#1 Defining goals
There are a number of goals you can run for, but they need a prioity.
Generate traffic to website? Create a community? Generate interactions? Generate revenue?
“Know the goal, setup a tracker and measure them before running”, as Jayson DeMers suggests.
Keep this information in mind when crafting your social media content, or your social media channel may lead to different direction.
#2 Act, plan and execute like a big brand
There is no difference in a big-brand or small on social media. Small, younger brands had even more fans than mega-corp.
You might be late, but you can catch it up.
Rick Mulready suggests three things big brands do very well that small businesses can emulate:
- Find where their customers talk and “go deep.”
- Create content that people want to talk about.
- Use social media to listen to customers.
Act you are mature, trust-able, then you are.
#3 Faster, quicker, more updates
Reaching your fans leads to outcome/results. So reach them as much as possible.
Don’t worry about being “too much”. There is always not enough good content.
Leo Widrich suggests:
- Frequency: Post 1-4 times a day on Facebook
- Timing: Almost all research studies highlight the main work hours from 8 am to 8 pm as good times to post.
- Multiple sites: Post to multiple social sites, in addition to your own blog or website.
#4 Engage in real person
Social is social. Social is not press release.
Engage your fans by conversations. Human is important here.
Lana Bandoim points out that social media engagement relies on daily interactions among users to survive. Engaging audiences in real conversations will bring better results and add more value to their social streams.
#5 Outsource Content Development as Needed
There are quite a few tasks associated with social presences (e.g., sharing news, reply to users’ comments, KPI reports)
“Studies show it takes a midsize company about 32 hours a month to capably handle a single social media platform.”, Tim Devaney and Tom Stein write.
“The companies that have the most effective social media communications are those that have a combination of internal and external people doing social media.” by Eve Mayer.
- Decide what you want to achieve.
- Don’t spread yourself too thin.
- Keep some social media in-house.
- Send some social media to a consultant, someone who understands social media and can apply that knowledge across many different platforms.
How many hours a month does it realistically take for your business to maintain social presences?
Can you keep that up every week?
Don’t let the shortage of internal resources hamper your online capabilities. Outsource social media to cover your bases.
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