Social media is a lot more than simply telling people what you had for breakfast and chatting with your friends. The internet has made the world so much smaller, and social media gives us a level of visibility as companies that we have never had before.
The following gives an outline of what you need to do to get yourself in a great position to start building your brand on social media.
The worst way to approach social media, is to think of it as something that you just have to do. This can lead to a disjointed approach and becomes a poor reflection on your brand. The answer: have a plan. You wouldn't approach any other form of marketing without a plan, so why do so with social media?
The approach to social media isn’t too dissimilar to a traditional marketing plan, in that you should research your target market and identify the strengths and weaknesses in your brand; but more on that later…
Get your pages set up
There are two key areas to getting set up on social media. The first is choosing which channels you think would best benefit your business. Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are certainly the main channels that you ought to consider, but the other platforms worth investing in are Pinterest, LinkedIn or Instagram, however this depends on the type of business you are. If you are a cake shop for example, you might like to shoot photos of your delicacies and share them on Instagram and pin them on Pinterest, which can help stimulate conversation and create a greater awareness of your brand.
Once you’ve decided which platforms you want to proceed with, get your company brand up there; but be sure to keep it consistent. When someone interacts with you, they need to see the same face across the board so they feel comfortable with the company they are engaging with.
Who's in charge?
Once you’ve set your pages up and you're ready to go, you must decide who is going to be in charge. This is an important part of the process - too many chefs will spoil the broth. This doesn’t mean that you should have only one person in charge, but you should certainly have a designated team of people who run your social media outlets. If you are a small enterprise, you will largely take the responsibility on yourself, but larger organisations with different vertical markets might like to have a select team that keep everything in order.
Either way, it is important that those in charge control the flow of content to the respective channels. This helps coordinate the areas of your business and helps the flow of information out of the company.
Dates for your diary
Once you're set up with somewhere to post and someone to post, you need to think about when to post. You can go as far as planning a calendar, but most of the time, keeping on top of industry news, providing your views and engaging with people will allow you to post enough to maintain good visibility.
If you do want to plan a calendar though, think about how many posts you want to get out a day/week and what times you are going to be posting (to best engage with your audience).
What to say
It’s important to remember that social media is just an extension of our social behaviour at any other time. If a door-to-door sales person were to knock on your door and try and sell you something, or you unknowingly answer your phone to a sales company, you are unlikely to be responsive to the hard sell; so don't try and do it on social media.
In order to build up a following on any platform, you need to prove to people that you have the capability that they are looking for. This means being on top of the changes and progress of your industry, which will help build authority in your brand, which in turn can build awareness and sales.
It is important to consider your brand, even when you are posting to social networks; your tone and style of content must be as consistent as your visible brand. If your brand is fun and laid back, don’t be corporate with your writing; if it is corporate, don’t be laid back. Your branding and tone will build the perception that people have of your company (and therefore how they engage with it), and they will feel confused if something is different.
When you come to write for social media, think about content that is engaging for your audience, something they are likely to share. Write articles on your blog, then set up posts on your social media channels to target people at key times. Perhaps have social-media-only offers for your customers that tie in with your followers' own photos in order to drive brand engagement? Pose the questions that you are discussing as a business to your followers, in order that they help you come to a decision; if they like something, they will want it, and that’s good for you!
Engage
Once you are generating content that is being shared, it will help stimulate conversation, and it is important to engage with your users. Enjoy conversations with people, use criticism to show you are a company that care, and use your customer service level on social media to attract new customers.
What’s next?
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social media, and the team here at Corvita can help you further understand how you can best utilise it for your business going forward. So please do get in touch or contact us on Twitter: @corvitadigital