When we look at social media, it is important that we bring all things into perspective. We are working on the backdrop that you have a social media strategy in place for your organization.
Firstly, thank you for having it. Secondly, here are some pointers that might help in making your social media strategy better.
These are the 5 things to always remember when coming up with a social media strategy:
Social Media Is a Long-Term Investment
Looking for a quick fix? Please look somewhere else.
It would be a mistake if you invested in social media with the expectation of seeing results pronto. This is the reason why many companies fail to see tangible results in so far as Return on Investment (ROI) is concerned because they almost always tend to give up when things start to align.
It is thus advisable that whenever you are developing a social media strategy give it time, for the company to realize the returns set during the development process.
As Eden Ames says, ‘The more time you invest in building a relationship with them and attracting new followers, the greater your chances for conversions. If you judge the success or failure of your campaign after only a month of the activity or invest only in short-term bursts of activity, you’ll compromise your potential long-term gains.”
All Your Competitors Are On Social Media
Competition is good, right. If it were not for competition, we would not know how much we are able to give to our customers, employees and all our stakeholders.
Despite what we see: competition pushes us to the limit and makes us better. That is why it’s always a good thing to learn from the competition. The trick, however, lies in doing more than what your competition is doing but ensuring that you are differentiating yourself.
It is not enough to be active, attentive, informative, and or entertaining but you must strive to figure out what angle your competitor is not using and use it. By doing things a bit differently, you stand a better chance of not only acquiring prospective clients but also retaining them. Go out into the social media landscape and be different.
Are they taking 8 hours to respond to customer inquiries? Then work on ensuring that you are the one taking 1 hour to respond to those inquiries. Such changes can make you stand out in ways you never thought possible.
Do Not Focus On Numbers
The more we kept pitching for business, we would hear of how management always craved for followers, page likes to name but a few. Later as we grew in the business, we realized that clients were focussing on vanity metrics.
Metrics that didn’t quite impact the bottom line of the business as it were. It then became our duty, nay responsibility to educate them against such vanity metrics.
Do not get lost in the numbers game. Many companies want to be on social media today and 3 days later, they need to start seeing the numbers. How many likes do we have so far? Well…
At this point, we tell you to listen to Eden Ames: “… [Numbers] cannot tell you how loyal, active or even interested these followers are in your brand. Similarly, your social traffic numbers cannot tell you how engaged your visitors are, and your share counts cannot tell you the reputation value of your content. Numbers are useful, but remember that they can never give you the full picture.”
Do Not Forget the ‘Social’ In Social Media
The essence of social media is to be social. Before you launch your social media strategy, remember to be very social in all your messages.
Take the time to ask your audience questions. Respond to their questions. Give them useful information. Thank them when they share your messages.
Moreover, I like what Eden says, ‘…Don’t think of social media as a podium for your own speech; instead, think of it as an open table in a coffee shop.”
Consider the Complimentary Power of Social Media
Social media works best as a complementary tool. The thought of achieving all your marketing objectives through social media alone is false.
Nevertheless, by pairing it up with other marketing efforts you stand a better chance of achieving all your goals.
Never miss a chance to integrate social media with other forms of marketing. Together, you will surpass your objectives.
With these key reminders, we look forward to more robust strategies that will make not only your work easier but place in you in a better position to achieve all your goals.
