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Many business owners I speak with say they are disappointed that their social media efforts are not working as they expected.
They have set up their Linkedin, Twitter and maybe Facebook profiles, they may even have a blog.
The reason it does not work is simple – they have no plan!
Here is what you need to do to make your social media work for you:-
Determine your target audience
Who are your prospects – no it’s not everyone – you must really stop and think and determine who the people are who need what you are offering.
When you have decided who those people are think about where they hang out online.
Do they visit certain forums or blogs – do they prefer Twitter or another social site.
Now when you know who they are and where they are you also need to know what they want and need, what their likes and dislikes are.
You could try writing a profile of your ideal customer – right down to their age, education, hobbies etc. This will allow you to target your networking more effectively.
What is it that your ideal customer really wants?
What information does your customer need from you. Provide that information for them – they will love you for it.
Keep them right up to date with news relating to your products and services and direct them to relevant and timely information.
Identify the benefits of your products and services and make sure your customers know these benefits.
Plan your content creation
Where are you going to find all this great content for your readers and followers?
You can trawl all over the internet or you could set up alerts like Google alerts.
Do not forget to retweet interesting posts on Twitter.
Set yourself a time limit for your social media maintenance and use that time – do not forget that time can so easily run away with you!
Write down your plan
I love mindmaps and you can get free downloads of Freemind or Xmind and try it out.
Or create a calendar where you can see at a glance what you need to do and when. You can use Google docs for this.
Don’t forget to record the keywords you will be using in your social media plan.
Schedule and automate the content
Decide on your schedule of content creation and schedule and automate as much as you can.
Be very careful when automating not to create a loop of duplicate postings. Twitter, Facebook and blogs all have the ability to post to each other so map this out.
Also always do a certain percentage of live tweeting and updating, because you can often tell the difference.
So you really do need a written plan. It will never work if you are randomly posting here and there, and have no objectives set. Knowing your target audience is also crucial so that you can find the right people to follow – the ones who will be interested in your products and services!
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