In this article I aim to unravel the irony/marketing speak and explain the top four areas to focus on.
1. Establish who you want to talk to:this might be all or a combination of prospects, customers, media, referrers, influencers or other stakeholders. Define the characteristics of each group and create a fictional character to represent them, so that you can create a lifelike picture of their likes/dislikes, wants/needs/interests etc. This way you can really get to know them as people
2. What it is you want to accomplish? This might be to get customers to come back for more, convince referrers and stakeholders that you are the best in your field, or get people to seek your opinion. Overlay this onto each group of people that you wish to reach. Don’t confuse this with selling and promotional offers; Social Media isn’t about overtly ‘selling’, it’s much more about informative two-way conversation and keeping in touch
3. Where will you find the people you wish to have a dialogue with? Using the search functions, check out the various Social Media, to see if you can find content around your topic of interest or people you want to have a dialogue with. I would start with LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. For the time being focus on these, expand to other media such as Pinterest as you gain confidence.
4. Establish topics that will interest your audience and activity to stimulate dialogue that can be measured? This might be content to place you as an expert, ‘personality’ or commentator, or hints and tips for self-help, communicated through video segment, podcast, blog or e-book, measured by number of viewers, downloads, comments etc.
As with most things, keep it simple and manageable: don’t be too ambitious. Constantly test what you do. Have a plan. Publish regularly, making it interesting, different and topical and you will soon be enjoying Social Media success.
Jonathan Wainwright enables organisations to create commercial success through digital marketing, traditional communications and team development.
Join him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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