The first step in setting up the right social media campaign for your business is to do an audit of all your social media marketing activities up to the present day. Once that is determined, your current state, you’ll have a starting point from which to create the right plan and implement the proper strategies for your social media marketing campaign.
When conducting the audit, here are some essential questions to answer so you’ll start you social campaign on the right road – eliminate wasted time and money.
1. What is the end result or goal of your social media marketing that you’d like to accomplish? More leads, more followers, more sales, more customer loyalty/confidence, more control over your companies reputation online.
2. What tracking methods will you use to determine if you have the right strategies in place to achieve the goals that you set? These are a few that are free to use and their invaluable… knowem.com, SocialMention.com, HowSociable.com
3. Do you need an in house social media manager (an employee), or is outsourcing the duties a better fit? Are you able to keep a full time employee on payroll which would probably include paying medical benefits, vacation and dealing with sick time…or is it better to find a social media management company and let them handle all the duties.By using a social media management company, you would only pay a set hourly/weekly/monthly fee and also have a custom package designed especially for your business.
4. What do your followers see as far as the sites or pages that you are directing them to from you social media networks? Are your profiles set up to deliver your followers, and potential customers, to a page that will get them to submit their name and email address (squeeze page offering a free eBook or special report) so you can start building a relationship with your list? No matter what site or page you’re sending them to, be sure that there is a call to action on that page. If you’re just directing them to your home page and hope they’ll stick around and find the info they came for, you will be disappointed with your results. The average website surfer will only give your site 8 to 20 seconds to determine if it’s what they’re looking for.
5. Do all your social media marketing efforts link to each other and do they work in synergy with each other? Are your websites, blogs and social sites setup to interact with each other and work together to create a more viral effect? You have to make it easy for your subscribers to navigate around your site and share things on your site with others that they find valuable, interesting and important.
6. What other experts in your niche can you network with, and how do you find them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc…Are you networking with other people and groups within your niche market that may be already considered experts in the field? If you do, not only will you learn a great deal, but you’ll also be able to develop relationships with these experts and therefore raise your own businesses status in the social communities. By aligning yourself with these experts that are already much respected in the social communities and within their niches, you’ll gain an almost an instant respect and credibility. When this happens you’ll see your subscriber numbers go through the roof because you’ll have a great number of your subscribers share your sites and info with others.
7. What tools and software will you use to automate a portion of your social media marketing? There’s a lot of programs and software to automate portions of you posting and tweeting with you followers/customers, most have a free option or trial as well as paid versions that will handle a lot more duties. Some of these include… Socialoomph.com, Socialblaster.com, Socialposter.com (submit to up to 250 social and bookmark sites at once!)
These sites provide a great way to give your followers and customers a constant drip of information and keep them in tune with what your company is doing. While this may seem like the ideal way to ‘set it & forget it’ be aware that the whole point of social networking is to answer and support comments and questions in real time. These automated systems can certainly help, but there is always going to be a need for a ‘real person’ to monitor the going’s on.
8. Is your current social media campaign currently providing valuable information to your followers that is different then your competition? Just as in the early days of email marketing, the key to get people to become subscribers and followers was to give away high quality, valuable information in the beginning and expect nothing back in return. This is the stage of relationship building, and it’s one that must NOT be overlooked. People only buy from those they know and trust. It’s not only OK to stand out from the crowd…it’s imperative! You must give without want in order to receive.
9. Is your website setup to allow interaction amongst your followers? Now a days most all websites have their own blog. Is you website allowing for your followers and subscribers to interact with each other? Having a very interactive site will allow followers or subscribers to build some of the content for you, as well, you’ll be able monitor the conversations taking place so you’ll know exactly what your subscribers want and need. Once you know the problems they are asking for solutions to, you’ll be able to deliver laser targeted information to them.
10. How are you handling the input that is being contributed by your followers? Is there a dedicated person to perform this duty or is it shared? If this task is handled by a number of different people, you may find that there is no consistency when they respond to a comment or question from your subscribers on your site. By having all this monitored by a social media management company, or a single person, you’ll be able to gain that consistency…not only in the responses, but also allowing the personality and manner of speaking of the company shine through. This will give your customers a greater sense of trust and confidence in your company.
These are just a handful of relevant questions and some valuable insights you, and/or your social media marketing manager should be answering in order to create a needed starting point, as well as an ever growing, consistent, ongoing social media marketing campaign.
Whether you have a social media manager, or you outsource the duties, there’s no denying the time is now to start a social media marketing campaign…because you know that your competition already has.
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