Back in 2013 we blogged about our popular 'social media
recipe for success' series and now, another year on, we thought we'd take the
previous parts of strategy, content, organisation and evaluation and
add to the recipe with this post 'Understand Social Media'...
By no means do you have to be an expert to have a successful
social media presence but you do need to understand the basics of social media
(from a brand's point-of-view rather than a personal one) and ultimately have
the passion for social media to take it forward.
Step One - Use Social
Media
Yes, posting on social media is very different from a brand
or individual's perspective but actively using social media yourself can help
you to understand what your consumers want to see and how to post effectively.
From now on, when you are on social media, take notes of other brands you like
the activity of, record how you use social networks as a consumer and jot down
any areas of each platform you don't understand.
Step Two - Learn
In order to effectively understand how to use social media
for your brand we'd recommend you get learning in your own time! There are so
many great blogs (favourites are Mashable, Social Media Examiner and ours of
course!) that give you to-the-point, simple information so you can answer the
questions you had from step one.
What's great about social media is you can test out your new
knowledge on your own social platforms before experimenting on the brand page
but remember; you can't really 'go wrong' on social media as long as your
content is appropriate, it's all about trying things, if they don't work
discover why and move on.
Step Three - Nail
Your Plan
So now you know how to use social media and have a basic
knowledge - it's time to get started with your strategy. For a simple strategy
you need to answer...
- Why do I want to be active on social media?
- What are my objectives?
- Which platforms is my target audience on?
- What are my three key messages?
Of course this is a very basic strategy starting point but
it gives you a few things to think about before simply jumping onto social
media with no plan at all. We created a Facebook Strategy eCourse with SkillShare which gives video lessons and practical exercises finishing with
a full Facebook strategy at the end here - take a look at the chapters
even if you don't fancy completing the course for an outline.
Step Four -
Constantly Explore
Once you nail your strategy and become active on social
media you may find yourself sticking to one platform that you personally enjoy
or you are having more success on but you need to be open to exploring other
platforms.
You may want to achieve an objective of 'increase web
referrals from social media by 25%' and you may be doing a good job of that on
Twitter with external links and interesting tweets but did you know that
Pinterest drives the most traffic on the web after Facebook? Maybe your users
are more visual and enjoy pinning and repinning images... increase your
research and you may find you're able to reach even more people online.
Each month, set a goal of exploring the pros and cons for
your brand of some of the emerging platforms like Google+, Vine and Snapchat.
This will also help you expand your social media knowledge and spark ideas for
you to utilise on the core social media networks.
We'll blog about part II of our new 'social media recipe for
success' soon but in the meantime take a look at the links below for other
social media blog posts you may enjoy!
Jane x
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