A typical phone call during my day usually goes like this: ” I really need help getting Twitter followers and more Fans on Facebook. Do you know about Pinterest? Everyone says that is the new hot place to be. Can you help me with that? I really need to get on it.”
Everyone at this point has heard about social media, and they know it is the way of the future to connect with clients. Unfortunately, many people are under the mistaken impression that having a “Facebook” and “Twitter” presence, which has alot of followers or fans is the way to go.
While it is great to create content that attracts followers and Fans, connections, repins etc. it is important to keep in mind; what the heck are you doing it all for? So here are a few things to consider before you start:
1. What is the end goal of this campaign: Is your goal to have a 5000 new followers or is it to have a 15% increase in foot traffic to your store? Do you want to have 3000 new likes on your page or do you want to have 100 people sign up for a charity event you are hosting?
2. Goals: Who do you want to talk to? Who is your target audience? Where are they located geographically? What are they interested in? What do they do on specific social networks? For the younger crowd, you may want to add gaming and interactive mobile apps as tactics, where as the 50+ is not as mobile savvy or game obsessed.
3. Reputation: What are people saying about you? Is there any information or reviews already out there about your company? What are they saying? Do you need to “change” the current image or do you need to start from scratch. If nobody is talking about you, this gives a great opportunity to” create ” that reputation now. Eventually, someone will, so you need to start now and continue to produce information that portrays you the way you want to be seen.
4. Where: What types of networks make sense for your prospects to find you? Are you selling B2B or B2C? Where are they going to find information that can help them and where are they going to relax?
5. Content: What are your clients and prospects worried about? What are they seeing their competitors do? What are they hearing from their clients and how does it make them feel? If you can offer a solution to someone that solves a problem for them, you will win everytime.
6. Creating Partnerships: You are not an island. You can certainly build a network on your own, but imagine the ripple effect it would have if you partner with some like minded, quality individuals that sell to the same people vertically.
7. Coordinating Offline and Online Channels: Where does your target audience congregate online and offline? How can you coordinate offline activities, events and advertising to attract potential clients and prospects to join your online communities?
8 Resources: How will you allocate your resources to get this job done? Who will implement this plan? Will you hire a person to do it or will you outsource the job? Do you have time to actively engage in this? Be realistic about what time you have to put into this. Even if you outsource, you will need to be actively engaged in all of this, since you are the voice of your company and best understand your client and prospect needs.
Now, go out, make it happen, and let me know your results!!!