lets get socialAs businesses head into the 4th Quarter of the year we are reflecting on the goals we have achieved and determining if it is realistic to attain others in the last quarter. Creating a Marketing Plan to determine what worked and tweaking some of the action items is important. For small businesses, creating a marketing plan to support growth and sustainability may be essential as we make the transition from 2017 to 2018.

Focusing on social media forums, we may ask: What are the goals for your social plans? Is your social community engaged? Do your demographics align with your platforms?

Initially, you may ask: have you defined your target audience with the platforms you are using? You can easily review the PEW Social Stats/January 2017 for guidance. Then you can review your own Google Analytics on your website to analyze the social traffic. If your user experience from social forums is not generating traffic to your website, you may need a better content marketing strategy. If your traffic is generating leads to your website but not converting from your website, that is an entire new discussion for another blog.

Understanding your user pathways from your social forums, you can dive in a bit deeper to learn more about the Audience Demographics and their pathways. Understanding your user experience, pathways and behavior is important when making business decisions.  I will be speaking at the Power Conference tomorrow to help businesses navigate Google Analytics and learn more about the Audience Demographics.

After ensuring that your target audience aligns with your social forums then it is easier to get organized and develop an editorial calendar for the month for your audience. I will be presenting on September 19/Let’s Get Social to support small businesses designing a strategic plan for October.

The goal is to plan, in advance, your social media strategy.  We will discuss themes that are relevant to your business (health, financial, fitness, etc.) and create a calendar that integrates emails, content marketing strategies, blog topics etc. and build an organized content calendar, designed for your business. We will also discuss the impact of video and DIY FB Live tips to get started and integrate as part of the plan.

 

Small Business Tips & Trends for 2018

  1. Make sure social media is part of the integrated marketing plan
  2. Do a few social platforms well vs. doing too many without consistency
  3. Be consistent and share valuable information, relevant to your audience
  4. Create a content calendar designed for your targeted audience
  5. Utilize video and photos effectively to increase engagement

 

Don’t forget to measure results.

Facebook

Create content as if you are hanging out at the “office water cooler”

FB Live is growing, no more complaining about video being too expensive for small businesses, now any business with a phone has the ability to create and broadcast their story

Reactions, we now have more emoji’s to express ourselves, this may be a growing feature, use it to connect and engage

Events & Advertising Tools, effective ways to reach online communities with limited budgets

Boost some high performing posts to have a greater impact

Twitter

Create content as if you were sharing in the “Newsroom”

Stay current in your industry and try to tweet first vs. waiting for the conversation

LinkedIn

Create content as if you were sharing in the “Board Room”

Explore LinkedIn ProFinder as a lead gen tool

 Instagram

It is a  growing platform and proving to be a business forum – they have added analytic tools and videos to tell brand stories, engagement is high and attracts the younger adult audience

Snapchat

Younger market place, although growing

Create content as your brand story- keep it short, simple and relevant

Share events and highlights of your day

Let’s Get Going with Social Strategy to finish 2017 strong and start planning for 2018.

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