Constructing Guide Maps for Marketing Success

Creating a Social Media Strategy for Your Business

Plans are necessary to achieve our goals. This is the same case when it comes to social media where the ultimate goal is getting more customers and generating more profit for your business. You need to study how you’re going to obtain and maintain interest in your brand. How do you go about making a strategy for your social networking needs? Here are some bits of advice from expert Robert Caruso:

First you have to identify and study your target market. What age group are you aiming for? Where do they live? What times are they online?

Second, you need to join a large community base where your target customers are. You need to find out what they talk about most of the time to use the right keywords and phrases for your content. Follow them on Twitter and become fellow fans with them on Facebook. You will form more connections this way and pave the way to market your own brand without being obvious about it.

Interest cannot be sustained for long without informative and engaging content. Investigate which topics your audience value. Look for relevant content (pictures, videos and links) about their favorite subjects and share them to your followers to enrich your online relationships. Make new posts from time to time, in order to distribute equal attention to each of your tweets or status updates.

Weigh the benefits of using one social networking site over the other. Determine which features work best for you and your online marketing goals. Focus on the platforms where your target audience are.

Let your online and offline contacts know that you have a social media page. Announce to your existing client base that they can like your page, follow you on Twitter or be part of your connections in LinkedIn. Make sure to tailor your website and other online materials to link to your social network accounts.

Nurture your relationship with your audience. Liking and commenting on their posts and engaging in discussions with them makes them feel appreciated. Once they become close to you, maintain positive contact with them to promote loyal connections. Always follow this formula: Content leads to conversations > Conversations lead to relationships > Relationships lead to business > Business leads to Return of Investment (ROI).

Organize your online life. Create and develop plans to address proper posting frequency, engagement activity, community growth functions and relationship building. Stick to your plans and study their effectiveness. If they’re not working as you need them, improve them further so that you’ll get the results you’re aiming for.