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We know two things about social media – that it is here to stay, and that it is always changing. Whether it is the presence of new technical tools or a strategy swing from your key competitors, what is proven effective and what is possible via social media marketing today will surely be different tomorrow. As a result, creating a plan can be challenging, but these timeless five steps should help you stay connected with your core audience and generate a solid return on your investment, regardless of your organization’s size and budget.
- Identify and Focus on Your Audience’s Core Channels – Marketing to moms? You may want to focus on Pinterest. Focused on college students? Twitter is where it’s at. Regardless of who your audience is, there is probably a channel you will want to identify as your key area of focus. Of course, that is not to say you should only invest your time in one of the channels, but rather find your audience’s favorites and start to target them there – without ignoring other platforms. Whether it’s Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, Yelp!, Foursquare or Instagram, find the channels that fit your organization best and use them to stay visible with your audience.
- Initiate Engagement – Remember, remember, remember – it’s safe to assume that no one wakes up in the morning seeking to connect with your organization. Make an active effort to get your name out there by targeting the people and organizations that can get you noticed on social media platforms. You can do this by asking for support, but a better strategy is to start a conversation with these publics. Set a goal to target a set number of these publics per week or month and get a return on a certain percentage. If you can get these influencers on your team, you’ll find those they influence coming through your digital doors.
- Use Your Time Wisely – In the abyss that is the Web, it is easy to spend your entire day scrounging content. Resist this urge! Find the people that can benefit you the most, locate the best sources of information and dictate how much of your content will be conversational, shared and promotional and formulate a path to follow within a set window of time. We start with promotional, partner and conversational posts at the beginning of each week – schedule the content to go out at specific times when our audience is the most active and then go from there. Use an in-depth analytics website, such as crowdbooster.com to track analytics for individual posts or tweets and discover when your audience is the most active. If someone engages you, pick a time that works each day to prepare a response – or set your mobile device to alert you and then respond, if you have a flexible schedule.
- Repurpose Your Content – A Facebook Post and a Tweet are apples and oranges in appearance, but that doesn’t mean the message can’t be similar. Find a way to minimize your time spent by taking your content and shaping it for each platform. This is a great way to cross platforms without changing your entire messaging strategy and content. Have a new product or a great link to share? Adapt it to the technical differences and get it out there across all of your key platforms.
- Don’t Let Your Other Marketing Suffer – Social is here to stay, but that doesn’t mean traditional PR and advertising are gone. In fact, with so many organizations investing more effort into social, you may find this is a good opportunity to use those old-school platforms like radio ads and press releases to stand out and also drive that audience directly to your social presence. If you’re a commerce business, marketing to traditional audiences can drive them to social and then to your website, where your digital point-of-sale awaits.
The biggest thing to remember is that a social media plan is subject to change. If your numbers start to suffer – adapt! You also want to make sure that your plan has you walking down a two-way street – engaging your audience as they pass. A good plan can turn those social residents around and get them chatting with you the whole way up the street – and before you know it – your dedicated efforts can lead to a dedicated discussion about YOU.
