How to Create A Social Media Strategy

Social media strategy is a large part of business whether you are strictly online, have a brick-and-mortar location, or a combination of both. Social media is the one thing you know you should be doing but often have no idea where to start or what activities would create the largest return on investment of time and resources.

This is a large post that will be updated along the way as tactics and best practices change.

Part One What is Social Media?

We are familiar with networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, however, that is not the only social media that is out there. Your blog, local or industry forums, and even the directories out there like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and the like all fall under the social media umbrella. Any opportunity for two-way communication online is considered social media.

It is enough to make your head spin.

Should I spend time on social media?

Yes! The reasons why will vary and depend on the goals you have for your business. If the two are not related, you are simply wasting your time.

Everywhere we look people have their heads down looking at their phones; people mindlessly scroll through social media like in a trance. The key is, social is where the people are and where your business needs to be.

• More likely than not, your competitors are there.
• Social media is a way to reach your customers in a way that is engaging and can build up loyalty to your brand.
• It is a place to show your company's personality.
• Social media is a place you can prove authority in your industry.

If social media is so great, why do I need my website?

You own your website. With social media, other than your blog, you are renting space. They make the rules, and the network could go away at any time. Remember MySpace? Keep your website; social media is distracting so use it to get them to your website where you can convert them to a sale or a lead.

Does social media help my ranking in search engines?

No, and yes. You have heard us mention NAP (Name, address, and phone number) data in the past. If you are looking at local search, yes, social media will help your local business. Make sure your business information, NAP data, is accurate.

You may have noticed that places like Google My Business will show your reviews/ratings. This is a signal that Google uses to gauge the trustworthiness of the business. 

Your posts are not indexed by search. However, when you share a link from your website on social media, it will help that link along in your SEO efforts. For the shared link to gain traction in your SEO efforts, a snippet of code on your website called Open Graph tags will need to be added. It is a little technical so get with your webmaster to add it, if this is your goal.

---

 

Part Two Your Social Media Plan

Who is your customer?

Don't go further until you have tackled this step. If you do not know who you are talking to, you will not know how to talk to them, what is important to them, and what challenges they are having.

Personas create one for each type of customer you have.

What are the goals you have for your business? Think strategically; how you can use social media to help drive those goals.

We often hear the following when we ask this question.

• Increase our business by XXX this year.
• Promote a new product line we are launching.
• Increase the visibility of our company, a product, or an individual.
• Bring more awareness to our webinars, downloads, increase our newsletter subscribers.
• Increase our network. This could be tied in with visibility.

All the above can be accomplished when you mix social media with your other efforts.

Social media planning is challenging; we hope that you can focus your time and efforts on the networks that will produce the biggest return. More on that in the next section.

If you are a new business, your goal may be to get your name out there and build a customer base. Social media not only has your customers it also has influencers. These are people with a mass following that if your product or service aligns with their audience can help get the word out about your business. Many influencers are paid to blog about your product, post content to their social profiles, or include it in their podcast.

Finding influencers that will share your products or services is hard and will take some time. Just don't waste time and money on people that won't help you.

Influencers are not the only way to boost yourself on social media. If you are launching a new product or service, social media can be the best place to promote information about it. Boosted posts that are highly targeted to your market can be beneficial to your efforts.

While making your plan, factor in a budget for promotions and content creation. If you do not have the time or skill set, you will need to hire someone who does or outsource your social media [link], either all or in part.

Wait, I got to pay for social?

Social media is free but if you hope for results you need to be willing to throw a little money at it. Keep your goals in mind; those are the things you will want to promote!

Facebook allows you to boost posts on Facebook and Instagram to reach a specific place, group of people or another demographic. The costs are dependent on your area and competition. LinkedIn allows promoted posts, Pinterest allows for promoted pins; Twitter allows you to promote your tweets, etc. Social media works if you are strategic in your targeting and your ad spend.

Take the time for social

An active profile is a big part of your social media strategy and is the best way to stand out to influencers and potential customers. Posting occasionally, when you have time, will not cut it. Use a tool that allows you to schedule your weekly content. Check-in one or two times a day for comments, likes, and shares.

Also, feel free to post in real-time. If you are working on a project, share it with your followers. It confirms you do what you and shows you are busy. Busy makes your business more appealing to customers.
If you do not have the skillset to create content, hire someone that does. Your business is better off having you work it and someone else working on your social media efforts. I can't stress this point enough.

Part Three Where to Post

So many social media networks, how do you know where to spend your time?

Regardless of the social type, network, or location, you choose to spend your time keep in mind these tips when posting.

• Keep it positive Sentiment matters!
• Post consistently
• Use great pictures
• Link to your website often, include the URL to a blog post or a page of your website. Depending on the network, you will post the image first then add the link!

