Social media marketing.

It’s important to keep things simple and manageable for your business (see the best social media tip you will ever read).

With that in mind I will expand giving a quick over view of each tip.

Tip 1 : CARE

Care seems like a basic concept, and one you would expect every business owner to have right? The problem is sometimes the “care” only extends to “How can I make this business successful?’, not to “How can my business best care for my customers”?

Gary Vee has been saying for some time “Care” (as the best marketing strategy). You can see his short video from 2016 here.

Steve Jobs also said for a even a great brand needs investment and caring.

Genuinely caring for your customers is the first step. As that will inform the actions you take to show that care.

Tip 2 : GOALS

First off look at your business goals and consider if social media can help you in meeting any of those goals. If you are a sole operator limit the number of goals you choose to work on for a specific time period. The SMART system can help you work out which goals are best suited for your business.

 

Specific– Clearly defined goals (don’t have too many goals to start or overwhelm will creep in).

Measurable– Understand which metrics you will use to measure whether your efforts have been successful.

Attainable-Do your goals reflect what is achievable given your budget and resources.

Relevant-Make sure your social media goals are aligned and feed into your broader business objectives.

Time Specified– Make sure each goal has a completed date. You can also where appropriate set milestones so that you can check progress along the way.

Your social media goals will vary and should reflect your business priorities.

Some examples may be brand awareness, sales lead/generation, drive traffic to a website/funnel, grow brand audience, or increase community engagement.

TIP 3 : AUDIENCE

You can create the most exciting content on the planet, but if it doesn’t connect or resonate with YOUR audience then it really is a waste of time. If you are trying to talk to everyone the return on your social media investment (time or money in ads) is likely to be very low. As a business you should be very clear on your target audiences (as this informs all of your marketing efforts- including social media). Once you have defined your target audiences you can do a little research find out which platforms they frequent, (pointless trying to dominate tik tok if your target audience isn’t there), read your target audiences online content and so on enabling you to create content that is relevant to them. I’ve spoken previously about the importance of strategy here.

TIP 4: UNDERSTAND YOUR COMPETITORS AND YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA.

Have a look at your competitors social media accounts and websites. This is not to make you feel worse or better about your own, it’s merely to see how your brand is positioned in your industry. There are heaps of tools to do this- but all you really need to do is to search on the platforms you are on. If you are a soap maker for example search for that. Do the same in google but add your location also.

Notice the accounts you like- and note what it is specifically you like about them.

Also look at:

• the type of posts, (static/video etc),
• the content (consider the proportion of posts that promoting themselves, are fun, educational, controversial, etc)
• how engaged they are with their followers
• how often they post, the tone of voice used in their posts,
• do they used paid posts/ads, is their content/message is different across platforms or if it is consistent and so on.

Then do an audit of your own social media accounts. If you don’t already know or have a plan look at:

• List all the social media platforms you are on
• Your bio, style and content.
• How often you are posting on each social media platform you use.
• How responsive you are to comments/questions/messages.
• The key messages of your brand (does this reflect what you want it to?).
• Branding consistency (use of logo and other brand assets)
• Who is engaging with you on social media?
• Examine your analytics for each platform- look at the top performing posts- do they have anything in common?
• Look at Google Analytics for your website to see which social media platforms are sending the most visitors to your site.

TIP 5: CREATE A MEASURABLE PLAN.

If you are doing this yourself you can use a simple excel spreadsheet list the social media platforms used, the goal/s for each, the key metrics you will be measuring and the time period.
eg. Your business goal might be to increase website traffic. The measure might be 50% growth from social media platforms year to year.

If you need help there are many resources and templates available online however remember to choose your measures based on YOUR business goals. Drop me an email if you get stuck or confused.

TIP 6: EVALUATE AND REASSESS.

Evaluate your performance against your measures. Over time your business goals may change and your social media strategy should also change to accommodate it. Remember ONLY measure things that are relevant to your goals.