Do you need a social media strategy?

If you’re dubious about the benefit of social media to your business, it’s useful to go back to basics and think about the power of word of mouth. How many restaurants have you eaten at, hairdressers visited, books bought, as a result of a recommendation made by a friend?

In the case of social media, we are talking word-of-mouth; only typed up. An effective social media engagement strategy that creates a constructive dialogue with your audience can and does lead to tangible results.

What happens if you don’t have a social media strategy?

Social media has significantly changed the media landscape. A company’s public relations or marketing department can no longer dictate the agenda in the way that they traditionally have through TV, print, radio and the first generation of websites. Failing to engage with those who are talking about your brand online could mean that you miss out on business opportunities, or damage your reputation.

In order to succeed in PR in an online environment, you must first accept the loss of control that that environment brings, and then work at socialising your way to your desired result. Sound fun? Well it’s not quite as simple as that, but hopefully you’re on board with the idea by now.

Join the party

The difficulty with social media is that it is a constantly evolving and relatively new marketing medium, further complicated by all the separate channels and sub-channels that sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and the user-created groups within those sites, present. So engaging with, and influencing, these online communities, as well as contributing to conversations that might be taking place on your own website, is no mean feat. Here are a few pointers to working your selected social scene:

1. Where’s the party at? Find out where your audience resides online; this could be in well-known or more ‘underground’ locations

2. Know who’s talking about you, and what they’re saying: analyse conversations talking place online

3. Go where the in-crowd go: identify the most influential online touch-points for your audience’s demographic e.g. fan pages, online book clubs

4. Stay on the scene: Commit to internal resource and / or external assistance to create and maintain a presence in your selected online communities

5. Be yourself: Know your voice, and research how best to communicate with your audience

Be the party

The publisher, with its access to authors, critics, readers and the wider public, is in an ideal position to build and place itself at the hub of an online community. So one option is to connect to all the relevant social networks through your own site or microsite. This is like choosing to hold a big social gathering at your house, the advantages of which are:

You can chat to all your friends, and potential friends, under one roof

Because the party’s in your house, people have easier access to your stuff (a good thing when you’re also selling books, remember)

You can keep an ear in on, and engage in, the conversation

Being the host means you can watch your guests’ every move, meaning you can also more easily measure the success of your social engagement in monetary terms (it’s easier to keep track of how many people actually ended up buying the book you’re trying to sell as a result of social engagement)

Whether you decide to join the party or hold it, you can get more advice on social media strategy from us by reading the dedicated pages on this website or giving us a call on 020 7332 6360.