SOCIAL MEDIA MADE EASY
My seven steps (and 47 bonus tips!) to assist you to ignite your social media strategy for your small business
SARAH SLOAN
7 steps to
social media SUCCESS Social media doesn't have to be hard. Nor does it have to take a lot of your time and effort. If you set up your social media strategy correctly from the beginning, it can be a very low-cost, worthwhile way to build a relationship with your customers. These seven steps will guide you on how to create a social media strategy to help
spread your business like wildfire.
Is it time you took your social media strategy to the next level?
The following statistics show just how ingrained social media is in our lives.
If that doesn't convince you to invest in social media for your business, consider this....
Your customers are talking about you already. Why not join the conversation?
All good strategies must have a plan. Here are my 7 steps for social media success.
1. Set goals 2. Analyse who you're talking to 3. Choose appropriate platforms 4. Decide on your overall strategy 5. Devise a social media schedule 6. Implement daily 7. Monitor, evaluate and revise
step one: set goals Social media can be used in a variety of ways, to suit a veriety of businesses. This includes: To connect with customers Remind customers that you exist Provide extra value to customers Appear approachable Give customers an avenue to contact you As a form of market research It's important to remember though, that social media is NOT just for selling, and there is a need to be SOCIAL on social media. Overall you should give customers a REASON to connect with you on social media. Bonus tip: Have a ‘voice’ or ‘face’ of the company. People deal with people. Make your brand approachable by using pictures or video of yourself, and sign off each social media post with your name.
Be S.M.A.R.T about your goals Ensure that the goals you set for your social media strategy adhere to the SMART principles. In particular, they should be measurable, so that you can track your progress over time.
Bonus tip: Don't just rely on the ‘insights’ given to you – have your own measures in place
step two: analyse who you're trying to reach Consider: Who is your ideal customer? Which social media are they most likely to use? You need to be in front of their eyes Put yourself in their shoes
Bonus tip: Don’t try to reach EVERYONE. Even within Facebook, you can target advertisements by very specific criteria (even more than just age, gender, location).
step three: choose appropriate platforms Now that you understand who you're trying to reach, you can begin to decide on which social media (or combination of social media) will allow you to meet your goals and reach your ideal customer. I encourage you to investigate all options available to you, which could include (but are not limited to): Facebook Pages Instagram Snapchat Twitter Linked In These are the most popular in Australia for business use, and each will be discussed further.
Facebook Pages
Bonus tip: use www.canva.com (free) to create consistent branded images for use as your profile picture and cover image
Tips to increase your engagement Post 3 times a day to achieve maximum reach Think about what times of day your customers are most active on social media When people first wake up, lunch breaks and 6-8pm are peak times in general Weekends are peak social media usage times, but many small businesses don’t post then Ensure you respond ASAP to any customer questions or comments Don’t use hashtags Organic video performs better than links to Youtube
Instagram
Use a hashtag search tool to see your mentions (or those of your competitors for market research). www.tagboard.com is my goto favourite. Create your own hashtag – ensure it’s unique first Have offline posters instore/menus/business cards with your hashtag Give your customers something to photograph and share Repost images your customers share using your hashtag or your handle
e t a e r c u o y n a c w o H : e g n e l l a ? ' h y C t i l i b a r a g n 'sh i h t e e m o g s a r s r u e o c m n o e t s d u n c a r , u e r . o g a y a h e t s v h o s t Gi a ) h e v r i u t i o s y o e p ( s u o t m e th
My favourite goto sites are Pixabay and Pexels
Snapchat
Very heavy time investment as content is deleted every 24 hours Stories can be pictures or video Less than 1% of businesses are using it – get the early mover advantage Great for generating buzz and reveals
TwitterTwit Best for professional industries and B2B Ensure you register your ‘handle’ (eg. @Dell) even if you don’t plan to use it yet Easily ‘retweet’ relevent news, stories etc to your customers Best for #hashtag searches Use multiple hashtags to be found more easily get verified to gain credibility
Linked In Best for professional industries and B2B Ensure you register your ‘handle’ (@Dell) even if you don’t plan to use it yet Easily ‘retweet’ relevent news, stories etc to your customers Best for #hashtag searches Use multiple hashtags to be found more easily
step four: decide on your overall strategy
Consider your resources (time and money), goals, who you’re trying to reach, and the platform/s you’re using For example, if you’re a medium sized accounting business trying to build clientelle, Linked In may be best.
Bonus tips: This is the step where you’d most benefit from consulting a marketing expert to assist you in developing a strategy that you can then go on to implement by yourself
Did you know...
step five: devise a schedule An ad-hoc social media strategy doesn't communicate consistency to your customers. Plan ahead to ensure you have your social media strategy firmly in place. Ensure you're posting enough each day (this differs for each platform). Bonus tip: Create your own days of the week Eg. Meaty Monday for a butcher
Use an excel spreadsheet or Trello to manage this visually These tools are especially helpful if you will have a team of people working on your social media Plan ahead – eg. you could do a 12 days of Christmas giveaway Take into account special days of the year. Eg. a psychologist might plan ahead for ‘Mental Health Week’ or ‘RUOK Day’
Bonus tip: Don't forget the weekends - this is when people are most active online
step six: implement daily Who will oversee this? (consider password management) Have a contingency plan in place for negative scenarios Don’t forget weekends & after hours Systemise and write it down
Bonus tips: Consider using a scheduling program to minimise the amount of time needed to implement this strategy. Some easy-to-use, low-cost options are Hootsuite and Buffer are my favourites.
Should you
outsource? Options exist to outsource your social media If you have the skills and time, I advise keeping social media in-house Consider the brand identity – does a 3rd party know your brand and how you want to portray it online? Consider your resources – time poor but have the budget to get someone else to do it?
step seven: monitor, evaluate, revise Test and re-test to see what works and doesn’t There is no ‘perfect’ strategy. Evaluate with regard to your goals you set Take corrective action as needed.
Bonus tips: Set your metrics at the beginning of your plan. Don’t just rely on ‘Likes’ or ‘shares’ – as these can be useless measures
In summary
7 steps to social media success
1. Set goals 2. Analyse who you're talking to 3. Choose appropriate platforms 4. Decide on your overall strateg 5. Devise a social media schedule 6. Implement daily 7. Monitor, evaluate and revise
As you can see designing a social media strategy for your business doesn't have to be difficult, timely or costly. However, if you'd like to use the benefit of years of experience and knowledge of a marketing expert , I'm here to help.
Sarah Sloan
No need to hire a full-time marketing employee. For an affordable hourly rate, I can assist you only when you need it. I find small businesses opportunities to save time, save money and gain clients.
Contact me on 0439 326 272 Connect with me on Linked In Follow my Facebook Page 'Wildfire Marketing' for easy to implement marketing tips daily
suggested resources The following are tools and websites that I use regularly, and highly recommend. to create professional looking graphics for social media and other promotional materials - www.canva.com (free, some paid options). For free stock images: www.pexels.com and www.pixabay.com (add your logo over the top in Canva). Hashtag search tool: www.tagboard.com Social media scheduling: Hootsuite and Buffer For free daily advice on social media, subscribe to www.socialmediaexaminer.com for a free weekly podcast download of strategic marketing advice, including interviews with many successful entrepreneurs - Tim Reid's "Small Business, Big Marketing" on iTunes or his website. for the latest reports on the digital industry, subscribe to www.digitaldoughnut.com Join the many social marketing Linked In groups
