Social Media Demographics

HOW TO: Evaluate Your Social Media Plan

Most companies are frustrated with the results that they are receiving from their social media presence. You were most likely promised that social media would be a huge asset to your business and it would help take your business to the next level. It may have worked great for some people, but might not have worked so great for others. It takes time, effort and resources before this new media will have an impact on your brand.

If you are reading this, maybe that hasn’t been the case so far. But; on the other hand…maybe it IS a problem?

Here are a few tips your business can use…

1. Are You Using The Right Platform?

As you can see above, UnStrapp’d is using YouTube to host the first ever “Reality TV Show For Entrepreneurs”, this was a great platform for them because it’s a reality show for Entrepreneur’s that’s VIDEO and is for people who love video and YouTube….people like myself 

There are many platforms to choose from when designing your online marketing campaign

. There’s Twitter, Facebook, blogging, LinkedIn and YouTube which are all the biggest and most important. You are probably aware that there are hundreds of social media sites out there, the thing is; you don’t need to blindly sign up for all of these. You should educate yourself on how each platform will work for you and how each network can be used properly to enhance your brand.

Twitter is a quick and easy way for brands to share new blog posts, new products, new services and share updates as well as ideas with their customers. You can also watch trends and listen to what your demographic is talking about. Twitter is always evolving and you need to be constantly updated on the latest changes in order to keep up to date.

When launching a Facebook presence, consider the various platforms within this medium; Pages, Groups and now Communities. Each have different purposes, tools and limitations. Do some research before jumping into any of these.

Blogging can be a powerful tool for any brand and is an ESSENTIAL in our opinion. Daily blog posts improve search engine optimization and provide a constant source of up-to-date information for your consumers. Whether you use Blogger, WordPress or Tumblr, your customers will enjoy reading about your company so long as you make it interesting and current.

Video might seem a little scary, but it’s such a powerful social medium. YouTube is one of the largest sources of search traffic, but most companies fail to include it in their social media plan. Are you making this mistake? Video sites operate as a brand’s personal channel and can be viewed by millions of people. This allows for your customers to put a face to the brand. We recommend having some hired especially for the purpose of creating videos teaching lessons to your customers. Educate the customers and add some fun or humor in there for maximum results.

Each platform has its own purpose and if they are all used simultaneously, your success will be multiplied. The thing about these social networks is that people tend to use their favorite networks. Many people only spend time on Facebook, while others are only on YouTube. As a business, you need to be on all of the major ones in order to reap all the benefits.

2. What does your audience want? (WIIFM

Think about your brand’s demographic.

• Who are they?
• What information do they want to receive?

In traditional marketing, we were raised on manipulating the consumer directly, you know, trying to force the people to want your product even if they don’t want it is NOT the way to go with social media. It’s all about the party!

Think of social media as a big cockatil party. Don’t be the guy who’s throwing his business in someone’s face. 
photo credit: _dChris

Think about the message that you are putting off from the position of being a fan/viewer on the network would see. What do they really want to see?  Sometimes it’s behind-the-scenes info, talking to other people in the business and having some FUN.

Discounts and giveaways are a great thing to do, but they shouldn’t be the ONLY thing you do. Consider providing interesting facts on topics that coincide with your brand.

3. Listen To Your Fans/Followers/Friends

There’s nothing worse than a company who has A Social Media presence but doesn’t pay attention to it’s customers on these networks. You’ve probably experienced it before when you had a problem that you publicly complained about on a social network and you didn’t get a response from the company trying to fix the issue. I know it’s personally happened to me a bunch of times. You may have even @replied to a company directly on twitter and not received a response.

I’ve complained to my college, @BuffaloState and they STILL haven’t replied to any of the questions I’ve asked them. I wonder if they ever really “learned” how to participate on social media. They still just use it like it’s a huge megaphone.

You need to genuinely be interested in what people have to say about your company if you are to succeed in using social media. It’s not too much of a secret, but actually caring about your customers can go a long way. Caring about fixing the negatives is another thing that you can do. If someone has a problem with your product and is publicly commenting about it, try to answer the problem that they have!

I want you to seriously listen to what people are saying about your product or service and then respond to them! If they say something positive about your product then be sure to thank them for spreading the positive energy! If someone is posting negative comments about your product, get to the root of the problem, find out what the real problem is! You are able to ask them what you can improve on and what part of the buying experience was unpleasant for the customer.

There are such things as Social Media Managers who can handle this type of work for you, and if you are interested I can put you in contact with a great team who handles this.

4. Let Your Supporters Speak

Do you want to know what your customers like buying? Do you want to know what they WISH they could be buying? Do you want to know either of these things? Well then, get to work on asking questions and listening to peoples ideas. When it is appropriate, you should implement these ideas that your customers want. Make what they want available to them and they will love you for providing it. The content that you create (or have created) will be better and it will build brand loyalty for you.

5. Be Fun and Have Fun. Business is boring otherwise.

Stop being so uptight, get your panties out of a bunch and start having FUN in your advertising and interactions. I recently saw the commercial for the Swagger Wagon from Toyota, it’s not actually a new car but it’s a new way of looking at owning a mini-van. Check it out and sing it with me now… head on over to YouTube to watch the video <object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ width=”560″ height=”340″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0″>
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Make the experience memorable for your audience and they will remember you and will SHARE YOU.

What do you think? Do you have any other tips that businesses can use to succeed using Social Media? Do you have any examples of companies that have used Social Media properly? Better yet, any companies that REALLY screw up using their Social Media accounts? Share any and all experiences below in the comments

About the Author

Generation Y Social Media Champion who teaches businesses how to juggle their social media presence with a side of blogging and help these businesses make more money. His blog is http://whoschrishughes.com

SproutSocial – a Social Media Management tool Review

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