Business is changing fast. But as technologies come and go, these
principles withstand the proverbial test of time: Marketing is about
connecting consumers with messages. Find your consumers where it's
convenient for them, and make your message heard.
If you're still
wondering what social media has to do with your business, think for a
minute about where you'd start if you were looking for a new TV and
needed to compare prices. Or wanted to see what an old college friend
was up to. Or were hungry for some Thai food, and were looking for good
restaurants nearby. Still wondering?
I didn't think so.
Create your plan of action
Once
you're on board with social media, the most important thing is to
decide-in advance-what exactly you want your social media efforts to do
for you. Do you want to provide better customer service? Sell more
products? Increase brand awareness? Decide what the goal is, and
strategy will follow.
Make your presence known on the social media
platforms best suited to your product. If you're targeting
career-minded professionals, be sure your LinkedIn profile is top-notch;
if mommy bloggers are your market, try daily posts on a well-maintained
Facebook page.
Above all, make sure branding is consistent across
platforms, down to the font and images you use. Customers want to feel
reassured they're getting a high-quality, dependable product-no matter
where they go looking for it.
Don't forget to designate a person
within your company to take charge of social media efforts-and make sure
it's someone who really gets social media, and who enjoys it (or risk
tweets of "I hate my job" going out to your followers).
Track your progress
Once
you've got a campaign going, take a step back to assess your work. In
Web 3.0, success is measured in fans, followers, shares, and clicks, so
make sure you're keeping up.
Advanced analytics tools (I recommend
Google Analytics) can tell you how many people viewed your Facebook
profile, how many of those viewers followed a link to your home page,
and how many of them went on to buy something from your site. A little
Big Brother-ish? Maybe. But for companies trying to understand what
makes their customers tick, it's seriously cool.
Assess and adapt
So you've launched your campaign, upped your likes, and tallied some results-what's next?
If
you're reaching your goals, well, by all means keep doing what you're
doing. Maybe reallocate some of your budget toward further social media
awesomeness.
On the other hand, if you're not getting the results
you expected, it's time to reevaluate. Figure out where your strategy is
lacking, and adjust accordingly. Maybe your message isn't consistent
from platform to platform. Maybe you're not reaching the audience you
want. Maybe you need to try a different site altogether (are you on
Pinterest yet?).
If you're not sure where you're going wrong, try
A/B testing-test one campaign against another. See which one engages the
audience better. Stick with what works, and ditch what doesn't.
But whatever you do, don't let fear stop you from breaking into the social media webosphere.
By
not giving your customers an easy way to find you (and, in turn, doing
some analytic sleuthing to learn about them), you're missing out on a
huge opportunity. And if you're not getting your message out there, you
can bet your competitors are.
No comments:
Post a Comment