7 Reasons to Attend Social Media Success Summit 2013
As part of the series on ‘Why your business needs a strategy for social media marketing’, here are more steps with practical advice.
Step 6: Selecting your social media tools
The next step is to select the tools you’ll use in your Social Media Campaign.
If you followed this series, by now you have done the following:
- Assessed the online visibility of your name, company, products and services in step 1
- Defined your business objectives in step 3.
- Explored different social media channels in step 4
- Identified your audience in step 4 and have decided on which approach you’ll use i.e. listening or outreach. You can also use a combination of the two if you choose.
ACTION: Look at the tools you’ve explored up to now and select the two or three channels you’d like to use. For each social media tool you choose, write out the main ideas you’d like to convey with that channel. This is important as it will focus your efforts.
Rather start with fewer social media tools in the beginning as you can always add new tools later on. The point is to start now and let your Social Media Marketing evolve over time as your experience grows and as new tools become available.
Identify Metrics
You need to know if your social marketing efforts are having an effect on your business.
By identifying a baseline (starting point) and ongoing metrics you will be able to track your progress and make necessary adjustments.
The point of measuring serves two purposes.
1. You want to know if you’re moving in the right direction and improving your present market position or condition.
2. It will help you identify which of your marketing channels are performing and which need to be either improved or discontinued.
Step 7: Thank your Audience
The whole point of Social Media Marketing is to take advantage of the conversation taking place online about your products and services.
This conversation is taking place whether you like it or not and whether to participate in it or not.
You have an excellent opportunity to influence the conversation and benefit from customer feedback, by making improvements to your products and services.
ACTION: It may sound strange, but use the opportunity to thank your readers/followers regularly for their support and loyalty. Thanking your audience and giving them incentives will ensure continued participation and involvement.
These incentives don’t have to be monetary, but could take the form of recognition either publicly or within the network, contests or special promotions.
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This is the end of the series on “Why your business needs a strategy for social media marketing” containing 7 Steps and Actions that you can use in your business. Thanks for following and remember to download the free Social Media Strategy template provided by Virtual Project Consulting.
If you found the information useful and you now have a better understanding of how social media can be used to promote your business, please leave a comment. Let me know if you want more post series like this one with actions for you to implement to start seeing immediate and longer term results.
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