What Is Your Social Media Strategy For Your Business?

OK, so you are familiar with Social Media as a platform and you know you need it to get your branding out there to the masses.  Great.  But how are you going to do it?  What is your game plan?  How are you going to win?  While there are many with the old phrase "It worked for me!" how a small business markets their brand depends on many variables.  There are however a few key and simple plan of action items you can embrace.  Here are a few tips I have come across and have engaged as best practices with my clients.

• How old is your customer base?  You have to know your demographics that you are trying to sell to.  If your client base are baby boomers, they probably like Facebook.  Believe it or not though, teens are not so much on Facebook much anymore but are really loving Instagram, Vine, and Snapchat. Know your demographics and make sure you have a presence there.
  

• Do what you can  with the time you have.  Unless you have the funds to hire a marketing firm, Do not try to  have 5 or 6 social media platforms that you can't even manage one with.  In other words, do not over-extend yourself.  Each social media platform must be kept up and fresh content posted daily or at least 3 times a week.  If you can't engage your base, how do you expect them to engage you?  If you can only manage one or two then do those two with  consistent updates and content.
  

•   No overloads.  The average scan time of  today's on-line viewer is 3 seconds.  Keep your content short and fresh and exciting.  Your brand must jump out at the reader.  Pictures can tell a story.  Make it exciting and interesting.
  

• Know your platform.  If you sell fashion or visual catching products, consider Pinterest.  If you're a B to B business, consider LinkedIn or Facebook. Do not use a platform you know nobody is going to look at.
  

• Be flexible and know your competition.  You may need to change-up your social media strategy if you see no results.   See what others in your line of business is doing.   It's OK to say "This is not working for me!"  Experiment with your platforms to get the best results with your brand.  Good luck!