social media for busy small businesspeople€¦ · social media is part of a marketing plan, not a...

Social mediaAmy Lahti

WESST Business Consultant and Trainer

© WESST, 2016 except where other copyrights noted

1.1 Why Create a Social Media Strategy?

Why NOT develop a social media strategy?With a strategy, you have:- Goals that are relevant to your business- A way to plan your workflow and activities- A game plan to follow- A game plan others can follow- A blueprint for time-management- A way to measure your Return on

Investment (ROI)

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Without a strategy, you’re just “doing stuff” on social media! A strategy helps you answer these questions:- What are you really accomplishing with

social media?- Is social media really helping your business?- How much reward are you getting, for the

time you’re putting in?- Are you on the right sites/networks?- Is this the right marketing tactic for you?

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What does a good social media strategy include?- SMART goals related to keeping your

business in business- Content topic areas and ideas- An analysis of what social-media sites you

should use, and why- Metrics for measuring your success

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1.2 Developing a Strategy

BEFORE you start your social media strategy:Social media is PART of a marketing plan, not a plan in and of itself! You should have an overall marketing strategy with good information about the following:

- Your target market/personas- Your competition- The overall market and how you plan to compete- Your differentiation strategy/Unique Selling

Proposition/problem you solve, need you fill- Price, Product, Place, Promotion, Positioning

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1.2 Developing a StrategyAlso, do some Social Listening!

What is Social Listening?

Social listening is “is the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company, individual, product or brand on the Internet.” (TechTarget)

Social listening is useful:BEFORE you complete your social media strategy – you know what’s already being said, what’s not being said, and where there are current opportunities for content.And DURING your strategy execution – so you are monitoring what people are saying about you/your brand.

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1.2 Developing a StrategySocial media strategy development in six (somewhat easy) steps:

Step 1: Determine your goals. What are your goals for your social media activity?• Engage with your customers? • Find new customers?• Perform market research?• Increase sales?• Get more qualified leads?• Recruit employees?• Increase product or industry knowledge?• Brand current employees as professionals/experts?

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1.2 Developing a StrategyYour social media goals must be

S.M.A.R.T.: Specific

MeasurableAttainableRealistic

Time-Bound

Remember, what gets measured gets done! How will you measure your success? How do you know when you have accomplished your goal?

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1.2 Developing a StrategySocial media strategy development in six (somewhat easy) steps:As part of Step 1, for each goal, ask yourself:

HOW will we do this?WHAT DO WE NEED to accomplish this goal?HOW WILL WE KNOW when we have met this goal?WHY is this goal important to our business?HOW LONG will it take us to accomplish this goal? – or –WHEN do we need to have this goal accomplished?

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Step 2: Identify 5-10 content topics, relevant to your business, that you can talk about on social media.

What are your customers interested in? What do they like to talk about? What information is helpful, useful, fascinating, motivating for them? What topics do you think might motivate them to buy from you?

(Example: for a bookstore, content topics could be new books being released, interesting author news, important days in literary history, issues for independent bookstores)

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Step 3: Using those content topics, figure out some actual content you can generate for use on social media sites.

EXAMPLES: Photos I find, photos I take, videos I create, videos I find, links to news articles, blog posts, links to blog posts by others, other social media posts

(Example: for the content topic “new books being released,” I can post: book cover images, links to news articles, original reviews from bookstore employees, links to video interviews with the author or book trailers)

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Step 4: Identify which social media sites are most appropriate for your business’ mission, needs, and goals.

PLEASE NOTE: Don’t start with the site, and then figure out how your content fits into it! An effective strategy identifies appropriate CONTENT and then applies it to a given social-media site in an effective, appropriate way.

CONTENT IS KING!

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Step 5: Match the SITE with the CONTENT TOPIC and the CONTENT you’re going to generate(Example: On Facebook, I will post about new books being released by posting a link to a video interview with the author).Step 6: Determine METRICS for determining success. Is it likes? Shares? Click-throughs to your website? Sales? (Example: We will know our content sharing on Facebook is successful if X number of people “like” the post and X number of people “share” the post.)

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http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2202307/Social-Media-ROI-How-To-Define-a-Strategic-Plan

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ACTIVITY: Take 5 minutes to draft a SMART goal for your social media strategy. We will have a few people share their goal.


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Questions on this unit?


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How often should I post on social media?

This depends on:

• What you’re selling (or trying to get people to do)

• Your audience• The content you’re using• What your own analytics say about the

days and times people are most likely to read what you post

• What else is going on in the city or world at the moment

• Etc. etc. etc.

CONSISTENCYis more important than

frequency!

Questions?

• Please fill out your class evaluation forms

• Thank you!

social media for busy small businesspeople€¦ · social media is part of a marketing plan, not a...

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