The advent of social media has drastically changed the way we interact on the internet. From mere consumers of content, we have become creators of content and voice our opinions about events, products, services etc. openly to our friends and others within our social circle. Therefore, businesses have turned their attention to social media for publicizing their products/services and everybody is rushing to get a Facebook Page, a Twitter account for their organization. But is that all it takes to benefit from Social Media?
Let us help you with a few fundamentals of a Social Media Action Plan
Define your Goals: This is the most basic yet most important step. An account with sorts of social media services will be no good, if you do not have a plan of how to use them. So start with what are you planning to use social media for? Is it to generate leads, close sales or drive traffic to your website or blog?
Act on them: Once you know what you are doing, you must define how you are going to do it. How many social media accounts you should set up, what sort of information will you be sharing there, how regularly will you update this information and define what you expect from these actions.
Measure your returns: Once you roll out your action plan, you must review it from time to time to know how it is working out for you. The best way to measure performance is to compare to numbers. Numbers such as subscribers to your blog, enquiries for products/ services, number of new clients etc.
It might be difficult to project numbers before-hand. But don’t let that bother you. Keep your expectations realistic and do not be disheartened if returns do not match your expectations. Your strategy might need a review. You can even measure the impact of your presence by using Klout.
People: As your business grows, it might be difficult for you to keep track of your social media presence all by yourself. Before you assign this task to someone else, make sure that the person is committed to such a task and clearly understands the goal of having presence on social media. Distribute tasks effectively such that one handles leads, the other complaints. Having one person develop blogs, tweets, updates, handle complaints and even make sales is an attempted suicide in the world of social media.
Manage: Like all other tasks in a business, even social media presence requires commitment and management. Often once online, businesses fail to revise their plans and end up spending more in an area that is not giving them much return. So, it is imperative to review your progress regularly, measure your returns, concentrate on weaknesses, develop on your strengths and even check personnel commitment to the task.
Reviewing overall performance, revising goals and encouraging your team to perform better is part of your role as a Manager. Your social media action plan is well in place and functioning smoothly by now.
