More than a decade after the launch of major networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, there continues to be an explosion of networks, participants, and content. As much as ever, harnessing the power of social media is essential for businesses of any size that want to encourage brand loyalty and recognition.
Candice Charleton, Hootsuite’s senior manager of global social and community, recently shared what she’s learned during a webinar for the Upwork community, “Hootsuite’s 4 Secrets to Boosting your Brand with Social Media“.
“This is an unprecedented time for content,” she explained. “Making sure that you have a proper plan in place to leverage the networks, get in front of your audiences, and deliver fantastic content that can break through the clutter—these are all really important things when you’re looking at why you need to have a proper social media plan.”
So what does an effective social media plan look like? During the webinar, Charleton shared four steps to help you create a plan that works and provided tips on each:
- Do a social media audit
- Develop your plan
- Engage your audience with a set content strategy
- Measure your progress.
Step 1: Audit Your Social Media
A social media audit is your chance to scrutinize what your audience is up to on social media:
- Which networks do your customers and prospects use?
- What are they saying about key topics related to your business?
- What are the people in your space, such as leaders and competitors, saying?
- What are the existing conversations you can leverage?
It’s also an opportunity to look back at what you’ve shared on your own social media accounts in the past—see what the best performing content has been. “Your audience is your best barometer on telling you what’s working and what’s not,” Charleton said.
As you begin your audit, find all the social platforms you have an who runs them. Use Google to find people, blog posts, and other content that refer to your brand. Determine what social networks you want to focus on.
“Prioritize and make sure that you’re feeling focused in terms of what networks you want to go ahead and spend the most time and energy on,” she said. Create new networks, consolidate existing networks—to streamline your efforts instead of juggling multiple profiles—and eliminate the networks that don’t have value for your brand.
Step 2: Develop a Game Plan
An effective social media marketing plan starts with goals that are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time based.
“If you don’t know where your goal is, you don’t know where you’re going—it’s going to be a very rocky road and you’re not going to have your North Star that can help make your plan successful,” Charleton said.
She says you also want to make sure your business goals and social goals are in sync. “When you can sit in a room and prove the value of social at that organizational level, that’s really where the magic is.”
For example:
| Business goals like… | May pair with social goals like… |
|---|---|
| Brand Awareness | Reach |
| Thought Leadership | Comments and Inbound Links |
| Word of Mouth | Shares and Retweets |
| Leads | Form Fills |
| Sales | Online Purchases |
Set your content strategy
Having an editorial calendar that’s in sync with your social media calendar can help you map out content releases and promotion. This will help you identify:
- Whether you need to segment your content by audience
- Original social content you need to create to support the editorial pieces
- What content you want to share
- How often you should promote it.
“Developing one piece of content and blasting across all of your networks isn’t the way that social [works],” Charleton said, explaining that it’s important to understand how the experience on each social network is different. “You want to match [the] audience’s consumption behavior.”
As you develop your strategy, aim for a balanced mix of messages using what Charleton describes as the rule of thirds:
- Spend a third of your content promoting your products—not just talking about your product but looking for ways to educate and inspire.
- Converse with your audience about industry news and best practices.
- Just talk to people!
Step 3: Drive Engagement
While a calendar is important, Charleton says it isn’t enough if you don’t have someone available to respond.
“When people comment and ask questions, you need to answer them,” she said. “If they shout out and give you a high five—’that was really great and I learned a lot, and thank you so much’—it’s amazing if you can have someone say a simple ‘Thank you,’ or send a high five, or ask another question and get a dialogue going.”
Engagement is an important part of any social media plan; everyone is important, and if you don’t have someone dedicated to engaging with your audience, you could miss out on huge opportunities and new relationships. “It’s the magic of social,” Charleton added.
Learn how an editorial calendar can help keep your business on track >>
Step 4: Measure Your Results so you can Keep Improving
Business and social goals have a matching metric that will help you measure your social media ROI so you can tell whether you’re succeeding or not.
For example, you can measure brand awareness and reach by following total impressions. Or you can use social mentions to help measure your success with thought leadership, comments, and inbound links.
“Shares is my number one KPI right now,” Charleton said. “When I put that forward in 2016, people thought I was crazy—they were like, ‘I want to see web site traffic,’ ‘I want to see form fills.’”
But Charleton told them the focus on shares would help keep their efforts focused. “Are we putting out content that people love, that’s going to make us remarkable, that they’re going to then share with their networks, which is going to give us that third-party validation and reference?”
You can track these numbers using analytics tools, such as Google Analytics and Hootsuite Analytics. Using a URL shortener such as ow.ly can help you track who is clicking on your content and what part of the world they’re in.
Then, use those numbers to refine your strategy:
- What worked well and what resonated with your audience?
- What didn’t work?
- What learnings have you taken away?
- How can you refine your goals for the next period or quarter?
Social media is an opportunity to have 1:1 interactions with your audience; businesses can’t afford to neglect that engagement. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to a strong social media strategy—you need to hone your skills and stay up-to-date.
If you’re going to succeed, Charleton says, you need to be clear about what you want to achieve and know how you can meet your audience where they are, have a plan to create information your audience will love, and get the information you need to change and improve.
For more information to help you through this process, watch the full webinar and check out these templates from Hootsuite.
The post Hootsuite’s 4 Secrets to Boosting your Brand with Social Media [Webinar] appeared first on Upwork Blog.
from Upwork Blog https://www.upwork.com/blog/2016/11/hootsuite-boosting-brand-social-media-webinar/
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