Good Social Media Takes Time and Resources

by Marcelo Salup

Action Required

In general, most experts agree that to be successful, social media postings must be:

 

 

    • Relevant to the intended customer

 

    • Newsworthy or at least “new” and interesting

 

    • Regular

 

    • Frequent

 

    • Allow for two-way communication

 

I would also add that social media postings must be actionable. This means that as a business owner you need to consider resource allocations:

 

 

    • If content needs to be relevant to your intended customer, you must understand your customer in depth, which means you should conduct research (e.g., from informal conversations to online surveys to reading all of the reactions and comments). This takes time and effort.

 

    • If content needs to be fresh and interesting, you must allocate resources to achieving just that. It could be you or someone you hire, but quality posts don’t just happen.

 

    • If content needs to be regular and timely, you must allocate resources to achieve this; content just doesn’t get posted on its own six times per day.

 

    • And if social media needs to be an engaging, two-way street, you also must dedicate resources to answering comments, defusing situations and promoting forwarding.

 

Bottom line:

To be successful, a social-media campaign needs to address the following:

 

 

    1. Is your business model “right” for social media? If not, is there any aspect of the model that is “right” for social media?

 

    1. Do you have a clear idea of what it is that you are trying to achieve?

 

    1. Do you have a backend to handle whatever action you are trying to achieve? A website, of course, but contact pages, online reservations, e-commerce engine, white papers, bulk mailing service, call center…

 

    1. Resource allocation – whether time or money – to produce the content, distribute it on a timely and regular basis, gather feedback and respond if necessary? At the very least you should have a simple Excel spreadsheet

 

    1. The time and effort that it will take to address negative feedback effectively; will you do it yourself, hire a person?

 

 

Other articles by Marcelo:

Is Social Media Good For Business?

The Washington Post Morphs To The Amazon Post?

Social Media Lessons Learned From MTV

A Messaging Strategy To Reach 3 Consumer States

Advertising? Why Three Creative Executions Are Essential

It’s All About Persuasion, Isn’t It?

Find additional articles by Marcelo here.