When you decide that you want to start a social media marketing campaign for your business, you must understand that it needs to be taken seriously. If done correctly, social media can provide huge opportunities for your business. To follow this route requires you to create a social media strategy that you can follow to achieve the best results.
Creating an optimized social media marketing strategy requires a few points that you should take note of in order for your business’s efforts to succeed on the social web. What are those points? Find below a short description that explains them.
Objectives
Are you looking for new sales leads? Do you want to stay in touch with your current customers? Have a look at your overall business objectives and how social media can help you achieve those goals. Once you have identified your business objectives, then you will be able to create your social media strategy.
Listening (Research)
Do you know the audience you are trying to reach? Which social media channels are they using? What are the best practices to effectively leverage these channels? These are very important questions that needs to be answered so that you can position your business for success with social media.
Starting a listening process will also help you identify who you want to engage with through your social media efforts. By listening with your research strategy, you will get a very good idea on what you can expect when you start your campaign.
Content marketing
What type of content are you going to promote and share on your social media profiles? How often and which relevant content sources are you going to use? With social media you can build a network of interested followers that are interested in what you share with them. What content do they find useful?
Measurement
It is very important to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. This will help you make adjustments to your strategy where needed, and it will help you focus on the areas that works. There are many tools available that you can use to measure your campaign, but it is important to decide on what you are going to measure. Are you going to measure the reach of your campaign, influence, network followers or profile traffic?
Starting a social media marketing campaign is an exciting decision, but it should not be taken lightly. In order to get the most out of your campaign, a well planned social media strategy is the key to success.
Thanks for the Elaboration on what a Good Social Media Strategy should Consist of. Thanks for sharing the post – Short and sweet and straight to the point. Keep up the quality post – I’m an avid reader and follower of your site.
Thanks again for your comments Byron.
Great post Anton. You and I are on the same page when it comes to having a strategy for using social media. Social media is a tool and how we use it definitely needs to be part of a plan. As for measuring and tracking, I’m such a spreadsheet “junkie” that my post last week was “Tracking Changes to Your Website Blog and Social Media Strategy”.
Thanks Sherryl.
You are 100% correct. Social media is a medium that amplifies social behavior. That is where most get it wrong. It’s only a channel. If you don’t have a strategy on how you are going to compliment your business objectives with social media you are practically walking in the dark.
Good article. I agree about having a good social media action plan that should stem from having a strategy in the first place. Many people need help with this.
Hi, good post. I agree about having an action plan for social media which stems from a strategy in the first place. Many people need help with this.
Great post. Just how do I reign in those who read that social media is important…but start tweeting and blogging away immeditely with no real thought behind it. I’m trying to develop a series of questions to ask them in order to get them thinking. Will this work as a first step in understanding why social media, regardless of the more casual tone of communication, must be thought through? I work for a large company and all the different areas are out of control doing their own thing.