![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.simplyzesty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/11\/aimstodo.jpg\" "\\"To")
<\/p>\nSocial media as a marketing tool is pretty powerful, but too often do smaller businesses set up accounts because it\u2019s what expected of them. No matter what the size of the company is, everyone should have a strategy in place before they begin otherwise their new venture will lose steam before it even begins. If you\u2019re starting to develop a presence online, or you just want a checklist, here are a number of questions you should answer when you\u2019re putting your plan together.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s pointless to be using social media if you only have it because everybody else does. For any strategy to work, there must be an overall goal in place. Is it to drive sales, improve customer service, create new connections and business leads, or just a way to reach out to customers? If you don\u2019t have an aim, then you won\u2019t be able to formulate a strategy. And if you don\u2019t have a strategy or commit to one, the enthusiasm you have at the beginning will wane off and you\u2019ll have nothing to keep you going.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Checklist<\/a>\u00a0by Michael Young &\u00a0Target<\/a>\u00a0by Luis Prado Via The Noun Project<\/p>\n Linking back to the first point, what your aims are relate to the type of company you run. Whether your company focuses on B2B or B2C will help you determine what type of demographic you\u2019re aiming for. Do you want your audience to be mainly business people, shoppers, marketers, or smartphone users to name a few? While there\u2019s nothing to say that you can\u2019t reach out to everyone, it\u2019s better to have a core audience that you can build upon.<\/p>\n Announcement icon<\/a>\u00a0by Olivier Guin,\u00a0Community<\/a>\u00a0by Remy Medord &\u00a0briefcase<\/a>\u00a0by Dmitry Ludinov via The Noun Project<\/p>\n Many businesses will set up an account on Facebook since it\u2019s the most popular, but there are a number of different ways to connect with your audience and each site or app has its own strengths you should take into consideration.<\/p>\n Facebook might be the most popular place and is the easiest to run app competitions, but Twitter offers a quick and snappy method of communicating, LinkedIn lets you connect directly with professionals, Foursquare lets you reward people for visiting your outlet and Instagram is great if you want to show off products and services. How you\u2019re going to interact with your audience will<\/p>\n One thing you should avoid is adding too many accounts as you\u2019ll end up being overwhelmed by it. Preferably, you shouldn\u2019t have more than three accounts if there\u2019s only one person handing things as adding any more will make the workload unmanageable. The big question for a lot of companies investing in social media. Work schedules are busier than ever and in the case of smaller companies, social media may be added on top of existing duties and increasing the workload. Essentially, if you can\u2019t find the time to properly engage and do it consistently, you probably shouldn\u2019t be using social media.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s possible, reduce the workload by assigning different channels to each of your staff, or assign days to your staff for when they\u2019re responsible for social media duties. Different companies require different approaches so find out what works best for you. The last thing any business wants is for staff to be distracted from their main duties, which is where time management comes into play. For the most part, you should be able to take an hour out of your schedule each day to focus on social media duties, but that doesn\u2019t mean it should be taken in the one go. Maybe work it so that you dedicate 15 minute segments to social media during working hours, monitoring and updating when things are less hectic. If you\u2019re not keeping updating regularly and consistently, you\u2019re not giving people a reason to follow you.<\/p>\n Gantt Chart<\/a>\u00a0by Jeremy Boatman Via The Noun Project<\/p>\n How you present yourself is important and what you say and post will show how you come across. If you\u2019re using\u00a0social media as customer service<\/a>, you will need to adapt a formal tone when communicating, but if you\u2019re promoting yourself, there\u2019s no harm in trying to inject some humour into your posts.<\/p>\n Neutral face<\/a>\u00a0by Tobias F. Wolf &\u00a0Comment<\/a>\u00a0by Michael Rowe via The Noun Project<\/p>\n The main benefit of social media is that you can measure just how well your accounts are doing. Most sites have their own analytics tools, but it can be worth investing in a\u00a0third-party analytics program for better insights<\/a>. Also, choosing which metrics to value is important as some can be seen as vanity metrics which don\u2019t provide a lot of insight.\u00a0Looking at specific metrics in isolation won\u2019t tell you much, but taking a few together will give you a clearer picture of what works.<\/p>\n Line Graph<\/a>\u00a0by Scott Lewis Via The Noun Project<\/p>\n While social media is very useful as a marketing tool, it should be viewed as part of an overall marketing strategy. Will you be treating it as a separate entity or will you be tying it in with other campaigns and marketing opportunities. As mentioned earlier, different social media channels offer different opportunities so when you\u2019re planning a large-scale campaign, plan with these features as part of the experience instead of just tacking an obligatory Facebook link to it.<\/p>\n Newspaper<\/a>\u00a0by David Cadusseau,\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0by Joris Hoogendoorn,\u00a0movie<\/a>\u00a0by Anna Weiss &\u00a0Computer Screen<\/a>\u00a0by James Zamyslianskyj via The Noun Project<\/p>\n If you\u2019re allowing staff to run your social media accounts, it\u2019s a good idea to put together a\u00a0social media policy<\/a>so that it\u2019s clear what acceptable and what isn\u2019t. These guidelines don\u2019t have to be complicated, just provide a few ground rules that are easy to follow so there\u2019s no confusion.<\/p>\nWho Do I Want To Communicate With?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.simplyzesty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/11\/speakingtoaudience.jpg\" "\\"Communication")
<\/p>\nWhich Platform(s) Should I Use?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.simplyzesty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/11\/Which-Platform.jpg\" "\\"Which")
<\/p>\nHow Much Time Can You Commit To This?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.simplyzesty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/11\/schedule.jpg\" "\\"Schedule")
<\/p>\nHow Will This Fit Into Our Schedule?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.simplyzesty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/11\/scheduleplanner1.jpg\" "\\"Schedule")
<\/p>\nWhat Kind Of Tone Should I Adapt?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.simplyzesty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/11\/What-Type-Of-Tone.jpg\" "\\"What")
<\/p>\nHow Will I Measure Progress?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.simplyzesty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/11\/Metrics-Measuring.jpg\" "\\"Metrics")
<\/p>\nHow Does This Tie Into My Overall Marketing Strategy?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.simplyzesty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/11\/Overall-Strategy.jpg\" "\\"Overall")
<\/p>\nDo I Have Guidelines That Staff Can Follow?<\/h3>\n