Understand Your Mission - Part 1
Written by Wayne R Karlins President of Reed Social Media Group
If you have the time, the content, and the skill to do things right on your social media page, I believe there is an advantage to doing things yourself. What do you need to know before deciding this?
How to get started: Part 1 – Understand Your Mission Part 2 - Creating a Plan Part 3 – Choose a Platform Part 4 – When to Get Help Part 5 - Outsourcing? How to Pick the Best Fit
Before you start you managing your social media you will want to make a plan, have a mission and then choose a platform(s) you want to start with. There are over 100 social media websites to choose from, so your plan and mission will help guide you to the best option. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are very much the social media royalty, but if you’re looking for a more professional feel, LinkedIn is King.
Are you a more visual company? - try out Pinterest. On the go? Look no further than Instagram! Getting into video blogging and educating your clients? - check out YouTube. What about live feeds? - Periscope or Facebook Live.
Let’s start this journey by creating your mission!
Your mission:
This can be as simple as saying you want to increase visibility in the Chicago North Shore or be more active on sites that are geared more towards your target market.
Ask yourself some questions: below are some ideas
- Who Is your target market?
- Depending on your target market, you will be able to narrow down the social media platforms you are working with. This will also help you decide the type of content you will be creating and posting.
- What location are you focusing on?
- Are you a Chicago based company, statewide, or larger? This will help you decide different groups to join, content to share and create. This can also help with platform decisions, designs of the page and image you are trying to present on your pages.
- Are you trying to increase sales?
- I tell our clients that social media is about getting to know your prospects, clients, power partner, friends and connections is what your social media presents will do for you. You will be able to see what other are saying about your product, services, competitors and subjects they are interested in. Social media will help you generate new leads, and build greater relationships. Building great relations with your clients will help them to continue to do business with you, keeping you top of mind when making a purchasing decision.
- Not having a social media presence would result in the likelihood of going out of business. The market that has been created, relies heavily on social media for advice, peer review, education and news. This is where people go to find reliable sources of information and relevant news.
- Is growing your existing relationships important to you?
- This is really where social media shines! It is a great way to keep in constant contact with your current partners, customers, and community. It is very uncommon for your customers and partners to not be on a social media platform. This will help you to stay relevant to them as long as you understand where the majority of them reside.
- Are you looking for more power partners?
- Social media is becoming a great recruiting source. Many companies are growing their resources daily using different social media platforms. Are you looking for an artist, lawyer, sales professional, videographer??? Social media will help you find them!
- Do you want to drive more people to your website?
- Social media will inevitably draw more traffic to your website when used properly. It is important to know if this is your goal, purely because it will change the way you post and create content.
- How often do you have product releases?
- If you are coming out with new products often or needing to draw more attention to certain products, there are plenty of social media platforms that will help. If you are a product company, social media can be a huge business driver for you! This will also help you share product reviews and personal experiences.
- Would you like to increase visibility to your blog?
- Social media is a great place to post new content. If you are providing a new view or new idea to the community, they will be able to find your blogs easier through social media than just a blogging site alone. Blogging is huge and more and more people are leaning on bloggers for opinion pieces and new ideas to improve their lives.
- Do you video blog?
- Video blogging is huge right now! Youtube is exploding with Youtube channels and Youtube personalities left and right. Customers and partners are finding it easier to learn about products and services by watching demos, listening to reviews, and hearing directly from the experts. New to the scene is Periscope for those who want to present a live video as it is happening
- Are you on the move all the time going to events, parties, and meetings?
- Social media will be your best friend! Take pictures everywhere you go! Start bringing a camera everywhere or make sure your phone has a great lense. If you are on the move, your customers and partners will want to see! Again try out Periscope video from you phone.
Keep an eye out for our next blog - Creating a Plan - as part of our 5 blog series for managing your social media!
Feel free to email me at info@reedsocialmedia.com for advice on which platforms to start on and ways to choose how to handle your social media time.
Anyone can do social media. Some of us do it right!
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