6 Steps for Successful Social Networking Benefit Your Business with a Savvy Social Media Strategy
By Larissa Newman, Communications Specialist at Power Marketing
Social media is more than a buzzword — it's become an inescapable marketing tool for businesses. Internet marketing has certainly changed in the past couple of years. Simply having a website or Facebook profile is just the beginning. Even if you're not using social media, you can be sure your competitors are.
Understandably, getting started in social networking can seem like a daunting task on your already overflowing to-do list. It doesn't have to be! Even just a half hour a day can be enough to maintain a strong social media campaign. Check out these 6 steps toward successful social networking and start socializing today!
Make a Plan
What do you want to achieve through social media? Typical goals of businesses vary and include increased leads and sales, driving traffic to their website, brand recognition, learning about customers, providing customer support and fostering word-of-mouth. Before jumping blindly into the social media sea, take a moment to write down your goals. Refer back to them when formulating posts on your social media accounts. For instance, if one of your goals is to dialogue with your customers, ask questions and respond when they answer. And always remember to key in on keywords!
Choose Your Networks
From Facebook to FourSquare, there are a multitude of social media networks that can potentially further your business. For most businesses, here are 4 top platforms to explore:
Blogs:
Blogging is an excellent way to communicate with your customers and position yourself as a recognized leader in your industry, whether you post entries once a day, once a week or once a month. Plan your blog topics ahead of time to avoid writer's block and vary them with company news, industry news, how-tos, answers to FAQ, and helpful information for your customers. Be sure not to dominate the blog with sales pitches or solely company-related posts. Use your keywords and build inbound links to your website and related industry sites. Encourage and respond to comments with a call to action or question at the end of your post. Check out Wordpress or Blogger for a free blogging platform that's easy to use.
Facebook:
Facebook is unquestionably a leader in the social networking industry. With a roll call topping 500 million users, it's hard to find a person or business that is not on Facebook. Plus, it's free! If you haven't already set up a business page on Facebook, you're missing out on a valuable connection with your audience through a site they visit every day. Businesses can use their Facebook page to broadcast messages to a permission-based audience, converse with customers and potential customers, broaden their brand, and form relationships that lead to sales and loyal customers.
Similar to blog posts, share content that is relevant to your customers, not just sales pitches or links to your own website. Use a variety of mediums in your posts — photos, links, notes, videos, etc. Post every day or every other day to stay current but not overload your fans' newsfeeds. Encourage your followers to comment or share their thoughts and respond. Connect with other businesses and share their content, helping to strengthen bonds in the virtual business community. Be casual and conversational — Facebook is still a place where people go to talk to their friends, so a stuffy corporate tone doesn't fit in very well. You can be professional while still being fun and casual!
Twitter:
Limited to 140 characters per post, Twitter is a "micro-blogging" tool where people and companies can post short messages, thoughts, links, etc. It's extremely compatible with the speed and convenience of mobile phones, as Twitter posts are reminiscent of text messages or IMs. If you can text, you can "tweet." It might take a couple times of logging in and exploring to get used to Twitter, but it holds a lot of value for business. First of all, there are tons of experts in business on Twitter that post useful information every day. Following these people can give you instant access to the latest news, trends, data and more in your industry. Plus, Twitter makes it easy to interact with these experts (and celebrities!). Use Twitter to share thoughts related to your business, post links to your blogs and others you enjoy, announce specials or sales, provide instant support to your customers, post live updates from an event or seminar, and more. Since Twitter is so fast moving, you can post multiple times a day and still not overload your followers' Twitter feeds.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is a social network formed specifically for business, and it is especially useful for B2B marketing. Once you create a profile (and fill it out completely), start connecting with people you know — colleagues, friends, family and business contacts. Search for people and companies you know. Join groups and participate in them. Update your status with messages that C-level executives would find relevant. Check out LinkedIn Answers for questions that you can answer to help position yourself as a credible source of information.
Optimize Your Profiles
If you've been keeping up with our Power Points articles, you know how important keywords are for SEO. Using the right keywords strategically will dramatically increase your search engine ranking. Your social media posts are the perfect place to use these keywords, especially since you'll be posting updates several times a week. Use keywords in your posts as well in the information you fill out for your profiles.
Find Your Audience
Social networking is most successful when you're socializing with the right audience. This is where the search option on most social media sites comes in handy. Search for your keywords or related topics and connect with people who are already talking about your industry. If the site has an "import contacts" function, use this to invite your business contacts to connect with you.
Start Talking
Conversation is the heart of social networking. Don't be discouraged if your connections or followers don't speak up right away — building these relationships takes time. Make yourself relevant by posting about information that's interesting and useful to your audience, whether it's a blog post you write or an article you link to on Twitter. Allow comments, ask questions and include a call-to-action. And don't forget to respond to them when they speak up. It's a conversation.
Take Measure
And in the end, we're all interested in the ROI. There are numerous ways to measure your social media success. Remember your goals when deciding which metrics to track — most businesses are interested in measuring their traffic, reach, leads and brand awareness. Make sure you have Google Analytics set up to track your website traffic. Your analytics should show how many visitors found your site through social media (or referring) sites. If you have downloads or email sign ups on your website, ask your customers how they found you when they sign up to help track your leads. Use built-in Facebook insights and the Twitter Counter tool to monitor your reach and brand awareness. PostRank is a great tool to measure brand awareness as it indicates the relevance of a site, story or author.
Remember, it's not important to be a master of a certain social media site — the value is in how you make social networking overall work to further your business. Be patient and experiment until you find a strategy that's right for you. Keep reading our Power Points for more tips about social media, SEO and your overall marketing strategy. To learn more about the ideas in this newsletter and others, visit our website or contact us at info@Power-Marketing.com.
