Is Your Social Media Strategy Non-Existent?

6 Social Marketing Do’s for Business Owners

For your business to get good word-of-mouth you have to be in the places where the conversations are happening.

1. Set goals
There are various channels of social media, each of which has its own style and appeal to different followings. While you don’t have to be everywhere you do need to be in the places where virtually everyone else is hanging out and you need to set achievable goals for your the presence your business wants to create online.
By measuring your progress, or lack thereof, you can adapt your approach easily. Focus on quality interactions and followers rather than the quantity. It does your business no good to have thousands of “followers” online who don’t engage in your content at all.
2. Stay Consistent
Consistency is the most important rule to follow in the social media world.
Be consistent in posting content to your various outlets, whether it’s daily, a few times each week or whatever works for your company.
Make sure your messaging is consistent across all platforms. Your brand shouldn’t have a different personality from site to site. Decide what type of messaging is the best fit for your business and maintain it across all the sites you choose to be part of.
3. Personalize Your Content
Let your personality shine and learn how to communicate to your audience. Have a sense of humor and don’t preach, lecture or holler “look at me” with your content. Social media is a great resource for engaging with current and prospective customers but nobody wants to hear someone talk about themselves all the time.
If you struggle with what kind of content to produce, look at what other businesses do online that you like and emulate them.
4. Be compliant
Some businesses like healthcare, banking, insurance, franchises and distributorships are subject to rules either by federal regulations or, in the case of franchises and distributorships, agreements with their parent company.
Banking and healthcare industries have access to confidential materials and must be cautious when providing information online in order to stay compliant with federal regulations. As well as the information that their employees may be posting about the company and/or industry. Make certain you are up to date on what guidelines you must follow and, if outsourcing your marketing make sure those handling it are adequately trained. Compliance is a very important issue to be aware of so take it seriously but don’t let it get in the way of great, engaged social media marketing.
5. Make it about them
In the world of Twitter it is called the “Retweet” or “Hashtag” but reposting other companies and individuals content is a win win win solution.
First, it allows you to easily and quickly generate new content for your subscribers by simply passing along content others have created.
Secondly, it builds a positive relationship with those businesses and subscribers by drawing attention to them, something you hope they will feel obligated to do for you down the road.
Be consistent in highlighting others because, as stated before, nobody wants to hear you talk only about yourself. But talking about others will make people pay closer attention.
6. Let your clients know where to find you online
The biggest mistake business owners make is simply not promoting the sites they are active on to their existing customer base. You should have signs in your place of business, notes on your receipts, links on your website and business cards and reminders in your newsletters. Wherever you can remind people to “follow us on Twitter” and wherever else your company is active the better. This is extremely important.
QUICK TIPS:
? Monitor your sites for any interaction, positive or negative, and respond in a timely manner publicly and privately, if necessary.
? Post at different times every day. Change it up.
? Treat social media like having a phone or website – as a requirement for doing business that should drive towards your primary conversion goal (More sales? More newsletter sign-ups? Blog post shares? Increased Facebook “likes?”).
? Be in it for the long haul. Marketing, social media and otherwise, is a long-term plan that you adapt as needed. But it does take time to develop.

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