It’s important for any successful business or brand to use social media, by now that’s clear. But how you use social media and when you use social media, these are the questions for the most effective companies and individuals. Social media can be like a black whole that you’ll spend all of your days engulfed in, so it’s important to have a clear plan about how you’re going to Facebook, Tweet and connect with your LinkedIn contacts.
Know Your Audience
The first step to focusing your social media actions is to know your audience -- know who you’re trying to reach and who you’re already reaching. Today it seems as if everyone you know is probably on to Facebook -- there are over 500 million users now. For most people, this means that your contacts are mixed between people for work, family and friends. Luckily, the Facebook privacy settings and a number of social media tools are now sophisticated enough to let you segment your list. Take the time to define at least three different groups and to identify how those groups should see your profile. This will help you know who is your audience and conquer the next step, defining your content.
Define your content
After you’ve segmented your list and become clear about your audience, take the time to define what type of content you think would be valuable both for your brand and for your audience. It’s important to be clear about this before you start tweeting and posting because your content is essentially what defines you on Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook you have far more freedom to determine what type of content you display and a few more words, on Twitter you have 140 characters to articulate the modern press release -- so do it wisely.
Use the Wealth of Social Network Tools
There are a wealth of social network tools available online to help you manage your online presence. One such example is HootSuite. HootSuite allows you to pre-program what messages you want sent to which social network all from one place. This allows you to schedule a time to program your social media to be posted over time without having to literally be on your computer at the time of posting. This also helps when you’re trying to manage your own time, since social media can be very distracting and time consuming.
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