Social Media is an omnipresent concept in our society and is used by businesses of all sizes. Your business can use social media to promote your brand, advertise your products and services, and gather feedback to improve your existing goods or services. You can also attract new customers and strengthen your relationships with existing customers. If used correctly, social media can be a free to low-cost way for you to reach millions of people worldwide to promote your business.
Start with a Plan
The first step to incorporating a social media strategy is to plan and identify what your business aims to achieve. Your goals should always follow the SMART framework which will break down exactly what you want your plan to do. Another step is to observe what your competitors and other businesses are doing while making sure you don’t copy them. You should use their successes as inspiration to adopt into your own strategy and their failures as a learning curve. Create a content calendar that will outline the existing content you can publish, who your target audience is and what platforms you will use.
The Right Social Media Networks and Platforms
An effective social media strategy will depend on the target audience and which platform you use to reach them. The appropriate network you should use depends on the nature of your business. For example, a business with a visual appeal such as a restaurant or a travel company would use a site such as Pinterest for advertisement. It is also important that you do not make assumptions about particular platforms without checking their statistics. Many people assume that Facebook will not appeal to millennials, but this is not the case. Always ensure you check which social media site is appropriate for your business.
Choose the Right Approach
Adopting the right approach is extremely important when implementing a social media strategy. Different businesses will attract a different type of social media approach ranging from passive to active to engaged. If you have just started your business, you might adopt a passive approach where you monitor your audience before responding to them. Once you are more comfortable using social media, you should be more involved in online discussions. When you have identified the right strategy for you, start becoming more engaged with your audience. This approach requires a high level of responsiveness and you should regularly communicate with your customers.
Build Your Relationships On Social Media
Once your strategy has been implemented, you should focus on building and improving your relationship with your audience. The benefit of using social media is that you can directly communicate with your customers. This builds a sense of loyalty and confers a legitimacy to your brand which convinces your followers that they can trust you. Social media platforms also allow consumers who have already engaged with your business to leave comments and reviews that other people can view. This can attract other customers and encourage pre-existing ones to use your products or services. Moreover, building relationships with influencers can be extremely beneficial for your brand. Some influencers have more than millions of followers and can really promote your brand. If you do opt to use influencers, it’s best to set out the terms of your working relationship in an influencer agreement.
Fulfil All Legal Obligations
Misleading and Deceptive Conduct
You need to make sure that your social media strategy is compliant with the relevant laws surrounding it. Whenever you are promoting any of your products or services, you must ensure that nothing you advertise is false or misleading in any way.
Privacy
All of the information that you collect from your customers through social media methods must comply with the Privacy Act 1988. If your business falls within one listed in this Act, you may need to adopt a privacy policy.
Intellectual Property
If you are using someone else’s business to endorse your own, you must ensure you do not breach any trademarks they have. Moreover, if you want to protect your own business, you should incorporate your own trademark.
