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4 Quick Steps to Creating Your Social Media Marketing Plan
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With social media marketing gaining rapid speed in the world of business, both big and small, you want to be prepared to use it, and do so correctly. Social media marketing can make a significant difference within a small business that has minimal budget funds.
Before signing up for every social network on the market, you should have a plan in place. You’ve written your business plan, now it’s time to create your social media marketing plan.
1. Decide Where To Become Involved
Most companies assume that they should be relevant on every social media platform out there. This is a wrong assumption, and one that can hurt your business, rather than help. You should be choosing a platform that works best with your business model and targets your audience.
If experience is an issue, using a platform you are familiar with is recommended. Regardless of what social media sites you are affiliated with, it’s most important to be current, fresh and relevant. However, you do have a number of options.
• Facebook- The most popular social networking site, with over 800 billion users world-wide, you can be sure that you’ll reach customers. With Facebook, you can reach your customers on a level that is familiar to them.
• Twitter- Many may consider this the second most popular social networking site. Twitter has been the site of many breaking news stories, some that have damaged the reputation of popular companies. When you are able to be a part of the conversation, you have the opportunity to guide a negative conversation in a positive direction, instead of watching it spin out of control.
• Pinterest- While this site is just recently coming into the limelight, its popularity is finding its way into the business world. Pinterest explicitly states that businesses are not allowed to use their accounts for direct advertising. Though you may immediately think otherwise, this can be a positive stipulation for you. This gives you an opportunity to reach your customers on the level of the average user, as opposed to looming, un-relatable, marketing machine.
2. Make a Time Commitment
While 59% of businesses only spend about 1-5 hours per week on social media efforts, according to the Social Media Marketing Report 2011, it is becoming increasingly more evident that this may be due to a lack of knowledge or skills. It was reported that long time users dedicate 6-16 hours a week.
If you don’t have the skills or knowledge, build a learning curve into your plan. It is critical that you use your social media outlets correctly. As a small business you can reach out to a variety of resources to learn from, such as tutorials or friends.
If you have extra spending in your budget, consider hiring a social media consultant. With a social media consultant you can be sure that you’re getting quality work, catered to your business.
3. Make It Worth Your While
If you’ve decided to dedicate a significant amount of hours in the workweek to creating your online presence, you want to see results. Simply signing up will not bring you traffic, new customers, or more business. To make an impact there are a variety of suggestions you should bear in mind.
• Stay current: Customers don’t want to search out your Facebook page to find stagnant information from last year. With more than 60 million status updates happening every day, you need to keep up.
• Be Exclusive: Users want exclusivity. They expect to be compensated for their loyalty. You should be providing breaking news about the company, offers for your Facebook fans or Twitter followers, and frequent deals or coupons.
• Engage: Being on social networks is about interacting with your customers in a way that is familiar and comfortable. According to Facebook, more than 250 million photos are uploaded every day. Offering deals for those who pin or upload pictures of themselves using or buying your products is a strategic way for them to connect with your page and product.
4. Plan To Measure Your Results
Once you’ve put in the hard work, you want to see your results. There are a variety of ways to assess your ROI, effectiveness of customer engagement, etc. Social media monitoring allows you to assess how your customers see your brand, how they are finding you, and what they are searching for. Programs like Radian6 and Google Analytics offer you extensive monitoring services, which will give you an accurate picture of how your efforts are paying off.
Social media marketing can have a profitable impact on your business. By creating a social media marketing plan, you are setting in motion an important aspect of your marketing efforts. While many companies have an online presence, not very many are able to use it to their advantage. If you make the time investment, it is likely you’ll see significant results.
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