A social media campaign requires a strong foundation and there are two components necessary to build one. You may see articles titled “10 important parts to Social Media” or “5 best strategies for social media” and to be honest most of them are nonsense. For Social Media, there are two general principles you need to pay attention to. The smaller more finite principles of how many times to post, whether pictures or articles are more popular, and so on, take a backseat.
As a social media manager, I work with various industries and businesses of all types. Every day I am constantly working to create a successful social media strategy for each company. I also read a lot about the social media industry. Throughout my time as a social media manager I have found that two strategies prevail over anything else. Without these two, you cannot build a successful social media presence. Think of them like the foundation of a house. Without them your social media campaign will be vulnerable. So in order to get started, you must first build a strong foundation and here are the 2 components you need.
Company Participation and Something To Compliment Social Media (I will explain this below, keep reading…)
A company needs to participate in their campaign.
First, social media is a two way street of communication and companies frequently fail to realize that. Here is some food for thought. Most businesses overlook the importance of interaction. For example, the company’s employees will neglect to interact with the company online. How do you expect other people to like or comment, on your Facebook page lets say, if the people in the company don’t? How do you expect a potential customer to like the page if the staff hasn’t? It’s pretty tough right? That same expectation holds true for Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. If the company itself doesn’t participate, neither will anyone else.
Second, your social media campaign needs to be about your company. You have to include content about the businesses. Articles, pictures, and videos of the business are far more valuable than generic ones. For example, a picture showing the day to day operations of the company is far more valuable than a relevant news article. The bottom line is that you have to be present on your own social media channels. People want to know about your COMPANY, not about a NEWS ARTICLE you found on Google.
Social Media needs a partner.
Plain and simple, you need to do something besides social media to spread the word about your business. It sounds contradictory, but it’s true. A good strategy doesn’t rely solely on social media. That would be the same as relying solely on a T.V. commercial or a newspaper ad to market your business. Social media needs to be present in your overall business strategy, but it needs to be accompanied by other things. I see the following scenario play out a lot: a company relies too much on social media, sees minimal returns and rationalizes that social media doesn’t work. This is an example of putting all your eggs in one basket and that can be very risky.
So in essence, it’s important to create a strong foundation for your social media campaign. Without one, you may not get the results you desire. Hopefully by creating this foundation you will develop a clearer sense of direction and relinquish the complexity surrounding social media.
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