One of the things I like to ask is “Why are you using social media in the first place?” Yes, it’s good for your business, but if you have a plan, you can make the best use of your time. Here are the six most popular reasons (in no special order), and you may identify with many of them:
Customer Service – try to respond as soon as you can, and if a customer makes a negative comment on a public social media platform, respond publicly to the issue. If you contact the person privately, you may resolve things, but all of the people who saw their public criticism won’t know that.
Customer Research – Note the questions and problems your market is talking about and respond when appropriate.
Build Relationships – This should always be one of your ‘why’s’ and takes a bit of time to interact with people. If that’s on Twitter, keep your username and tweets short enough that others can re-tweet what you say. A quick read of a LinkedIn or Facebook post and then clicking the ‘like’ button or sharing it let’s people know you care about them, yet doesn’t take a lot of your time.
Build Credibility – This should probably be number one and you wouldn’t share information or photos that would damage your credibility. Nor would you intentionally say things that could offend others. But there are times I’ve put my foot in my mouth and all I can do is apologize. Since my offense is on the Internet, probably for all-time, I want my apology to be out there as well. This especially applies if you use auto-posting, which means scheduling information to go out at a specific time, which may end up not being relevant at all. Best to keep automation for information that you know will always be correct.
Curate Content – Whenever you find a website, a productivity tool, or some information online that you think would benefit your audience, share it. I love to do this and it’s one area where Hootsuite shines – quick and easy.
Events – Twitter is great for creating buzz about an event and letting people in on some of the highlights as the event goes on. Simply by using the hashtag (explained in the Twitter module) and a word that describes your event. Then everyone can tweet and re-tweet using that hashtag. Then post videos and photos from the event on Facebook.
And the most important point about using social media – always have a link to your own website. Your goal is to bring your people, tribe, peeps, those people who love what you’re doing, back to your home on the Internet. Then you can invite them to your email list and continue to build those relationships.
To your online success,
Carol
P.S. If you are interested in Social Media training, I have some recorded videos that take you through all of the main points. For more information on the Social Media modules, click here.