The first rule of social media marketing (SMM) is to have an active and vibrant social media marketing campaign. Even if you get a bad response, that’s still better than no response. A bad response, we can work with, but no response is no good. No matter how small or large your business is, you need to start building a social business presence as soon as possible. Small businesses can often start enjoying measurable returns on their social media efforts very quickly. It may take longer for larger businesses to start seeing significant revenues through social media marketing, but in the medium to long term — having a social media presence is no less important.
The goal is to both develop and protect your professional reputation while growing your customer base and maintaining existing loyalties. To do all that, you need a plan, a set of goals and a coherent framework in which to organize your SMM outreach and help keep you on track. The important thing is to communicate a personable and engaging presence that your audience wants to interact with. Don’t worry; if you don’t like the direction your SMM campaign is taking in the early stages, there are plenty of opportunities to turn it around. The only important differences from traditional forms of communication are that social media is done through websites such as LinkedIn, Instagram, etc., and that your audience can potentially be unlimited in size.
Here are 10 key steps to help you get started.
1. Set Defined Goals
Decide what you hope to get out of your SMM. Are you attempting to create direct sales? Do you wish to establish a platform for customer service? Are you interested in generating loyalty by building relationships with your customers?
Your answers will determine what kind of content and level of interaction you need to deliver. If you answered “yes†to more than one of these questions, or thought of something we didn’t mention, you may be best served by creating a separate department for each type of SMM outreach you intend to do.
2. Know Your Audience
Where do people who appreciate your brand spend most of their time while online? What type of content do they enjoy? What are their online conversations like? What topics are they are most outspoken about?
The idea of social media is that people already have an interest in the information and content you provide — they seek it out readily and share it with their friends. The more personable and relevant to your audience, the more they will seek you out and share your posts.
3. Make an Appraisal of Your Resources
Decide who, specifically, might perform a given type of action. Who will be responsible for maintaining your social media accounts? Whose job will it be to respond to customer questions, complaints and comments and be an active representative of your brand? Does your team, or you, possess the technical ability to fulfill this role; will training or outsourcing be necessary? Do you have access to a competent writer, videographer, photographer, graphic designer and so on?
4. Make Great Content
Once you have determined who your audience is and where they spend their time, you can begin to create content that appeals to their specific needs and interests. There’s one rule in content creation: Give them more of what they want. Your content must be as original and valuable as possible; otherwise, they will look elsewhere. Remember, your audience has options. Do whatever it takes to create high-quality content that appeals to your core audience. When you’ve found a style that works, turn up the volume.
5. Co-Integrate Your Marketing Efforts
Everything you post should share a tone and language that identifies your brand personality consistently. Link to your other content at appropriate points, and make sure everything has a consistent feel to it.
6. Use the 80/20 Rule
Research shows that people spend 80 percent of their online time with informative or entertaining content and just 20 percent viewing promotional material. So it’s best to direct 80 percent of your content creation to deliver information or entertainment — and only 20 percent to advertisement.
7. Draft a Schedule
Most people go online at certain times of the day to access certain types of content. Sometimes it’s because they know when the content they’re looking for will be published. Other times, it’s the type of content that might determine what time of day is best to publish. The most important thing is to establish a regular schedule for each type of content you publish. You can alter your schedule later if needed.
8. Quality Before Quantity
One piece of high-quality content is better than several mediocre blog posts. When it comes to gathering followers, 100 loyal users are better than 1,000 users who stumbled in by accident. You should create accurate titles and valuable content that people will naturally be attracted to. Your audience will appreciate it, and you’ll feel good about the work you’ve done.
9. Don’t Try to Direct the Conversation
Users don’t want to be told what to say or think. Let them discuss your content freely. That doesn’t mean you have to take abuse, but let the conversation flow naturally and use criticism as fuel for improvement.
10. Never Stop Learning
You can be sure the competition won’t stop improving their SMM, and neither should you. Always be on the lookout for better methods and better ways to give your audience what they are looking for.