Social media is the new big thing in marketing!

It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t use social media on a daily, or even hourly basis, so if your business isn’t taking full advantage of this great marketing tool – you need to. But having a social media presence isn’t enough. Most start-ups and even many big businesses still don’t have a clue on how to use social media effectively for marketing their business.

This article will lay out the key rules you should follow to get the most out of your marketing on social media.

Develop a specific set of goals

Hard work is pointless if it isn’t focused on your specific goals. Some of the goals you might want to achieve for your business include:

•       Increase brand awareness
•       Raise sales and profits
•       Generate more leads
•       Enhance your business reputation
•       Provide customer service and support

 Adopt a brand personality and voice

Social media is meant to be just that – social. People look for a more humanised brand voice and respond more favourably to business marketing that has personality. Think about how you want your business to be portrayed – think of personality traits such as friendly, professional, funny, positive, considerate, responsible, etc.

Be consistent with your voice. Ensure it is known and used by all team members on all social media platforms. This will give your customers a sense of familiarity with your business.

Identify the market segments and communities you want to target

In today’s world, where consumers are constantly bombarded with information, marketing at the generic level is no longer effective. Therefore, one of the greatest benefits of social media is that it allows you to target your marketing all the way down to micro-segments. This drastically improves your engagement levels and conversion ratios. Further, you want to identify the communities for these micro-segments.

Create an action plan

Now that you know your goals, brand personality and target market, you need to develop an effective plan to achieve your desired results. Good action plans include the following:

•       Listening plan
•       Channel plan
•       SEO plan
•       Content creation plan

You may want to engage in activities such as creating competitions, building relationships and groups, blogging, lead conversion, and creating funny or informative posts. The action you take will depend on your desired outcome.

Measure your results and respond appropriately

Finally, you want to check whether your action plan is working to achieve your specific goals. Measurement should be all about maximising your return-on-investment. This can include revenue growth, customer acquisition cost, profit, or whatever other parameters are key to your business success.

Take note of what works and what doesn’t work for your business by observing these parameters as you adopt new social media strategies. This is not trial and error. You need to be calculated and deliberate with the changes you make so that they result in the best potential outcomes for your business.

Marketing on social media is fundamentally different from conventional marketing. In turn, your action plan should take advantage of the unique opportunities it provides to get your business ahead.  Along with the added benefits though, come the added legal considerations you need to make to protect yourself from liability.

Do you have an online marketing plan? Share with us in the comments.