Social media is about being social, checking into the networks you are participating in, sharing posts from other connections, and being visible on the network is vital to your plan!

Let's narrow it down a bit and break it down by social type/network.

Blogging everyone should be doing it.

Great content that sits on your website will help your search rankings if you are trying to improve your rankings locally or nationally.

Customers LOVE information. Provide informative, relative, content for your customers.

Blogging got a bad rep early on, but it has grown up quite a bit since the travel bloggers made it so popular. Think of the blog area of your website as a place where you prove your authority on a specific topic, answer questions your customers often have about a product or service. Your blog can act as the help or information page of your website.

Facebook Company Pages

• The friendly network. Your company's personality.
• Show your company's personality here.
• Share articles, testimonials Prove authority in your field.
• Increase engagement with your customer to build loyalty.
• A place for potential customers to decide if they want to do business with you.
• Live Events Find a way to utilize the Facebook Live feature often!
• Monitor and ask for reviews People are looking for these reviews when they find you. Make sure and reply to both good and bad reviews. For more on how to handle reviews on social.
• Traffic generators post links to your website often.
• Customer Service Portal.
• Event Promotion

Facebook Groups your company can host a group if you connect it to your company page.

• Build deeper connections with your customer base.
• Traffic Generator Even more so than with your page.
• Have fun with the group but keep it on topic. If you want to talk about your dog, connect with them on your personal profile. However, if you bring your dog to the office, have fun with it!
• Event Promotion
• Business Pages can also join some groups. Look at the rules of the group set by the owner for guidelines in posting.

Twitter

• Connect with Influencers who can help boost your company, products, events, etc.
• Traffic Generator Share your blog posts
• Authority Builder
• Customer Service Portal

LinkedIn

• The business network DO NOT treat it like Facebook. This is the place to engage in meaningful discussions.
• Traffic Generator Share your posts here. There is a strategic way to share content on LinkedIn which we will post in another article.
• Build Connections (On your personal profile)
• Connect with Influencers
• Build company sentiment Once a company page is set up, your employees can post that they work there. Their posts now become part of the company message.
• Hiring? Post your job opportunities

Instagram

• Traffic Generation Since links do not work in posts, change the link in your profile based on your goals.
• Build up the personality of your company
• Increase visibility
• Connect with people that do not follow you already through hashtags.

YouTube

• Build followers
• Prove authority
• Show your company's personality

Pinterest

• Image-based network - make them awesome.
• Traffic Generator share your blog posts
• A must for e-commerce websites

Alignable 

• Great place to connect with local people
• Share your business and the services you offer.
• Answer questions for visibility.
• Hosting an event, add it here for visibility.
• Ask for recommendations to receive the "Highly Recommended" badge that can be placed on your website. 

MeWe and Parlor are gaining in popularity. We are diving in and will be adding our tips for success on these networks.

Google My Business

We have included Google My Business since Google added a post feature that shows up in the Google My Business information that comes up when your business is listed 

• It expires Update it at least every 2 weeks, we recommend every 2 - 3 days.
• Limited to 500 characters and a great image that shows your promotion, event, or service.
• The only thing you want them to do at this point is to call you. 
• These posts should be highly promotional with a clear call to action. 
• If it is not a sale or event, post it under What's New. You receive more space for text and a click to call button.

Here is an example of how it looks in a search.

Local/Topic/Industry Forums

These are websites like Alignable, Quora, Reddit, and the like.

Prove authority by engaging in the questions and conversations that are going on in the network. As with all other networks, keep the sales pitches out of it, let your website have that job.

Traffic generator if you show your authority on a topic people will check your website out for more info.

Part Four Analyze efforts The most important step.

Since you have a goal, you know what to look at to make sure your time, energy, and money are well spent.

Where do you find the information to analyze your efforts?

If your goal is website traffic (blog posts, product promotion, generate leads, etc.). Look at analytics or other tracking software. It is a good idea to have metrics set up with goals, click tags, etc. so you know what the traffic is coming from social is doing once they arrive on your website.

Visibility  Look at engagement on the network, likes, comments, followers, shares, etc.

Foot Traffic  This is a hard one you will need to ask where they found you.

Authority  Whether you are building the authority of your company or a person, how many connections were made, how often was content shared, commented on, etc.

Increase in business  Look at the above, did it improve your bottom line?

In conclusion

Social media does take some time and effort. However, the demand for companies to get involved with social media has forced many to do it. The key is to be strategic in reaching your target customers, give them what they are looking for, and analyze your results to make sure you are delivering.

If you have a question about how your business can effectively use social media, reach out to us, we love to talk strategy