Social media isn’t just for fun and communicating with friends now. It is a powerful tool for business marketing if strategically implemented. However, many businesses make the common mistake of failing to create a social media plan. Having a plan for social media is widely underrated as it is just as important as any other marketing strategy.
We’ve outlined your future social media marketing strategy plan in 6 steps listed below.
1. Figure out who will be managing your social media
With the many tasks of running a successful business, social media tends to lack the attention it deserves. Before we dive into the different parts of running a successful social media campaign, you need to first identify who it will be in your business that will be conducting these activities. By assigning a person or team the task of monitoring and posting content, it will ensure that content will be posted on a regular basis and someone will be responding to all the comments and feedback posts.
2. Create branded pages
Once you have designated your company’s social media responsibilities to a manager or team, it’s time to make your branded pages. The first step is determining which social media platforms you will want to utilize. Smaller businesses will be greatly benefited by Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ as well as LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram depending on your industry.
To create effective branded pages, it’s important for all your social media sites to have the same appearance and feel as your company website. As an example, Milan Stoneworks does a stellar job of molding their Facebook and Google+ pages to reflect their company website. Click on the links below to check out their sites!
Website
Google+
Milan Stoneworks excels in creating branding pages for they:
- Used colors and photos of their own work
- Integrated their logo as their profile picture
- Provided easy access to their contact information
Important tip: after creating or updating your social pages, remember to include links on your website so your customers and friends can connect with you!
3. Develop a schedule
Now that your social media channels are up and running, the next step is to develop a schedule to keep up maintenance of your sites. The three main areas that you want to make sure to keep up on is:
- The number of posts per week
- The time your posts will be made
- The content for each post
Remember, that these three points are just to ensure that you’re posting consistently. When news, tips, and new ideas relative to your industry arise, don’t hesitate to share!
Important tip: consistency is key when it comes to social media marketing! The biggest mistake businesses make is they start out strong when starting out their social media plan and post a ton of content, but then the momentum quickly fades.
(Check out our FREE Daily Social Media Checklist to help you with your posting schedule!)
4. Create engaging and shareable content
After creating strong social media pages and developing a schedule, it’s time to draw an audience to your business! To do so, you have to generate engaging and shareable content. Take into account when creating content, what do you think your customers are interested in? Engage their attention with your content, but also make it shareable so your audience can grow its presence.
Some successful content ideas:
- Weekly tips and advice
- Trends in your industry
- Something humorous related to your industry
- Highlight and recognize your customers
- Social media “only” offers
- Interactive posts (questions that customers will want to answer)
- Photos and videos of work your company does
- Coupons and contests
- “How to” videos
- Sales
Below is an example of a post Milan Stoneworks posting about some hot trends for 2015 on their Facebook page:
Important tip: follow the 80/20 rule when posting content. Keep 80 percent of your posts interesting and engaging to your industry and 20 percent about your company and your services. You don’t want to fill your customer’s newsfeed of purely promotional content.
5. Monitor responses
It’s important to monitor all the comments your content receives and respond in a timely manner. Regardless if the feedback it positive or negative, it should all be addressed. If someone praises your services, thank them. If they complain or have a question, reach out to them. Negative feedback is never fun for any business, but take it as constructive criticism. Why is this customer complaining and what can you do better next time?
Below is a great example of a company addressing the complaints of a customer:
What h.h. gregg did well:
- Responded well in a timely manner (within 8 minutes!)
- Addressed the customer personally
- Apologized for the incident and reached out to help
Important tips: it is unpredictable as to what your customers may post about your company on social media. However, if you can respond in a timely manner, your company will become respected online.
6. Understand your customer’s behavior and reaction to your services
What better way to understand what your customer wants then to simply ask them for yourself? Engage with your followers to get their opinions on your services and what they want from you. This will establish a relationship with your followers and give your business an insight into your consumer demand.
To learn more about this topic, check out our other blogs below!
7 Things About Small Business Marketing You Need to Know
The Worst Advice We’ve Ever Heard About Small Business Marketing