Social Media Starter Kit: An Introduction
The following is the first of a five part series of blog posts. Each “step” will appear as its own post over the next five weeks.
When businesses or organizations are looking to get into social media, they often feel overwhelmed and pressured to do everything at once, right away. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “We aren’t ready for this type of project!” or “I’m too busy for this kind of thing.”
The reality is that social media should be treated like any other business process – research, vetting, development and implementation. You’re not flipping a switch and it’s all “ON.” You’re figuring out where your customers are, what they want and how to interact with them on your own time. Bottom line – you have to think about social media, whether it’s starting with something small or going for it all.
The Piehead strategists have put together a four step guide to help make social media manageable. The guide will be delivered via this blog throughout the next several weeks beginning with this Starter Kit:
Step one: Figure out why you want to be in the social media landscape. Having an online presence these days is a basic to-do, and while websites are the default – giving consumers a landing page – there are other channels and communications tools one might use to target a specific group.
Are you trying to increase sales? Have a better relationship with your customers? Attract a new demographic of potential new customers? Figuring out why you want to be in social media will go a long way in determining how to do it and when.
Step two: Now that you know you want to participate in social media, the key is to figure out where. The ability to locate your target audience and develop the necessary tools to engage them is one of the key differentiators between success and failure. You may have a preconceived notion of where your customers are online, but the truth is, you could be terribly off-base (no offense!).
For example, if you’re a company selling minivans and looking to target soccer moms, then Facebook may be the right place to be. Why? Recent statistics show that one of the fastest growing demographics on Facebook just happens to be women between the ages of 35-50.
Step three: So you know where you want to be online. Congrats! Next, it’s time to figure out who’s going to design, develop and implement your idea. Often you won’t have the resources to do it yourself, so look to an interactive agency (shameless plug) to help you out! This type of agency can design, develop and distribute just about anything you can come up with, and maybe even give you an idea or two. Step Four: Now that you know where you want to be and have the channels created to reach your audience, you need some strategy. Basically, you need campaigns that will leverage those channels to create buzz and momentum. By directly engaging consumers via the newly created channels, you will be able to both solidify loyalty and attract new customers.
For example, the company who has set up the Facebook page to sell their minivans to soccer moms can now create a campaign to leverage a Facebook application. The application is a minivan check-list that allows moms to make sure they have everything they need for their daily activities, and is accessible via their smartphones. The idea is to give the consumer something they need, but also motivate them to share the application with fellow moms (and your potential customers).
Step 4: Measurement should follow any campaign. Determining what works and what doesn’t work is important to figuring out your future social strategy campaigns.
The reality is that anything that is online is moving at a million miles an hour, including audiences. While Twitter may be “hot” now, it could be “dead” in a week.
