With so much potential for businesses – both small and large, you cannot afford to ignore social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for promoting your brand and products. What makes the social network so valuable is that there’s no need to spend a fortune on these sites to be able to reach your audience.
A simple profile page and regular updates may be all that is required to succeed. Here are some basic tips on how to go about with a successful strategy for your social media presence.
1. Sign Up and Create a Profile
Make sure that your company name or brand name is on all the top social networks. For starters, check these off your list:
- Google+
Creating a profile on these sites is free, easy and fast. Maintaining the profile however, is something that is not easy – and the reason why many businesses fail to continue with their social media strategy.
2. Hire a Social Media Manager
Managing a social account successfully requires the investment of time and effort. You will need to make friends and/or build new followers (and grow your network), post content regularly; respond to comments and complaints, and a whole lot of other things.
Rather than do all this yourself, hire the services of an experienced and skilled social media manager. A person fully invested in looking after your business’s social presence on line will better enable you to build an active social profile that is less prone to error, more responsive to trending topics, and quicker to respond and connect to your social audience.
If you’re on a tighter budget, there are also social media management tools that could automate your tasks and help you save time and money.
3. Be where your audience is
While the above-mentioned four social sites are a must-have when it comes to stamping your online presence, you should also conduct research to learn where your target audience spends more of its time.
Depending on your products or niche, chances are that your potential customers prefer Instagram to Facebook. Maybe they like to spend more time tweeting or on YouTube watching and sharing videos. Get to know your potential and existing customers’ social maps, and make sure they can find you wherever they happen to be.
4. Consistency is the biggest factor to social media success
Many businesses will create their social media accounts and leave it at that. A social media prescence is not just about having a stagnant Facebook page. If you are not consistently looking after your social platforms, you could be doing more harm than good to your brand image.
If you have a social media manager, make sure there is also a social media plan for success. It should include regular updates and user interaction as an important part of the strategy. The most successful brands build their social media calendar. (In fact, they will have a calendar for all their online activities).
When thinking of your online media strategy, stick to the rules of integrated marketing coordination. It could help you get the most out of your overall marketing plan.
Social media is all about building relationships. So make sure that you are always building positive relations and giving out better experiences to your audience. If you are successful in doing so, they are highly likely to pay back in different ways.
