Those succeeding using social media are doing so for various reasons. Among the reasons, is that they have established a strategy rather than employing some ad-hoc method to using social media.

If you want to use social media, then it’s essential to spend the time to put together a strategy. As we’ve said before the key to any social media activity is engagement, being part of your online community is important.

You’ll want to listen to conversations, hear what’s going on, and importantly ‘tune’ into anything that relates either directly to your business, or the industry your business is in, not forgetting to also be personable in your online activity.

Establish what you will use; are you going to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn? Most people start off using only a few tools; you can start adding social media tools as you gain confidence in what you are doing.

Who in your business will handle social media? This is important, as often it’s left to only one or two people; sometimes not the right people either. Social media is for all areas in the business. You can use it for recruitment, so your HR team should be involved; marketing definitely need to be using it; so should sales.

Spread the load; there’s no need to have several accounts for your business, have one account for each social media platform you are going to use; and with every message you ‘post’ end it with the initials of the person who posted the message. This is common in larger organisations, which need to track what’s being said online, and also to enable conversations to continue smoothly.

How often you post messages/updates is also something you will need to consider; some people think once or twice a week is sufficient, but it depends on what you want to achieve. Perhaps you’ll be happy to post something everyday – it’s relatively easy to set aside time everyday. Perhaps you’ll spend 15 minutes every morning and afternoon, or spend time when you are checking emails.

It pays to search for online mentions of your business; Google Alerts is excellent for this. By monitoring what is being said, you’ll see what people are saying about you, and you’ll have the opportunity to respond.

Don’t be afraid of anything negative that is said. Seeing anything like this online gives you the opportunity to respond and help put anything that needs to be put right, right.

Some social media sites have facilities to search for mentions, for example Twitter has Twitter Search which allows you to narrow down to what’s being said about you.

Once you’ve established your strategy, it’s fairly plain sailing from there; the key is to be part of the community, to join in conversations; share information and above all to engage. Don’t try and use social media to push for sales, any sales will come as a result of your activity, the personality you portray. People buy from people they like.

Until next time, enjoy your online activity and the possibilities it can bring.

About the Author, Graeme Russell

Graeme runs Adage Business, a boutique Marketing and PR agency where he works with SME’s and the not-for-profit sector. He is passionate about helping his clients messages get to the market. Working with the not-for-profit sector he helps ensure this group receives the exposure it may not normally receive. Graeme has also been helping his clients uses social media and has seen some startling results; he enjoys the fluidity and connectivity that social media is able to give and bring to a campaign.

Connect With Graeme: Linkedin | Twitter | Business & Media Services | Blog