1. There Is No One Size Fits All Social Media Strategy<br />Social media can work well for companies of all sizes and in all industries. Like any marketing plan, the key is to have goals in place and a strategy that will support those goals. The goals of one company will be entirely different from the goals of another company. What works for Company A might not be right for Company B. However, companies tend to get confused and overwhelmed by social media and are tempted to just follow the crowd. This is a bad strategy. The one thing that companies need to remember in social media is that they need to stay true to their brand. It’s about building relationships with your target audience. It’s not about attracting the wrong target audience just to see a slight jump in sales. The results of social media efforts might not come as quickly, but they will be there over time.<br />The following are 4 components of a social media strategy that need to stay true to the brand:<br />Content<br />Content shouldn’t be created for shock value or just to be re-tweeted a bunch of times. It’s important to keep the brand in mind with every social media interaction that you have. For example, if you’ve never given out coupons in the past, don’t start pushing coupons now. Just because it worked for another company, it might not be right for you. Within some business sectors coupons don’t even make sense. Social media is another avenue to promote, but it doesn’t mean that what you promote should change. <br />Frequency<br />Some companies may be successful posting on social media sites every hour, some once a day. This is about understanding your target audience- how often do they use social media themselves? Is it necessary to post more than once a day? You want to stay top of mind but don’t want to be pushy. Every hour might make sense for a store promoting a one day sale, but it’s not necessary to build awareness. <br />Timing<br />Is your target audience global, national, or local? What are their demographics? Social media timing is extremely important. Business professionals that work 9-5 use social media differently and at different times than college students do. Many people’s social media feeds are jam packed with information from businesses, friends, family, etc. Sending something at the wrong time will just get lost in it all. Not everyone scrolls all the way back to see things that were posted the night before.<br />Tone<br />Social media is about being social, but the content needs to remain professional if being used for business. While it may be OK for some businesses (a brewery, a winery, a bar, etc.) to ask their audience what they will be drinking on Saturday night, it wouldn’t be appropriate for an auto dealer to ask that same question. It may just be an attempt to be friendly and to make conversation and seem “relatable” but if it’s coming from the wrong place it just looks unprofessional. If you’d never think to include it in ad copy, don’t include it in social media “copy”. <br />About the Author:<br />Brick Marketing is a Boston SEO company that offers SEO audit services. For more information please call 781-350-4365 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com. <br />