Step #1: Set up a Strategy and Set Goals!
This one is BIG and gets skipped often. Setting specific goals and figuring out the strategy is key to success in social media. Are you looking to do social media to grow your business? Create awareness of your product or service? Or simply for customer service? Many businesses would like all the above, but if you focus on one area more than the others, it will help you to set your goals. Part of a strategy is also looking at your target market. Who’s your audience? What are your goals? When do you want to achieve those goals?
Going into social media with a laser targeted focus can make all the difference in the world on your results and outcome.
Step #2: Make a Plan and Content Calendar
After you set up your strategy, now it is time to implement the plan. How? The simplest way is to be real organized and set up a content calendar. This calendar needs to consist of different types of posts. What types of content should you post? Content creation is a whole lesson of its own, but here’s a guide that will help you figure out different types of content to come up with your calendar: Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Creation
Step #3: Post your Content Consistently
You now have a calendar of types of posts. Scheduling your main posts is important and will keep your posting consistent. To schedule, you can use tools like Hootsuite, Post Planner or the Facebook scheduler. What I do with the social media I manage is set aside a couple hours at the beginning of the month to lay out my posts. This creates the consistency. Then, I post additional content that is more timely or current.
Step #4: Engage! Don’t just post. Leave your page and connect with others!
This step is more important than any others, but also the most overlooked. Social media is not just about talking ‘at’ people, it’s about talking ‘to’ people. Be sure to join in other conversations. Be sure to truly get to know and care about others and it will come back to you. If you spam and pitch your business all the time, nobody will notice you. Actually, they will, but not in the way that will get positive attention. Most likely they will unlike your page or disconnect with you on the social networks. I have done this many times when I see someone who just doesn’t understand how to connect with others.
It has become a ‘noisy’ online world and the best way to get noticed is to reach out and help!
Step #5: Monitor what is working best and drop what is not working. Rinse and Repeat!
It is important to look at your statistics. There are many monitoring tools available, but the best free tool is Google Analytics. Facebook Insights recently revamped to show amazing statistics too. You should be reviewing these weekly or bi-weekly at least. Then, revamp as necessary.
Sometimes it takes some experimenting and really getting to know your audience for social media success.
