Why are you are on FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, Ning, and YouTube? “Is it because you are trying to sell your products or just killing time?” Time is of the essence you cannot afford to waste it! If you are thinking of leaving your full-time job to start your own business, please think strategically! By utilizing social media in your marketing plan, you can build customer loyalty, build a fan base and become a “micropreneur” or even a “microcelebrity.” It is time to create a 2009 Social Media Strategy Plan to generate buzz for your brand. You can become a thought leader in your industry or even an expert in your community. Are you ready?
1. What is your goal? Social media will only work for your business if you can decide what you can get out of it. Are you trying to:
• Build a brand and gain online visibility.
• Build a community of fans and loyalty.
• Seek business partnerships and/or collaborate with others in your industry.
• Change your career.
• Increase website and/or store traffic.
2. Who is your target market? It is not possible to market your business to everyone, you will need to find quality connections and define a target market. Social networking sites allow you to search for connections by age, gender, geographic locations and interests. Defining a target market can:
• Differentiate your business from your competition.
• Allow you to speak the language your group will understand and fulfill their needs.
• Give you the most value and share a part of the market.
3. What platforms and tools will you use? Decide what tools you will use to create your target market and what platforms you will use to communicate. Is it with a blog, video, audio, Facebook, Twitter or Diggs? For example, if you dread writing but love to talk, then audio podcasting may be your tools to create content and Blog Talk Radio will be your platform to communicate your creativity. Alternately, if you love to be in front of the camera, then YouTube may be your best friend. Remember not all platforms are appropriate for all businesses.
Just as a word of advice, regardless if you use any audio or video platform to spread your ideas, you must have some written content to describe the content in details. For example, use a blog to post audio show notes or video description. Why? The search engines will have a hard time reading .mp3, .mp4, .wav files.
4. What listening or monitoring tools will you use? Media is moving online. Consumers are going online to research product and services. They base their purchase decisions on reviews and feedback from perfectly good strangers. Ignoring what been said about your brand will not make it go away. Consumers will be quick to tweet on Twitter and post on Face Book about their bad experience with a brand even before they say anything to you. I see this happening every day. Please read my previous post on the Five Tools to Monitor Your Brand. As a savvy entrepreneur the quicker you resolve any issues the longer you keep your brand image strong.
5. What is your social media schedule? I know this may be tough. However, keep it organized and manage your time wisely. Social media can be addictive and time consuming. Designate a few times a week on a specific day for all social media duties. Do not neglect other administrative duties and family interaction. Schedule time to:
• Develop content.
• Post and/or upload content.
• Participate and build relationship on multiple social networking sites.
• Research industry news.
• Monitor your brand online.
6. How will you market your brand?
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) designing and writing of codes for your website will help improve the quality of traffic resulting in high page ranking.
• Press Release.
• Creating or participating in social events (online and offline).
• Joining community and helping in others success.
• Word of mouth.
• Email signature.
• Business cards and other printed materials.
Outlining your social media strategy plans is the beginning step of creativity, applying the steps in action is innovation. Allow two to six months to work your plan aggressively, so you can see the results that you are aiming for. Once you have decided to seriously establish and generate activity for your brand then you can utilize the social networking markets wisely, where your online visibility can be of optimum effect. Be patient, stay consistent and have fun!
