7 tips for launching successful Social Media Campaigns
Companies get more involved day by day in Social Media networks in order to stay up-to-date and to reach their target audience effectively. In this article, we discuss some practices that should be avoided and we suggest alternatives that can help you plan and execute successfully your Social Media Campaigns.
1. Don’t try to be “everywhere”
The question is not in how many social media a company should be present, but in which of them. Focus on quality over quantity.
By selecting the most appropriate social media networks of your industry you avoid losing time and you decrease the probability of failure. Thus make sure you select the appropriate media based on the characteristics of your target audience. This means that it is of utmost importance to define your goals and the target audience in the early beginning of the planning.
Once you get familiar with the selected social media, you will notice that they provide useful tools to monitor your campaigns, set goals and conduct research. Make sure you use those tools effectively in order to learn more about your industry and about your target audience.
2. Don’t try to sell
Don`t try to direct sell through social media. The result will not be catastrophic but you could wisely invest your time into something more useful for your company. For example you can use social media as a CRM tool, in order to directly support, answer or engage by making questions, start and participate on discussions or just monitor your brand reputation.
3. Think before you speak
Every update, tweet or post in social media, should be considered as an official corporate message. This means that the person or the team behind the scenes of social media accounts should be trained to have a deep knowledge of the corporate philosophy.
Remember: “What happens in vegas, stays in facebook, twitter, youtube, digg, linkedin…”
4. Reputation damage
Let’s assume that something wrong happened and there is a really negative buzz around your brand (negative comments, hard words from consumers, bad reviews etc). It`s the situation that we call communication crisis. In social media this condition could damage your reputation critically.
Follow the best practices, be transparent and give honest answers. This could be an apology or a clear presentation of what happened and of what the company’s response was. Another option, which is considered safer, is to refer the users to a page of the corporate website that includes an official press release with information related to the issue.
5. Don`t talk only for you or your business
Talking only for your extraordinary skills and how amazing your products are is boring and fruitless for many people. As an alternative, referring to other products, services, reviews, or even to competitors is absolutely healthy in the Social media era. Mentions, replies and guest posts are more than welcome in order to participate in the social media ecosystem. So be generous, open and honest.
6. Don`t Spam
The spamming is a good reason to get rejected by the community members. Instead of using blackhat or grayhat techniques, try to think what you would expect to receive from a network where brands are interacting with consumers.
7. Don`t forget good manners
It is obvious; communication in social media is another way of socializing and interacting with other users. Good manners should always be in high priority for both personal and business social media accounts. Don’t “unfollow”, don`t “unfriend” and don’t “unlike”. Remember to say “thank you”, apologize when it is needed and avoid conflicts.
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