Having a social media strategy is a must for businesses, but a social media strategy is not merely a presence on social media channels. It is a focused attempt to meet some pre-determined goal that can range from increased brand awareness an image makeover or higher sales through effective use of social media. When discussing effective use rather than a simple social media presence it is helpful to think about it in terms of traditional advertising. A company would not spend time and money to rent billboards or buy ad space simply to display their name and logo. They would work to plan an ad campaign, and then unveil it with their name and logo attached. A twitter or Facebook account that does not offer relevant content or even consistently updated content is merely a presence, like ad space that only contains a brand name and logo without any clear message. An effective use of social media must be thought out and well executed like a pre-planned advertising campaign.
Every brand does not need to use every form of social media. Big corporations are most likely to be engaged on many social media platforms because they have the manpower to do this well. More is not always better, so a company that cannot see a need to add a twitter feed to their already successful use of Facebook, Pinterest, and You Tube is being smart not to jump on board simply because everyone else is.
Content is the new buzz word, replacing even the SEO craze as the number one priority for social media. This should have always been the goal, but thanks to some changes on how page ranking is determined it is finally getting the attention it deserves. What is quality content? Quality content must offer something to users, include a call to action that fits with the company’s intended goal for its social media usage, and it needs to be diverse. Diversifying content includes using images, quotes, sale reminders, customer spotlights, videos, articles, top ten lists, and more so that users remain engaged and interested. Poor content is pitchy and relentlessly self-promoting, may contain grammar and spelling errors, and content that is stolen from elsewhere on the web is the biggest content concern as it takes credibility away from the company.
Quality content does a range of things for a company: increases brand awareness, boosts company image, grows the customer base, and it should directly affect SEO. In order to make sure that the quality content a company is devoting its time and energy to is actually helping SEO as it should be, employ a few techniques. Make sure there is a clear link back to the company website from content and that the company is clearly recognized somewhere in the article. Use key words properly by incorporating them along with the unique selling points into headings. This will help grab readers’ attention and get picked up in searches.
Some argue that big business and well established brands naturally have the upper hand because people will follow them anyway. That may be partly true in regards to seeking out those brands, but if they are not using social media channels properly or in a way benefiting to users, they will not continue to see high numbers of social media traffic. Small businesses are not to worry because if they are using social media well, and possibly even offering enticements such as check in deals or special promo codes only found on social media, they will see a continual growth in their social media fan base. Small businesses can also partner with other small businesses to increase their online presence and grow their customer base. For example, an independent coffee shop that sources pastries from local bakeries, buys coffee from a local coffee roaster, and uses a family owned printing company should befriend all these businesses on social media. The businesses can work together by sharing relevant postings with each other and collaborating on other innovative uses. Guest blogging on each other’s blogs is another way they grow together.
Business size does not really offer any type of social media upper hand, neither does jumping onto every social media platform available. Excelling at using social media for business truly requires understanding how social media works, what defines great content, using that content to help with SEO, and employing new ways to constantly grow in social media use.
Dan Ripoll is co-founder and CEO of Content BLVD, a crowd sourced content marketing platform enabling bloggers to publish more content and grow their audiences. This is achieved by connecting authoritative bloggers to a crowd of top notch contributors offering high quality, informative content.
