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Creating A Social Media Strategy That’s Right For YOU – Part 1

Think your business shouldn’t be on social media? Think again. According to the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 93% of buying decisions are influenced by social media! Deciding to stay out of the social conversation is doing you and your consumers a disservice. If diving headfirst into the world of likes and hashtags seems daunting, never fear: our blog series will help you go from amateur to social media guru. Part 1 will take you through a general overview, and the following Parts will deep dive into specific channels and provide tips on how to best utilize them.

First things first: don’t bite off more than you can chew. It can be tempting to sign up for all the social media platforms you come across, but after trying to manage them, you may find yourself overwhelmed. Instead, pick one or two channels to focus on and work on making those as robust as possible. With social media, consistency is key. If you cannot keep up with relevant, interesting content on all your channels, it is best to only have the ones you can manage. Showing up sporadically hurts your credibility.

Also, not every channel is right for every business. For example, it makes sense for a wedding planning company to have a Pinterest, but for a construction company, it may be irrelevant. However, just about every business can benefit from having a Facebook page. Facebook is so widely used and has an all-encompassing audience that it can be relevant for pretty much any company. Evaluate social media channels and decide what is right for your business.

So you’ve picked out your channels and set up the platform. Now what? How do you decide what to post? Turns out, social media is more about your audience and less about you. A good rule of thumb is that your content should be 80% education and entertainment, and 20% direct ask. Use social media to provide value to your consumers, not to just push a product. Social media should be used to position you as an expert in your industry. What does your audience need? How can you help them become less stressed, more efficient, happier, etc.? Provide content that appeals to your audience. A wedding planner for example, may post a blog that shows different wedding themes, a video showing off a specific venue, or a post about cost-saving tips. You want to provide value without being pushy about selling your company.

Social media is also relatively casual! You are building a relationship with your audience. Use relationship language rather than business jargon. You should be a welcoming, reliable resource as you interact with your audience, so you don’t want to come across too stuffy. Social media is also a great way to speak directly to your consumers, responding to their comments and concerns.

After you create compelling content, you can repackage and repurpose that content on other channels. If you have two channels, say Facebook and LinkedIn, you do not want to regurgitate the exact same photo with the same caption on each. If the same person follows you on both platforms and liked the post on Facebook, why would he/she like it on LinkedIn as well? You’ll want to tailor your content to the specific platform, evaluating the type of audience on each, and then tweaking the content to fit. For example, you can post the same article but make a different observation and switch up the caption. This keeps the content complementary and fresh.

Now that you know the basics, you’re well on your way to creating a dynamic and compelling social media presence for your business. Keep an eye out for Part 2 of our series where we will explore Facebook and its offerings.

Is all this fascinating but you’d still like an extra hand in setting up and managing social for your business? AFFIRM can help! Contact us to find out how we can assist.

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