15 Best Practices for Businesses Using Social Media (Part I of III)

The way we interact is evolving, but we’ve known that for some time. The prevailing uncertainty, though, is how marketers will exploit this new way of communications. It’s a time where anything can happen – businesses of all sizes can thrive or collapse.

What’s next? It’s a question that marketers must continually ask. We must change our ways as fast as the public changes theirs. It’s not easy, but it must be done.

Social media has been around for a stone age, (at least in tech years) yet some businesses are failing to adapt. So I’ve compiled a list of what I feel are best practices for businesses using social media as a tool to communicate…

01. Start with a Plan

It sounds straightforward, right? Every business should start with a plan, but they don’t. Much like you’d begin any type of campaign, whether it be TV, print, radio, etc., social media deserves a plan, a well-thought-out one. In fact, it may need more planning than any of the preceding mediums since communication within social media happens on a daily basis - it’s not a one-time execution. Before you start, ask the following questions:

·      What are we hoping to get out of this?

·      What types of content are we going to post?

·      How will we integrate all of our social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube)?

·      What does our brand sound like? Do we have an identity? If so, how can we make it consistent?

·      How will we measure success?

Of course, this list of questions isn’t complete. I can’t do all of the work for you…

02. Know Your Brand

What does your brand stand for? Every brand has (or should have) an identity. Social media is a great way to solidify this. But be careful, it’s also a great way to ruin what you stand for, so make sure your social identity is consistent with the rest of your brand’s messaging.

03. Know Your Audience

This may take some time. But after some trial, evaluation, error, trial, evaluation and more error, you’ll know what your audience likes to see, and what types of content they respond to best.

04. Give People a Reason to Follow

Before you can establish what your audience likes, you have to give them a reason to engage with you on social media in the first place. People are selfish. They aren’t going to let you take up precious space in the news feeds if you don’t benefit them in some way. Unless you’re some iconic brand - and people feel more complete with your logo gracing their page - you need to give them something. Figure out what that is.

05. Post Share-Worthy Content

This is where social media really shines. In the past, marketers have relentlessly tried to increase and measure word-of-mouth exposure among their loyal customers.

Well the time has come. Social media not only allows marketers to track mentions, shares, etc., it makes word of mouth (or word of text I guess) much, much easier for their brand’s influencers.

Instead of talking at your brand’s social followers, give them shareable content. They can re-tweet, like, or share however they prefer with all of their friends/followers allowing your message to grow exponentially. In other words, let your followers be your salespeople. After all, they are a lot more believable than you.