September 17, 2013 9.00 am This story is over 125 months old

Planning and prep: The key to a successful social strategy

Making it social: Lava’s Sammy Greener explains how to manage all your business social media account effectively.

With social media now considered a key marketing tactic to engage with customers, most businesses have introduced it into their marketing strategy. However, many are failing to maximise its full potential because of poor planning and a lack of research into their online activity.

On average, 58% of small business only spend approximately 10 minutes a day on their social media activity, but is this really enough? I believe it isn’t, especially if we take into account that 80% of customers will make a purchase decision based on a brand’s social media presence. It requires time, planning and commitment to keep up to date with the ever changing social networking world.

Taking this into account, the following three key elements will help enhance your social media marketing and ensure that you have a solid base to work from.

Research

It is important to dedicate time to research. Determine which of your previous posts have been successful and generated the best response. Also, keep an eye out on all the current trends that are popular within the digital world and any current events or subjects that your customers may be interested in. It is a very social form of marketing and joining in with popular conversations can influence higher engagement with your customers.

Create compelling content

Be creative. Think about what your target audience would want to see and give them something they would want to like, share or comment on. Create a talking point. It is also important to keep it versatile, as repeating similar topics week after week will get monotonous and could even result in losing fans or followers.

Timing

Focus on when your target audience is online and schedule posts to go live during these time periods. It is no use posting at 9am if your audience use their social media later in the day, your posts will get lost in the newsfeed as many more overtake it throughout the day. Similarly, do not post too often. As a rule of thumb, it is best to wait at least two hours between posts to prevent blocking the first post and spamming your customer’s newsfeed, as this could damage your relationship.

Personally, I believe it is always best to work to a weekly planner, scheduling what and when you are going to post. This makes your social media easier to maintain and can be easily updated if any spontaneous news comes up that you wish to share.

Do you plan your social media? What do you find the most successful methods are? Tweet me @lavacomms to let me know.

Sammy Greener is a PR Executive at Lava, an award-winning marketing communications agency based in Lincoln. Sammy plays an active role across both trade and consumer accounts, providing media relations, copywriting and administrational support. Sammy has a first class honours degree in Fashion Business from Glasgow Caledonian University, and has previously worked at Interflora and Bianca Jones Jewellery.