Social Media Strategic Plan: 7 Steps to Promoting Your Business Online
Technology and Social Media seem to be advancing faster than ever making it hard to keep up, especially for those of you who may have been avoiding getting up to speed in the first place. We know that this new constantly growing and changing medium can be overwhelming – especially for those of us who would like to just keep doing things the way we’ve always done them! But the unfortunate truth is if you aren’t actively learning social media as a marketing strategy you are likely to get left behind. Social media is here to stay, and if you have been avoiding using it to promote your small business, it’s time to start. If you don’t know where to begin, what to do, or which applications to use – we can help! This blog will give you 7 easy steps to creating a social media strategic plan!
1. Do a little brainstorming
The first step to promoting your small business in social media is to identify what you are trying to promote and to whom? If possible, try to think outside the box. While you may have one specific target customer group in mind, there may be others you haven’t considered.
2. Just sign up!
Many social sites are very easy to sign up for, so go do it! You should be engaging in Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook allows you to create a business page in addition to your personal page. Be sure to read the rules for businesses before you begin.
3. Use a Social Media Service Tool
A social media service tool will help you with managing social media updates in one central location. There are some fantastic free options such as ping.fm & HootSuite.com which allow you to post to all of your social sites simultaneously, as well as schedule future messages. Once you get familiar with that, you can upgrade to paid versions such as SproutSocial.com which provide more features such as pulling your messages from all sites into one mailbox, creating contacts out of followers and more.
4. Create your first 10-20 posts
It is important to have valuable content and information before you start adding friends and followers. From pictures, videos, blog links and more – you want to make your social sites attractive so that when you do begin to add friends and followers they want to engage with you. No one is going to follow a company with blank pages.
5. Find Friends and Followers
With Twitter and Google+ you can use search keywords to find followers. These keywords will have to do with your business, offerings and common interests of your customers. Should anyone begin following you be sure to comment on one of their posts right away, and if possible mention them in one of yours.
With Facebook, start with friending your colleagues friends and family, and on LinkedIn start with all business contacts and employees.
6. Start Slow, Engage, and Build Relationships
Keep in mind that you don’t have to add a thousand friends and followers at once! A few at a time is a great way to start slow, engage with people one on one and begin participating in conversations online. Don’t forget that you must build relationships with people before you mention your business or offerings. Being too self promotional right off the bat will do more harm than good.
7. Stay in touch
The most important thing is ongoing consistency. Don’t do all the leg work setting up your accounts and then neglect them. Be sure to continue communicating, posting and tweeting on a daily basis. This will ensure that you are putting forth the effort to build the relationships that will hopefully lead to increased awareness of your services and/or offerings.
Want to know more? Get started on your social media marketing now by reading our blog on how to easily use the top social networking tool for businesses, LinkedIn 101.
*Photo from drivingtraffic.com