Social media is here to stay and is growing.
Whatever your professional background – whether you are engaged in advertising,
search engine optimisation (SEO), marketing, public relations, online reputation management or digital creative – there are huge benefits from engaging in social media.
This article looks at social media marketing tactics, tips and suggestions that you can adopt to develop your online presence, improve website marketing, investigate new advertising channels, track and monitor brand conversations, manage your online reputation and so forth. The list of social media applications is endless and at the start of this article it is hard to categorise social media as x tool to achieve y results. The scope, coverage and potential social media can offer is truly huge.
Social media – engage
From the outset it is important to start breaking down some of the differences between traditional and social media.
Buzzwords abound but the key theme that emerges is that social media is much softer than traditional media – words like conversation, sharing, engagement and talking are key.
Social media succeeds and thrives because it is based on interaction, a two way exchange of concepts, conversation and information. Whatever your preconceptions or even plans for social media are, be sure to integrate this softer approach. Your social media success is heightened if you embrace this understanding. Traditional marketing converts to sharing, online reputation management converts to conversations, advertising converts to providing information.
Be prepared to listen, approach social media from the “I” perspective and not the company or point of view – ultimately you are representing your company or brand but engagement succeeds where you can be human, attracting people that find you attractive and compelling.
Share social media
Make sure your social media campaign is not locked away with one individual or team. Realistically no company would want all their employees wrapped up in social networking but ensure that all have access to opinion and sharing. As with most things in life, what one individual thinks is great may not be so great for all. A shared concept is more likely to develop into something that a greater audience will enjoy. Greater input and interaction results in better results – start the social emdia wave internally, test, gauge, get insight and you’ll be on the way to creating or developing something well suited for social networks.
Test, test and test again
Social media networks, their audiences, the tools and conversations change daily. You’ve adopted the right attitude, you’ve gained internal insight and input and now comes the stage where you continually evaluate and test processes. Not all social media networks may suit you so it is imperative to test and evaluate progress. Put the feelers out and see what is getting the greatest results.
Measure social media results
Any company or brand wants to see a good return on investment (ROI) and this is where social media cynics or dissenters often feel inner triumph as the elevator pitch for social media crumbles. Cynics will give endless
reasons not to join social media networks.
Social media can be hard to track and measure but there are ways. As with any project management there have to be clear plans, objectives and analytical tools. There are ways to track social media results and these must be in place. In the SEO and website marketing scenarios this can easily be measured by
ensuring sound analytics are in place from the outset.
Measuring results aside you must also bear in mind that if you are not engaged in social media you wouldn’t know about the conversations that are already happening.
Brands and their companies are being spoken about,
few conversations carry sentiment but it is an excellent channel to join. Crank up that elevator pitch to your boss by typing in your brand into Twitter and see the conversation. This typically routs any negative aspects and ear will be pricked up again – avoiding social media is not an option but an opportunity missed.
Social media for all?
Social media is NOT for all. This article has extolled the virtues of social media, it has spoken about the need to engage but not all industries, brands or companies are suited to social media.
ALL companies should however listen in to social media conversations. Listening can bring huge insight and always look to listen in on the conversations revolving around your competitors.
What next?
So far we’ve dealt with engaging, sharing, testing, measuring and determining whether social media is suitable for your needs. Next we deal with the how’s.
This section deals with your website, from the outset we discussed that this article was hard to define in terms of social media being x tool to deliver y results. Here we narrow it down now and talk exclusively about how social media can improve your website’s presence and other factors such as visitor conversion.
Consider:-
- Adding social bookmarking functionality to your website. If someone likes your website they may have a large following with whom to share it. Bookmarking allows people who have shared platforms to promote your website.
- Updating all standard email signature files to have full social media network information. Recipients can then join your network and any forwarded emails can reach a bigger audience.
- Don’t just consider but ensure any email newsletters have full social network information so that people can engage with you.
- Aggregating all your social media networks into one platform. Several options exist to link for example Twitter and Facebook feeds. Cross link all networks for maximum exposure.
- Reading our social media optimisation (SMO) articles that provide more in-depth explanations.
- Contacting us to discuss how e can help you launch your social media campaign and develop your website marketing strategy.
Contact us now or call 01733 371750 to discuss how we can help.
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