7 Steps towards an Effective Social Media Strategy

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by mikemonty on March 20, 2013

Step 1: Determine Your Company’s Goals and Objectives – Without clear goals, the effectiveness of your social media campaign will not be measurable, and your company will not be able to identify changes that need to occur in order to increase effectiveness. If you aren’t sure about what goals to establish here is a list of possibilities.

  • Improve brand presence: This measurable goal aims to increase the amount of followers on Twitter, the number of fans on Facebook, the number of likes and comments your posts receive, and the number of times your company is mentioned in online forums.
  • Increase positive exposure about your business: The goal here is to increase the number of positive mentions your company receives, while addressing the negative comments. Is the ratio of negative comments decreasing? The objective here is to identify what the consumers are saying and use this information to address positive and negative comments relating to your business.
  • Develop relationships: The goal here is to keep track of the people that you have connected with. If a follower takes the time to comment or like your statuses routinely take the time to put their name and contact information into your digital contact book.
  • Increase traffic to your social networking pages or website: The objective here is to keep track of the users that frequent your social networking pages and then track whether or not they use your website. This will allow you to increase exposure of your website if the numbers are low at the beginning of the campaign.

Step 2: Research, Research, and even more Research – Rather than jumping into the social media scene try researching the sites you would like to use and research your industry.

  • In order to use social networking sites effectively, try making a list of the sites you would like to use and then research whether or not those sites match up with the results you would like to achieve.
  • Research your industry, your competitors, and the key words you should use in your content. By reading what is out there already, you can identify and understand the audience you are trying to target.

Step 3: Create a Digital Contact Book – If you use social networking correctly, relationships will build naturally. You can begin to make connections by following the conversation. This can be done by subscribing to blogs in your industry and then creating a list of the relevant vendors or customers you would like to contact. Keep track of this contact information by recording it in a digital contact book for future use.

Step 4: Join the Conversation, related to your Industry – Now is the time to utilize all of the research you have done. Joining the conversation is easy, all you have to do is comment on forums and blogs, answer questions on Yahoo! and LinkedIn, and join groups related to your industry. Begin developing relationships by following other people in your industry, and by communicating with your followers.

Step 5: Strengthen Relationships – Don’t hide behind your profile picture, get out in the real world and be seen. It’s not enough to just market through social media, in order to have an effective campaign you need to meet the people you communicate with online, in-person. This can be done by attending leads groups related to your industry. Keep track of the people you meet at these events, and then find them online, in order to keep the interaction moving.

Step 6: Measure your Results – Remember creating those goals and objectives? Now it’s time to measure your success and identify the areas that still need improvement. This should be done monthly or quarterly in order for your campaign to run as effectively as possible.

Step 7: Analyze, Adapt, and Strengthen – Your social media campaign doesn’t end with measuring the results. You need to analyze all of the aspects of your social media campaign, adapt your campaign with new findings, and improve your effort. Remember your social media campaign is a continuous effort that needs routine time and effort to be successful.

Ultimately, social networking needs to be viewed as a strategic marketing campaign in order for you to achieve successful results. Without a carefully calculated plan, you will soon be overwhelmed with the enormity of the process. Just remember, you don’t have to form your social media strategy alone. Let the Marketing Goddess help you establish a personalized campaign, with measurable goals, that will allow your business to grow and develop naturally.

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