Chances are, your organization has several social media accounts set up. Are you using them effectively?
If you’re not getting the results you want out of social media, it’s time to review your strategy. Once you do that, THEN it’s time to jump in head first and build your audience.
Reviewing your social strategy doesn’t need to be a difficult or tech-centric exercise. It’s important to keep things in perspective with this in mind: There are no magic tech solutions or tricks you can implement to get you 10,000, or 100,000, or a 1,000,000 followers. If there were, EVERYONE would have that many followers. The secret would be out. The sobering truth is, there is no secret.
Instead, you need to put in the hard work to build your following organically. You need to think about what messages and information you most want to communicate. You need to make social media part of your workflow. Just as importantly, you need to step into the shoes of your targeted audience and think about what messages and information THEY’D want to hear, like, and most importantly, SHARE. That’s how you build your audience — by intriguing your fans enough that they expose you to other people who AREN’T your fans… yet.
Remember, social media is SOCIAL… which means it should start a conversation. If you’re posting boring stuff that no one wants to talk about or share, you’re just not going to get the results you’d like. It’s a very simple equation.
Once you’ve performed that exercise, you need to discuss implementation: what the content should be, who should generate it, and who should post it. Think about blog posts, videos, photos, questions that you’d like to share. Share other people’s and organizations’ content too, if it’s interesting and appropriate. That’ll get THEIR attention, too.
You also must assign roles to team members: Who’s shooting your video? Who’s taking photos? Who’s writing blog posts? Who’s responding to questions and comments on your social accounts? Lay it all out.
Build a monthly or quarterly calendar that lays out your social posts by the day, and specifies what times they should be posted. Then it’s easy to schedule posts through tools like Zoho Social or Hootsuite.
NOW you’re ready to jump in head first. Be consistent; stick to your schedule, but ALSO plan for the unexpected. Maybe something happened with your organization or in the news well after you scheduled your posts. If it’s worthy to share or comment upon, do it as it happens. That will make your organization look like it’s on top of things; that credibility goes a long way in social media.
Doing social media right requires careful planning, consideration, and relentless execution. Don’t do it half-right. Go all in.
Have questions about social media strategy? Contact us!