10 Tips For Social Media Success

 

So, you’ve made the decision to enter into the world of social media marketing. You’ve heard a lot about it, and after thinking it over, you reckon it’s a pretty great idea – after all, its only a bit of blogging and commenting, right?

When you start to seriously look into the options available to you, it begins to overwhelm. Which one should you go for? Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? More of them? All of them? What are you going to put on there? Soon enough, the sheer amount of questions begins to do your head in.

But do not fear, for help is near. By focusing on these 10 key considerations, you will be able to safely navigate the waters of social media marketing.

1. Do you need social media?

Working out whether social media marketing is right for your business is a vital aspect of social media marketing. If your target audience isn’t really on social media, why use it?

2. Why do you want social media?

Asking these questions will set you well on your way to creating a strong customized social media plan. Questions such as “what are we trying to achieve?”, “who are we talking to?”, “where are they?” and “what do we want to say to them?” will dictate which social media outlet(s) you use in your social media strategy; it will also give you a good idea of how much time, money and effort will have to be put into it.

3. How will you use your social media?

A key point to note is that businesses, like people, have vivid personalities. Understanding your businesses’ personality will decide which social media outlets you will use, as well as dictate the tone of your social media. Using the wrong tone for a businesses’ personality can end in disaster, so it’s vital that everyone involved is on the same page.

4. What will the content be?

Social media is a highly visual playing field, so cramming your social media with tons of text will probably work against you, not for you. Remember to keep with the times, be interesting, humorous (if you can be) and above all mix it up, because boring social media is ignored social media.

5. Plan for those ‘Oops!’ moments!

Unfortunately, even if you’ve done everything right, things can still go wrong. However, being able to minimize the effects of these moments will determine your success or failure. Be sure to plan for contingencies, so that if something bad does happen, you are prepared to handle it.

6. Be timely!

Putting a social media post about the Grand Final 3 weeks after its happened isn’t the best way to engage your target audience, so be sure to keep up to date with your content.

7. Check out the competition

While it isn’t wise to put a lot of focus on competition, checking out what they’re doing on their social media sites will help you gauge where you are in the market and how you can improve (or what to avoid!).

8. Have a Detailed action plan

It’s important to have some form of plan to keep track of what you want out of your social media strategy and how to reach your goals; otherwise you can become distracted or loose sight of objectives.

9. Listen!

Using social media means that you have to listen to the public. Keeping tabs on who is saying what about your business is good business practice, as you can see potential problem areas, areas of success as well as public opinions about your business. If you do this, you can learn a great deal about your target audience, which is invaluable information.

10.How will you track your social media success?

Using analysis tools like cost/benefit and Return on Investment will help you to quantify whether your social media strategy is a success. Matching your social media strategy to sales or awareness metrics is important, as in the end, that’s what its for!

So remember, don’t panic at all the options available to you in the realm of social media marketing! Just take a breath, remember these 10 key considerations and use them to help decide your next step. If all else fails or you still feel that you need help, advice or guidance, feel free to email or call us.

This post was written by Alexandra Donovan after sitting in on one of Simone’s Presentations

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Simone Douglas

Simone Douglas

Simone is co-founder and Senior Principal Solutions Architect of Digital Marketing AOK. Simone offers over 17 years in corporate management roles encompassing generalist HR recruitment and development of small to large teams across multiple sites, industry sectors and states. Experienced in a variety of social media platforms and their complimentary applications, social media strategy, risk management, disaster recovery and associated HR policies and processes.