When you begin to evaluate your current business plan to review the highlights of the year and progress made, you should assess your social outreach. Social media tactics should be a component of every business plan underway today and the ability to keep your name at the forefront can effectively contribute to growth and client engagement. My five recommendations for social media planning include:
Goal – Whether you believe you should be tapping into social media to communicate, you first want to be sure that you have a clear objective along with a strategy for what you want to accomplish and who you want to reach. Social platforms are great ways to get your message out and to spread your brand among the masses. Create content that generates conversations so you are an integral part of the discussion.
Distribution Channels – Who are you trying to reach and where are you placing your message? It’s important to know the audience you are targeting to increase your customer base and following. This will allow you to customize your posts to the audience within the specific social media platform. The strategy for distribution should be aligned directly with your business goals so conversations started by your team are meaningful and contribute to your business objectives.
Content – Is your content timely and on point to position your brand further and grow your following? Be selective about what you share and how you prioritize your posts. Develop and deliver content that resonates with the end user and has them coming back for more. This will add value to your brand and engage others so they share the content.
Responsiveness – Be sure to build in time to respond to messages and comments, and add continuity to build on message themes to nurture more users. Show exceptional customer service when issues are discussed that need resolution and have a plan of action in place if posts go negative so you can respond before it is viewed as a crisis.
Evaluation – When it comes to evaluating your post, much can be said about the distribution of the post and interactions with it. The numbers are hard to quantify though, according to fluency media, Socialbakes reviewed data over a month of more than 43,000 Facebook interactions and page interactions for top brands. The study showed that Facebook pages with one to 9,999 fans averaged a combined total of 28 likes, comments and shares per post and a little more than 600 interactions per month. Sites with 10,000 – 99,999 fans averaged a 118 likes, comments and shares combined per post and interactions reaching a little more than 3,860 per month. There are many variables but if you draw more viewers and increase your bottom line, then your posts are working.
No matter the business you are in today, you need to make social media an active part of your brand’s marketing campaign and understand the important role it plays in positioning. Though it may only be a small portion of your customer base, those on social media can become influencers for your business and will share worthwhile content which in turn will increase your brand recognition and credibility.
