One of the questions we are frequently asked is, “should our company be using social media?” Our answer is always a resounding yes, especially if your are looking for new ways to connect with your customers, broaden your audience reach and gain new leads. When you talk social media, one of the questions that always come up is, “Which social media channels should I use?” You can ask your existing customers, but if your goal is to broaden your reach and gain new leads, use a
When companies finally decide that social media is an activity they should add to their marketing campaign mix, the next question we are asked is, “how do we get started?. This article is written to help you assess the steps you can take to journey into the world of social media.
Knowing your audience’s habits
When your company decides to take the social media leap, you really need to assess which channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) you should focus on, or better yet, which channels your target audiences use. You can ask your existing customers, but if your goal is to understand the conversations taking place in your industry, and to broaden your reach and gain new leads, use a social media monitoring tool to gain a deeper understanding of your audience. There are many tools out there, free and paid, just choose one that fits your needs (we use Netvibes). You set the tool to monitor search terms or keywords that are relevant to your business. The information you gain from “listening” will help you build a good picture of your target audience, from the channels they use to the conversations they have and the questions they ask (insight into their pain points). Social media monitoring also helps to spark ideas when brainstorming content topics for articles, blog posts, white papers, and web page content — ideas that will help you provide interesting, educational, and relevant content.
So, now I know my customer’s habits, what’s next?
One of the best ways for an industrial company to get started developing social media content is to create a blog on their site. A blog is an excellent place to house and publish relevant and engaging content. But, just having a blog doesn’t mean your audience will see your posts; this is where social media comes into play – you need to tell your audience that new content exists by posting links back to the content on your social channels. Bonus, social media shares and links back to your site improve your search engine optimization efforts.
⇒Key takeaway: know which channels are the best for targeting your audience and then focus on posting to those channels only, especially if your company has limited resources.
I’ve started a blog, how do I keep the conversations going?
Having a detailed content strategy is essential to consistently publishing new content. Brainstorm interesting and relevant information that will benefit your audiences (information that will help them better perform their job). Write about new products, company events, and industry news that they would find helpful. When brainstorming, use information gained from social monitoring and poll your customer service team – they get all kinds of questions that might spark blog post or whitepaper content. Once you have a list of topics, create an editorial calendar. The calendar should include the content you wish to share; if it exists or needs to be created, who is responsible for providing or creating the content, which customer segments should your target, when should you post or publish, and to which channels. Having a schedule helps keep you focused and ensures you consistently create and distribute information.
⇒Key takeaway: know your audience — what information they find interesting and relevant and the social channels they use. Then, post new information consistently — this means you need to be realistic about how often you can post — is it once per month or once per week. You can have internal contests to generate blog posts and see who can get the most likes and comments
Be social — just get started
Getting started using social media to communicate with your audience can seem overwhelming, but once you have it integrated with your other marketing efforts, and get some practice, you will be motivated by what you learn from your most valuable asset, your customers.