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Leverage Social Media to Change your Business in 2014
How do you know if social media is good for your business? You might be surprised of the benefits, and also the repercussions if you don’t listen to what is being said about you and your business.
Most importantly is getting engaged to the people you sell to and listening to their feedback can help your business grow in 2014.
However, building a solid social media marketing strategy is more than just gaining a few “likes” on Facebook, or “follower’s” on Twitter. Heck, you can buy those for $5.00 on some websites. This is not what we mean when we say social media marketing.
The fact is you must have a social media marketing strategy with some short term and long term achievable goals, along with tools for measuring your efforts & success, but before you start, here are questions you should ask yourself.
1) What do you want to achieve by using Social Media? Branding? Lead generation?
2) How will NOT getting involved with Social Media affect my business?
3) Do you currently engage with your customers on Social Media channels?
4) Are you currently aware of what people are saying online about you and your business?
5) Are you familiar with the features for business on Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, & CitySearch?
The online social forum is likely the first place we go to:
- Research credentials on people we hire or vendors we partner with.
- Check out the Quality of Service rendered.
- See what type of reputation a Person or Business has in their industry.
- Find out how customers are treated after they buy a product or service.
Your Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2014 is Crucial
By not having a social media presence, you are disappearing into a void of anonymity and a place you do not want to be when trying to build brand awareness or protect your brand for the purpose of increasing your market share.
Using social media marketing to engage with your customers can be one of the most personal and immediate ways of connecting with your client base if done properly. It’s not worth it to just throw up a Facebook business page and hope people like you.
Personal conversation and opinions in the form of blogging, informs your audience of who you are and what you stand for helps personalize your business, the foundation of sustainable business/customer relationships. 
Twitter can help provide a sense of legitimacy and communication for a worldwide audience but it can also be used to let your local audience know what’s happening on a day to day level. Facebook is a way to really understand and listen to what you customers want and how they feel about your businesses and services.
So when a business owner says to you “what can social media do to enhance my business,” please let them know that in this digital age, social media is your calling card.
It allows the world to see who you are and what you do in a way that is transparent and engaging. The same goes for you as an individual. It’s important to put yourself out there in a professional manner, but be careful to keep personal separate from business, in most cases it is a best practice to do so.
So when planning a Social media strategy, be unique, be interesting & honest, and be sure to create “stickiness” or something with the potential to go “viral”. Something extremely unique, funny, lovable, or surprising have been the key to success previously.
Some Key Points to Consider for you Social Media Strategy in 2014:
Determine the goals of your plan: Every business has different reasons for wanting to start using social media. In order to create and effective strategy that will stick, you need to sit down and determine the who, what, why, where, when and how of what you see as your goals.
Who is the demographic: Using a tool like the Forrester Social Techno graphics ladder, it is critical to determine how your audience is using social media. What platforms they are on, are they the creators, users, participants or observers. This will help dictate which tool and which medium, such as video, chat rooms, or microblogging, would be appropriate to use.
Get the word out: Through family, friends, colleagues, co-workers. Any way you can. Use online tools such as HootSuite, PitchEngine to help take promote content online and allow people to share through social networking.
Spend time building relationships online: Even before you set up your business on the different social platforms, you need to spend time – lots of time – building relationships. Once you have chosen the platforms your business will be focusing on, you need to strengthen the relationship with your Fans, Followers, Circles and Connections. It is through your relationships that the word-of-mouth about your company will spread. In any strategy, it is critical to be present, be consistent and be engaged.
Create Quality Content: Creating great content is the most important part of any social media plan. Success in social media comes from creating online conversations about your business, your brand, your products and promotions. By offering quality content, it allows your audience to connect with you, it allows them to see you and your Brand as human.
Set up your profiles: After establishing where your audience is online, you can decide which tools to use. In setting up these social platforms for your business, you need to fill out profile in their entirety, including pictures. There’s nothing worse than being followed on Twitter by an egg with no bio.
Track your results: Once you have a plan in place, it is important that evaluate the impact of your social media efforts. The success or failure of your strategy is determined by many factors and is directly linked to your company’s social media goals.
What it Will Take to Succeed with Social Media for 2014
Social media is here to stay, but it’s still in its formative stages, and a lot of brands are still just skimming the surface of its business potential. To maintain a competitive advantage, businesses need to stay alert and aware. Develop a strategy you are comfortable implementing, even if you start small.. Then stay focused.
Don’t waste your time telling your followers where you’re eating lunch. Have a purpose, prioritize your tasks, and keep good metrics to track results. When you do these things, your social media efforts will result in increased revenue to your business.
It takes two, as they say, to tango, especially when it comes to being social. An effective social media campaign will benefit from collaboration. Set clear expectations and solicit employee buy-in.
Questions to Ask Yourself About your Social Strategy:
Can your employees help you with the management of your social presence? Are they enthusiastic about participating? Do you have a social media management tool that enables you to seamlessly collaborate with your team to ensure you execute an integrated social media management strategy?
The answers to these questions can mean a greatly amplified social voice for your brand. Timing is critical, so start taking market-share opportunities by leveraging these powerful mediums in your daily business activities.