit of social media – their opinions, their thoughts, their content.
6 – The final step is promotion, promotion, promotion. I am not talking about just “tooting your own horn.” Instead, promotion means to make sure that members of each of your social media outlets knows about your presence on other platforms. Your facebook friends should know about your witty tweets – your LinkedIn acquaintances should know about your YouTube video series – your website should promote ALL of them!
Chris Doelle
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