Top Tips for Developing Your Social Media Strategy

Social media is all about empowerment. As channels continuously evolve and communities grow, the consumer/end user has finally found a unified voice to challenge companies and brands at all levels, as Nestle and Samsung have recently realised. In the case of Nestle, Facebook users took the company to task for failing to respond appropriately to concerns being debated on its wall. Some even went as far as advising Nestle on how to engage with social media effectively. Consumers are becoming clients and brands are becoming answerable services.

Brands are increasingly recognising the need for a social media strategy without really understanding why they need one or what it will achieve for them. At the most basic level it is important for brands to take ownership of this space – if they don’t start to take ownership of their own messages then someone WILL do it for them and regaining their voice can be a real challenge. Brands also need to realise that they cannot control the conversation, but they can listen and respond, offering guidance and engaging consumers far more effectively than simply shouting messages at them.

At the most basic level, clients should engage in a social media strategy which will enable them to create and, to an extent, contribute to the dialogue between themselves and the public. Our top Dos and Don’ts in planning your Social Media Strategy are outlined below:

DO
• Set objectives for your activity – and remember, simple dialogue between yourself and your end user is an objective
• Open as many avenues of communication as you can
• Enable & Engage customer feedback
• Ask for help – make your consumers feel that their input is valuable
• Monitor and respond as quickly as possible to any feedback – especially negative comments
• Always be open, honest and transparent – put a name to any response and make sure your company/brand is properly represented
• Share information
• Measure the buzz and analyse positive/negative comments
• Build trust
• If you start a conversation make sure you follow it through to the end

DON’T
• Censor
• Engage in anonymous activity, you will get discovered
• Leave criticism or feedback unaddressed or it could snowball rapidly
• Leave unmonitored or outdated channels open, either close or migrate them to a monitored avenue
• Expect overnight success

This post follows Sarah’s advice on developing a social media strategy.