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Social media is a boon for any business. This is a great tool. Best part of social media is the two-way communication. This is unlike traditional media where only one way communication happens. Social media is a complete package. Using this one can do promotions, make announcements, interact with customers, collect feedback, and build brand. Best part of this, most of the features of social media is free.
In order to gain best results, one must have right plan in place. This is very important. Most of the people underestimate this factor. I am mentioning here eight points for social media planning:
1. Pinpoint Audience: Before getting into social media posting, one must determine the audience. Right choice of audience is crucial here. This has to be done before the business units start social media campaigns. This assists in getting results in paid ads in a proper way. If the products are suggested to the wrong audience, it will not yield any results. It will be a complete waste of efforts and resources. Social media offers a lot of options for pin-pointing the audience. This comes in form of location, age, interest, profession, income group etc. These options offer best way to target the audience.
2. Finalize Content Format: One has to finalize the format of content. This is a part of brand building exercise. Right format of posting is very important. This leads people to relate with your previous posts. This also gives a professional look to the social media profiles. Format of the content must be in co-ordination with your type of posts. One type of post must have one type of format and other type must have other type of format. This makes a distinction. Also, every type of social media require a specific type of content. For example, Instagram is photo and video content site, here links do not work in posts. At the same time, links work in Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, here contents will be totally different as compared to Facebook & Instagram.
3. Proper Channel Configuration: A Channel must be configured well. All aspects of the channel must be properly filled. This gives your profile a professional look. Properly filled channels are liked by visitors as well. It plays a psychological role as well. Configuration also leads to positive impact on visitors. Proper configuration even helps to convert sale to a huge level. Different social media offers different tools. Such tools also help to configure your profile in a proper way.
4. Stick To The Topic: This is very important. Sticking to the niche is one of the key factors. One must post contents related to the topic of niche. This helps to create a follower community of same interest. This further leads to creation of raving followers and internet community in long run. Sticking to the topic also leads to a lot of other benefits this creates a level of interest with audience. That means whenever your audience in looking for a specific topic related to your niche, they will look for your content. This makes you the expert of your field.
5. Be Consistent In Posting: Consistency matters ! This is one of the vital criterions for social media. With consistency people will start taking you seriously. Appearing in social media, once in a blue moon, has a negative impact. Under such situations people will not take you seriously. All major social media influencers post on a regular basis. This creates their authority on the concern topic. Consistency also helps to create good fan following. In business regular update on social media will help people to remember you. At the same time this also creates a brand for your business.
6. Be Interactive: One of the best features of social media is that it offers two way communication. That means you can interact with your audience. This is a blessing. Such interactions are beyond any geographical locations. Interaction helps to clear doubt from the minds of your customers. This also builds confidence in your customers or potential customers. This further funnel down to sales. Rather this increases the chances of your sale. This also helps to sort complaints or issues if any. Social media offers some of the finest and most advanced ways of interaction. This may be in form of posts, comments, or direct messages.
7. Stay Away From Bots: Bots are nowadays quite common in various social media platforms. This might seem like a proper profile or a proper follower. But these are not. These bots, at times, regularly like your post or even share your posts. But sadly, these are not authentic accounts. All social media platforms have their own policies to deal with such bots. Most of the time the social media platforms remove such bots on the regular basis. So do not depend on bot. But go for authentic followers.
8. Reply Comments & DMs : As the social media offers two way communications, so it gives immense opportunities to interact with your customers or fan followers. This might come in form of commence or DMs. Such comments and DMs must be answered on regular basis. You might find complaints feedbacks or inquiries as well. But all these need to be answered on the regular basis and as soon as possible. Regular reply to comments and teams can help your brand to grow and builds confidence in the mind of the customers or potential customers. Many a times, customer issues are also mentioned using this. So, it is important to reply comments in a professional way.
So, one must properly plan the social media postings. Well organised and well-planned postings can be a boon for businesses. Apart from this social media offers many wonderful and additional business avenues in today’s world.
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