There are a lot of tips, techniques, guides about "how to create a social media strategy" online, but a lot of them miss quite a few things. Most often, the tips and tricks are too complicated for a newbie.
You do not need to master Facebook Marketing, Twitter Marketing, etc. You are in business because you are passionate about something and you are excellent at what you do. What you need to know is how you can put your message out there to your target market in an authentic way and determine which sites are worth spending time on.
There's always something you can improve. You probably already have a Facebook fan page, LinkedIn profile, and profiles on other channels, but have you ever thought about what goals you would like to achieve by participating on these sites? Have you considered which of your activities you should prioritize over the others?
Social Media Channels and Priorities - What You Need To Know About
"How do I know which social media site to prioritize?"
Good question. When you assign a priority to a social media site, you will base it on four things:
The presence of your target audience on that specific social media site. Is your target audience even active on that social media channel? Take note that the popularity of a social media site isn't your basis.
Do your research before choosing the channels to participate in. Search for your keywords in a social network and check if your competitors are there as well. Determine if the topics of your content are being discussed in conversations.
You can also ask your clients or existing customers which social media channels they use.
The specific goal you want to achieve for your business by using that site. Determine what you would like to get out of that specific social media channel. Some of your goals could be any of the following: to increase your online presence, receive reviews and tips from customers, virally distribute your content in the form of documents, or network with like-minded professionals offline.
The strengths of the site. Do an evaluation of the site and how it would benefit your business. It's great to post photos to show you are human and not a bot that keeps on posting automated tweets.
If you are a business coach or a marketer, you can upload photos of your offline events or retreats. If you are selling products such as crafts, jewelry, clothes, or fabrics, you can upload photos for your potential customers to see.
Ask yourself "How will Facebook benefit my business?" or "How will LinkedIn help me generate targeted leads?" If you feel the functionality of this site won't benefit your business, go to the next one.
The amount of time you can afford to spend on that site daily or weekly. Social media marketing is not a one-time investment. In order to build a community and engage that community, you need to actively participate on an ongoing basis.
If you can only devote 1 hour each week, then you won't be able to build awareness of your brand. Ask yourself how much time you can afford to spend maintaining your Facebook fan page, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts.
If you can only devote little time per week or month, then creating accounts on several social media channels would be useless.
If you are just starting out with social media, it's important to give the highest priority to your blog/website. Your blog is the center of all your online marketing efforts. All efforts to create a buzz about your business point back to your blog or website.
Effective Social Media Strategy: Viral Marketing
Creating a social media strategy is something that all the business owners and marketers want to do. This approach to marketing via social media is a very cost-effective method of advertising and reaching out to consumers, especially when you consider the fact that you have consumers eying your ads 24/7.
However, not every single marketing strategy using social media out there is successful. For every successful and profitable venture, many others end up wasting their time and money. But What's the difference? What're the secrets?
The Power of Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is all about using an existing social media network to increase the market presence of a particular product or service. All you need to do is tap the resources of this network by creating the viral effect.
Simple One word: Interest! To successfully spread viral marketing, you must first provide interesting content that deals with the product or service that you offer. A social media strategy can take advantage of this by creating amusing animations, video, infographics, informative content or even simply just announcing your product or service.
You can spark interest and attract many interested people if you know when, where and how to announce it. Simply put, you have to come up with something interesting that will make users and viewers want to share it in their own existing networks.
Maximize the Viral Effect
There are ways you can maximize the viral effect, and one of the most effective ways is to increase the number of people that you first infect. You can do this with the help of an influencer marketer or you can tap pre-existing networks for readers via a service.
One example of such services is the various Twitter followers tools, where you are given the option to power Twitter by buying hundreds, even thousands of followers. Whatever you do, increased readership will always work in your favor when it comes to viral marketing.
Attention!
Viral marketing is a very effective social media strategy that you can use to increase awareness of your product or service, but it is a double-edged sword. You have to be very careful with the explicit and implicit messages of your viral marketing campaign on the Internet, as it will cross borders and cultures. Gender issues, religious symbols, and other similar taboo topics have to be carefully screened out if you want to be successful.
Keep all this in mind, and you will find viral marketing to be a very useful social media strategy that has a very high return on investment - if you know how to use it properly, that is.