Social media strategy and why you need one

Social media strategy?

Yes, exactly. You may not realize it, but social media is a very broad term. It includes social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, multimedia sharing sites like You Tube and Flickr, social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, microblogging sites like Twitter, blogs, RSS feeds, and more. It’s important to implement a good social media strategy because here so many channels to leverage, and without a set process, it can get overwhelming.

It’s also important for companies to adopt a good social media strategy because it is one of the best ways to reach customers. Because of easy accessibility, customers are all over the social web. However, every customer is different. Some will blog. Some will simply comment on blogs. Some will tweet out their likes and dislikes. Some will post content to Facebook. Whatever channel they use, all customers have one thing in common: They form online communities, join conversations and often interact with brands.

Other reasons why it’s important to implement a good social media strategy

• Word-of-mouth is one of the best types of advertising, companies should ensure that customers are saying good things about their brand.
• 91% of users are likely to buy on recommendation
• Twitter: 1 million users; 3 million messages per day
• Easy way to communicate with the market directly
• The market knows more about products than companies do

Some tips to implementing a good social media strategy

• Let your existing team engage with customers online. According to social media strategist, Jeremiah Owyang, “Use the support and customer service teams that already know your products and services and have been trained in customer relations. Take a page from Best Buy’s ‘Twelpforce‘ that empowered thousands of retail professionals to take to Twitter than just train a new social savvy workforce.”
• You can also hire experienced social media and community managers. This might save training time.
• Set up collaborative tools such as blogs and forums and allow customers to share thoughts about your products
• Publicly answer all customer comments, whether they are positive or negative. This shows that you are listening to them.
• Trigger conversations to show that you care about customers’ needs.
• Monitor social web and find out what people are saying about your brand, company, industry and competitors, and get an edge over your competitors.

Learn more about why your company should have a social media strategy

This slide show by Vanina Delobelle, a leader in product management and innovation provides you with a good starting point in developing a social media strategy.

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Social media monitoring with OneDesk