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4 insights to formulate a successful social media strategy

  

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There are a lot of different opinions on social media out there. Marketers embark on social media to generate leads, improve their SEO ratings, promote their brand, engage in two-way conversations with their consumers and customers, conduct market research,… As I am looking at different social media accounts, I am surprised at how many of them just seem to do the same old same old one way promotion: the occasional white paper, article, case study, push out a little survey, and every so often a blog post. There is very little two way interaction going on in those accounts, and they therefore don’t really perform either.

We assume people know how to use Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, but it seems strategy is a whole different ball game, so I wanted to give some insight into how to set up a successful social media strategy:

• Content strategy: This goes well beyond the standard copy writing skills. Social media content needs to inspire behavior and two conversation. You need to plan on having staff dedicated to responding to comments and feedback, fast, so you don’t lose momentum. By doing so, you will generate a buzz, which will help you expand your followers.
• User experience: your consumers are coming to your social media platform to have an experience. Define that experience by researching what exactly they are looking for, and align your strategy with it. Keep on validating your experience, because people’s expectations change, sometimes very fast
• Technology: make sure you understand all of the capabilities of your social media technology, and decide which ones to leverage. Stay on top of those capabilities, because they change fast, and you might just miss the boat.
• Consumer behavior: as much as I love platforms like Hootsuite and SocialOomph, the issue is that marketers craft “one size fits all” messages and push them out to all their different platforms. Consumers behave differently on the different platforms, so your strategy for that platform needs to align with that behavior pattern.