Can you remember what business was like before the internet? And before social media? You’d suddenly slink into a sales slump and have no idea why. You asked (begged?) all your friends and family to “spread the word.” You spent money on advertising with no real way to measure and connect reach, effectiveness, or engagement stats. Do you remember how hard that was?
Of course. We do, too. (Those years helped inspire our Wine & Marketing videos…)
Even the internet and websites didn’t do for businesses what social media did. Once social media channels like Facebook and Twitter emerged, choirs of angels could be heard singing hallelujah in marketing departments everywhere.
Social media transformed the way we do business — how we advertise, how we interact, and how we engage customers. Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past 20 years or so, social media engagement has affected your business somehow. And you’ve likely realized there’s a right way to do social media, and there’s a wrong way.
Maybe you’ve seen this at some point:
- A dissatisfied customer shares their experience on a social media channel.
- The person’s friends express their feelings.
- The customer thanks their friends for listening.
- Then the thread becomes story-swapping mayhem… and more stories are told.
- And then somewhere in that thread, like an angry neon beacon, there it is: (*gasp*) the brand’s response.
The brand’s (ahem) negative response.
Now, can we satisfy every customer? Is every sale perfect? If only!
Unless you know a particularly good witch (or your unicorn sneezes pure fairy dust), you can’t satisfy every single customer with every single sale. So, when a sale results in anything less than a new, devoted follower, what can you do to make that unhappy customer happier after the fact?
I’ll give a hint: it’s not arguing with them on the internet, in public, in front of your other customers…who were quite content with you until that moment…EEK.
Negatively engaging on social media with a customer who has a complaint doesn’t prove anything in your favor or make you look better — in fact, it does quite the opposite.
The reason it’s called a social media strategy is because it’s exactly that: a strategy. Strategies require planning. And if you’re currently “planning” a post whenever and reply to everyone strategy, you’ll quickly find yourself headed right back to the planning stage.
You’ve likely heard the phrase:
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Well, have you heard of planning your planning? It’s another way of saying get ready to get ready.
Think of it as managing what is in your control:
- Pull out your planner (which, by the way, is becoming your best friend, The Content Calendar).
- Draw a small square in each Sunday and Friday (you can choose the days that work best for you—what matters right now is that you’re planning to plan. It’s fun, right?).
- Your Sunday square is to remind you of pressing tasks on Monday mornings, while your Friday square is for any tasks that haven’t been completed during the week (but that must be completed by EOD on Friday—before the weekend).
This wasn’t a huge undertaking by any means, but just this one small planning your planning step felt good, right? It really is about celebrating the little things.
Planning and Building Your Social Media Strategy Empire Strategy
When you saw the header above, if your gut reaction was immediately, Oh, my gosh. How am I going to do this? You’re not alone. It feels big because it means so much, and there are a lot of moving parts you can’t quite see clearly yet.
Your social media engagement can make or break your brand, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a 5-week-old startup, or you’ve been in your industry for five decades. It comes down to one simple question.
How do you build a house?
(Hint: There are a ton of answers — and we’ve heard a lot of ’em — but there’s only one right answer.) Don’t be shy! What do you think?
Okay. You build a house (and a social media engagement strategy):
Before you actually get to building that house, though, you need a firm foundation — one that won’t shift with the marketing winds or fall at the first sign of shaky customer engagement.
You’re still in your planning your planning stage, so this is the perfect time to start your deep dive. Research!
Ask yourself:
- What social media platforms your customers frequent most
- How you can target (and reach) those customers, as well as others on that channel who may not yet know your brand.
- What you hope to accomplish (SMART goals are always—yep)
The answers to the following statements will come once the planning your planning stage evolves into your planning the content calendar phase:
- How to track social media engagement
- Which metrics to focus on
- How to measure social media engagement
- How to measure reach on social channels
Because, if you haven’t witnessed it first-hand or heard it from a friend, social media engagement has immense power to elevate your business, and it’s also got the power to tear your house down faster than a Big Bad Wolf if you happen to misstep.
But what is it exactly?
What is Social Media Engagement
Social media engagement is a metric for gauging your company’s likes, shares, and comment threads on your social channels. It’s one of the more common marketing metrics to evaluate your brand’s performance.
However, while important, fabulous social media engagement doesn’t always translate to higher sales figures.
Social Media Engagement Can Make or Break Your Business
But to thwart that evil foe:
- Post every day. You don’t need to post on every channel every day, but you should post on a channel every day.
- Don’t forget about using pictures. Images increase the chance of your tweet getting re-tweeted by nearly 40%. That says it all. Tweets without images? Hush.
- Write like you’re talking to an old friend. People typically associate brands with their logos or latest campaign—show your audience your brand is made of real people.
- Listen (really listen). Social media engagement means listening to your followers. What do they have to say? This isn’t limited to what they buy from you or how they view your brand. Really get to know them—how do your customers and social followers view life?
Be genuine.
And always…
Stay Phierce.
