7 Steps to a Simple Social Media Strategy

If you do a search on social media, social media strategy or social media for small biz, you'll get millions of results. 14,753,645 to be exact. I counted.
Okay, just kidding.
What's not a joke is how important and how overwhelming social media can be for small business. It can provide the leverage to move a company from floundering to flourishing, but it can also take over your life. Figuring out exactly what to do is where it's easy to get lost—which is why you need a strategy.

• What should our profile say?
• What platforms should we use?
• Who's in charge?
• How often should we offer coupons?
• Who's in charge of coming up with stuff to say?
• How often should we post?

A strategy—a simple, actionable strategy—tells you what to do, how to do it, and when to do it for maximum results, as best fits your company. Set aside an hour and work through these seven steps, and you'll have your own simple social media strategy.
1. Identify your target
Don't get lost in the details here; use the demographic research you've already done, or just answer each question as quickly as you can from what you already know or with a minimal amount of research. You need a rough idea, not a book-length collection of research.

• Who are you trying to reach?
• Where are they? 
• What are they talking about?

2. Define your message
In order to create a message that matters to your customers, you need to talk about what they care about: their problems, their pain points.

• What are your customers' pain points/problems?
• What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
• How can you communicate your USP most effectively to customer pain points?
• How can you approach social media with a solution to their problems?

3. Determine your goals
Goals can be anything from “build an e-mail list” to “get more sales”; it depends on how your business operates and how you use social media and your website to interact with your customers.

• Why are you using social media?
• What do you hope to gain out of it? (Be specific.)
• What counts as a successful conversion?
• How do those conversions turn into profit?

4. Brainstorm your offerings
Creating and offering value is what will make you stand out in social media. Adding to the noise isn't a good strategy; adding value and sharing it with your market is.

• What can you provide via social media that will help/interest/entertain your target?
• What kind of content will you produce? 
• What content or curation makes the most sense for getting customers to your goals? 

5. Set a budget/schedule for needed resources
You can't do it all; define your resources in terms of money, time and personnel, then put those resources to work.

• How much time, money, talent and energy can you dedicate to social media?
• Who is in charge? 
• What will you outsource? 

6. Set limits and benchmarks
You still can't do it all, so don't waste your time trying; focus on sticking to your strategy within a few social media spaces. You can always expand later.

• What social media platforms will you use?
• What content will you put on each one? How often?
• When will you produce this content?
• How will you measure its success?

7. Apply, wait and test/tweak
Set a time limit (several months, at the least) and stick to your strategy for that amount of time before you start messing with it.
Keys to success

• Start with a focused approach. Spreading yourself too thin is a sure way to commit social media suicide. Instead, choose one or two platforms, a primary message, and a primary means of communication.

• Stay consistent. Consistency conveys authority and builds trust.

• Follow the etiquette of social media (be polite; respond to people; don't spam; give credit; so on).

• Use apps that will help you streamline your social media sharing.

• Don't rely solely on automation. Engage, respond, talk to people, help them, have conversations.

• Don't let it take over your work time. Instead, designate a daily block of time to do your social media work.

• Set your goals first, then break the goals down into tasks, then assign the tasks to your daily time slots (and/or your employees, and/or your outsourced help).

• Stick with it! Social media takes time, but it's worth your time. Just not all your time. Use a simple strategy like the one you've just created to use social media effectively and still do the rest of your work.

A Step by Step Guide to Social Media Success [Infographic]

There are a lot of ways to begin planning your social media campaign, but our friends at Simply Business have put together a really cool step by step guide to figuring out which platforms and accounts you want to use on your way to social media success.  The steps are easy, you start at the “Start”, and you move through the chart answering yes or no — games always make decisions a whole lot more fun.

The infographic is below, and while it may not highlight specific details in each case, it points out the various questions you need to be asking yourself before you just set up a Facebook Page and press “publish”.  Have you asked yourself about your monitoring tools or content strategies?  What’s your company’s social media policy?  Have you built a team to help ensure you’re always available for the inevitable crises that social media will pass your way?

 Click image to open interactive version (via Simply Business).


Planning, social media marketing, social, social commerce, social media, social media best practices, 

5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Most small-business owners feel strongly about social media. They either love it, hate it or both. If they love it, it's because its tools can create tremendous brand awareness. If they hate it, it's because it’s a massive time suck. Regardless of where you stand and how proficient you are at each tool, there is always something new to learn. Here are a few common social media mistakes and tips on how to fix them.
Expecting ROI right away
Ashley Ranger sees this often. As founder of /excelamktg, a social media marketing company based in Los Angeles, potential clients frequently voice frustrations when not attracting a target number of followers or sales captures. Ranger’s advice is always the same: It takes time.
“If you are actively posting and commenting, I’d say it could take you six months to one year to see ROI out of a social media campaign,” she says.
Low on "likes?" Get creative. Ranger recommends that online businesses offer an additional 10 percent off purchases if customers "like" them on Facebook. Another way to engage: Give back. One of Ranger’s fashion clients will post a "look of the day" on Facebook and interviews with designers—both, activities that will help generate traffic.
Failing to plan
A social media campaign is like any other business campaign; it needs a well-laid-out plan before execution. Stephanie Derry, a social media consultant in Richmond, Va., recommends plotting out goals.
“Do you want to use social media as a customer service tool? A way to link to your website?” she asks. “It all comes down to market research. If you know what your target market wants, you can plan accordingly.”
Talk to your customers about the sites they use most, visit competitor’s social media pages and join conversations around your industry before firing up your own campaign, Derry adds. Once you’ve finished researching, assign one person in your company to be the director of your social media program.
“If you don’t have someone responsible, your customers will be talking to no one,” she says. “People want a personality to attach to the brand, they don’t want to feel like they are talking to a robot.”
Automating
Tools such as Hootsuite allow users to write one message and then simultaneously broadcast it to a number of social media sites. While this can be a time saver, Ranger guards her clients against the practice.
“When you automate, it starts to sound robotic,” she says. “You want your posts to have a personal feel, so take time to write different posts on each platform, even if they are similar in content.”
Hard selling
Think of your words on a social media network like the words you’d say to a customer walking into your brick and mortar store. You wouldn’t spam an in-person customer with sale promo after sale promo; you’d first focus on establishing a nice conversation and a relationship. The same goes for customers visiting your social media site, says Ranger.
Try asking your followers questions about personal topics (think holiday decorating ideas, best holiday memories) or quizzing them about their favorite product in your store. Offering a free gift can always inspire engagement, too.
Not connecting to other marketing platforms
Everyone should know you have a Facebook page, a Twitter page, a Pinterest account. According to Derry, it is important to connect your social media presence to your website, e-mail newsletter, print advertising, broadcast advertising, etc.
She says, “Make sure people who are connecting with your company are able to connect in every way; make your social media presence known for maximum benefit.”