Social Media Strategy Implementation –The ladder to business growth

I had a unique opportunity of physically meeting with one of my e-friends cum e-clients after close to one year of e-communication. The meeting took place at his office and he made sure all his top management team attend for the meeting.

Although, this chap established his company 20 years ago, I respect him because he was frank enough to admit that business was no longer as sweet as it used to be, for him it was time to re-engineer or probably go into extinction. In my opinion, he was smart enough to bring in an SEO services expert and a website consultant to help in the process of re-engineering because he can attest to the fact that the face of business is changing indeed.

One of the company’s major challenge is how to properly do social media?

I told them that, Social Media Strategy is an important step for effective business growth. Social media are sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and there are thousands of other sites which all come under the purview of social media.

In a broader definition, social media sites are those used to connect other users and share content as well as information. Videos, photographs, news and updates, everything is shared in real time using social media. Facebook is a site with close to 1 billion users globally. If it had been a country it would have been the third largest one after China and India.

Consider this, more than 50% of all Facebook users login everyday and connect with other users. Monthly, billions of pages of content are created using Facebook. A site, where so much traffic comes each day, cannot be outside the purview of a social media strategy.

Basics of Social Media Strategy implementation

1. The first step of Social Media Strategy implementation is that you discuss and establish the goals and objectives of social media in your organization. If your business (if you are not the owner) is thinking about sales from day 1, then think again. Social media is more about long term brand building than short term sales.

2. Where do you want to be is a question that you should ask yourself before venturing into social media. If your client or your business leaders are asking you to be everywhere, then this is going to be a complex process one that will require large amount of resources. To start off you can focus on the big four, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

3. An interesting part of social media strategy implementation is brand building using your expertise. No matter what business you are into, you or members of your staff will always find relevant discussions where you can contribute in. These are the opportunities where you can share your knowledge and expertise and build your brand.

I would be the first to admit that the above tips might become old school in less than 1 year because of the ever-changing face of the Internet but I think this will be a good start for a long time to come.

Please share your experience or thoughts by leaving a comment below.