One thing is clear; Social Media is now an essential channel for businesses – regardless of their size. The question is no longer “Why should we use Social Media?” but “How can we utilise Social Media and grow our business?” In this post we cover the top tips to get you started and set you up for success.

Tip #1 Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy & Plan

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do” – Michael Porter

It still amazes me how many businesses market on Social Media without a strategy or plan in place. Creating and implementing a strategy & plan will help you avoid any Social Media mistakes and provide guidance to help you make effective and better decisions on the platforms you are using. A Social Media plan is a constant work in progress and should change if and when necessary.

Tip #2 Perform a Social Media Audit 

“The goal of Social Media is to turn customers into a volunteer marketing army” – Jay Baer.

Before you look at where you are going take time to look at where you are. This should include your competitors and aspirations. What platforms are you currently active on? What platforms bring you the most engagement and value? How do you compare to your competitors and aspirations? Are you on the right platforms?

Tip #3 Create & Curate Your Ideal Buyer/Customer Persona

Firstly you need to clearly define who your target market is. Knowing and understanding who buys or will buy your products is imperative. This will help you maximise your ROI and online effectiveness. Remember, these will evolve and change as you discover more information about your consumers – always go back and re-define your personas; if and when needed. Create your ideal persona by documenting information on your consumer using the below topics to get you started:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Interests & hobbies
• Income
• Language
• Education
• Job Title
• Most used social networks
• Favourite websites

Tip #4 Listen & Engage with your Consumers

“If you want engagement, be engaging. Be conversational. Ask questions. Leave room for your audience to add their voice” – Darren Rowse.

If you are not listening to, and engaging with your audience on Social Media you are reducing and damaging your presence and brand. Learn to listen to your audience and proactively engage with them and anyone who mentions your brand. There are plenty of tools to assist you with this. Some of the tools we use: Hootsuite, Buzzsumo, HowSociable, Google Alerts and Google Trends.

Tip #5 Create & Share Engaging Content

“Content is King, but Marketing is Queen, And runs the household” -Gary Vaynerchuk.

We recommend you create a Social Media content calendar. This should outline how often you intend to post on each platform, what you are posting and what time. Having your buyer persona in place assists with this step. The more you know about your audience, the more you can tailor your content to their interests and needs. Some examples of content below to get you started:

• Images
• Videos
• Newsletters
• Company updates
• Blog posts
• Infographics

Tip #6 Analyse & Optimise

“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.” – Carly Fiorina.

Tracking and analysing your results and data, making changes if and when needed is one of the most important steps to successful Social Media Marketing. If your data is telling you that you need to spend more time on Snapchat and less time on Twitter – make the changes.