5 Steps to Success on Social Media for Businesses
Social media has disrupted the way people communicate with each other on a global scale—and brands and businesses are no exception! If businesses truly wish to succeed in the digital age, they need to venture to where their customers congregate: online.
So how can you set your business up for success online and reach more of the people that matter to your brand?
It takes time to build a reputable online presence with a loyal following, but these are our top 5 Steps to Success on Social Media for Businesses:
1. Start with a strategy
“A failure to plan is a plan to fail.” — Benjamin Franklin
As Benjamin Franklin once said, "A failure to plan is a plan to fail", and this has never been truer than online. Start with a social media marketing strategy.
A strategy for your social media activities will ensure that content is both valuable and relevant to your target audience, in turn delighting them and convincing them you're worthy of that glorious "Follow" tap. It's also the basis for your "why"—why are you using social media? How does it help you achieve marketing and business goals?
A good social media marketing strategy outlines:
What your business goals are, and how social media will help achieve them
Who your audience is, and how to speak to them in the right way
Which platforms are best, and how they help you reach your audience
What your message and content themes are, and how you'll support them
How you'll measure your activities, to ensure growth and improvement
Your social media marketing strategy may reveal new platforms for your business to use, or even recommend removing some. Many people think being on as many platforms as possible is best, but spoiler—this just isn’t true.
Avoid what we call “ghost towns” (social platforms that are clearly not kept up-to-date), as these can be damaging to your brand and your reputation. Better to stick to the platforms the majority of your customers and fans are active on. If you’re still stuck selecting your platforms, here’s a good rule: Pick only the top three.
2. create your content
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” — Tom Fishburne
Once you've outlined your strategy, it's time to put it to work for you.
Use your social media marketing strategy as a guide for your content creation. This will determine which platforms you are active on, which also sets out what content types you should use. Did you know that on Facebook, links get the most average engagement?
You also need to consider who your audience is. What are their problems and pains? What solutions or information can you offer that would be valuable to them Keeping your audience in mind is vital throughout the content creation process.
When creating content, ask yourself the following questions, to make sure it's relevant and valuable to the people seeing it:
Does your content inform your audience of something new?
Does your content educate your audience on something specific?
Does your content entertain your audience somehow?
Does your content inspire your audience emotionally?
You’ll also have to consider a few things, from a business perspective, such as:
Who will create your content?
Who will approve content?
Who will distribute your content?
This looks different for many businesses. Some choose to employ someone internally, others outsource, and the majority of business owners end up maintaining their online presence themselves. Keep in mind a successful, profitable online presence takes dedicated time to build.
3. ENGAGE & GROW YOUR AUDIENCE
To find true success online, you need to find and engage with your ideal customers and your most loyal followers. These are the people who will rave about you to their friends, share your posts constantly, and bring you referrals. Some ways to do this include:
Respond to your audience’s feedback
Use industry-specific hashtags to grow your reach
Tag relevant pages and people
Include calls-to-action to drive results
Link to relevant content in your posts
Engage your audience by being responsive to feedback, both negative and positive. Celebrate your audience when they engage with you by responding personally and being quick to answer questions and address issues.
Don’t be afraid to like, comment, and engage with other people and relevant brands online as your business, either: this builds credibility by getting you active within your industry’s community (and may even bring about surprising partnerships and opportunities).
Use hashtags on appropriate platforms (Instagram, Twitter—avoid on Facebook) to put your content in front of interested people to increase your reach and find new followers.
Include calls-to-action (CTAs) to drive results such as new follows or website traffic. This might be a link to relevant content on your website or elsewhere, encouraging people to call or book with your business, or inviting them to engage with your content by liking or sharing.
4. TRACK & MEASURE YOUR RESULTS
Not tracking and measuring results is one of the biggest mistakes businesses make when using social media.
Tracking your performance is the most important part of ensuring growth online. Most platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, have built-in insights and analytics tools that give an overview of performance and activity.
There are many different metrics and KPIs and different ways of measuring them, but we'll just name the general types for now (this fantastic article on the Buffer blog goes in-depth on each of these). These are:
Activity: The production of you/your team
Reach: Your current and potential audience
Engagement: Connecting and interacting with your brand
Acquisition: Building a relationship with and nurturing leads
Conversion: Actions, sales, dollars!
Retention and advocacy: Delighted clients and brand advocates
You can track these in a spreadsheet, create reports with screen captures, or use a paid social media management tool.
5. REVIEW, IMPROVE, REPEAT
Regularly review your metrics, they tell you what content your audience enjoys and responds to most, what types of content to avoid, and also when your audience is most active and inclined to engage.
The data is what will help you determine which activities and content are working and which aren't, allowing you to improve on your efforts and adjust your social media marketing strategy for success. Testing and tweaking your activities constantly will help bring you closer to your ideal audience, as well as your business goals.
Social media marketing can often appear unappealing to some businesses, as:
The initial time investment is high
ROI can be confusing to identify and measure
Results often won't pour in instantly, or even in the first month
Many businesses will start with social media marketing, and fail to see results straight away—discouraging them from continuing and leaving big money on the table down the line.