How to make social media work for you
By Simon Newsam
Go on a diet, get more exercise, learn another language and update my Facebook page daily – perhaps the most popular new year resolutions and the most likely to have already fallen by the wayside.
For Facebook, of course, it could read Twitter, or Linked-In or a blog – perhaps all these and more, for business people jumped onto the social media bandwagon with a vengeance in 2009 thinking any free marketing opportunity was too good to be missed.
However, not all of these platforms worked for them and plenty jumped off that bandwagon. The problems they encountered were largely predictable with solutions to hand.
A lot of users, it seems, did not have a strategy and didn’t even bother estimating how much time it would take – both fundamental requirements if you’re serious about social media. Surpisingly, nearly half of those businesses that are still going at it hammer and tongs are not using any reputation or buzz-monitoring tools to assess their success.
Yet despite these mixed experiences, agencies expect a significant increase in spending on social media marketing in 2010, suggesting a more focused, professional approach. It is also emerging that smaller, more flexible businesses will be leading the way and showing the rest how it is done.
The starting point for most will be understanding which platforms suit you.
Regarding the three examples I’ve cited, think of Facebook as being like a pub where you meet lots of people and chat – but don’t bore them by talking business; Twitter is more a like a cocktail party where you hear lots of snippets of different conversations and can follow up any that interest you; and Linked-In is like a trade show where you speficially go to talk business.
Having decided which could work for your business you must strike a balance with the time you can give to social media marketing which, in turn, will depend on your strategy. Of course, here your approach will depend on your goals which the team at Effective Communication can help you identify and plan.
But if you’re just starting out and want an off-the-shelf plan to build up a network, here’s a totally focused and ruthless approach that has been employed elsewhere with some success:
- Build up your network with your own contacts and then say yes to everyone who wants to befriend you or follow you or recruit you to their networks.
- Keep them happy by responding positively to every direct message you get – never ignore anyone – but be succinct and spend as little time as possible doing this.
- Don’t indulge in pointless tittle-tattle - remember, you’re focusing on your business.
- Put your messages out to your network as frequently as you can in the form of posts, tweets et al. Be positive, be helpful but never be pointless. And link to your website as often as you can.
- Some of these platforms work well together – a post on Facebook can be followed by a Tweet to your followers on Twitter that drives them to the post. And with a bit of help you can expand on this and run numerous platforms from Google or some other site to save much valuable time.
There’s plenty of advice available from online marketing professionals out there – ourselves included – but if you’re planning on going it alone in social media in 2010, this may give you an idea of how to proceed.
It may even prompt you to get back on the bandwagon if you’re one of those who jumped off in 2009. But this time give the driver directions.
Tags: blogs, Facebook, Linked-In, social media, social media marketing, Twitter
