Social Media Strategy

You probably have a blog. You’re on Twitter. You’ve signed up for Facebook and LinkedIn.

Now what to you do with them?

You need a simple effective strategy so that you are using the tools to accomplish your goal: Grow Your Business.

Start out Simple

Start with a blog.  Use your blog to tell your story: Who you are and what you do.  Don’t talk about yourself. Don’t talk about how you efficiently and effectively integrate a wide range of resources and competencies to provide flexible, scalable, ground-breaking, industry-standard, cutting-edge solutions.

Talk to your reader (and future client) as if she was sitting across the table from you.  Convey that you understand.  Help her realize that you really understand.  Show her how your company can help her.

Spend some time on your blog talking about your industry and the things going on behind the scenes in your business – people enjoy that.

Be human.  You want people to think of you not as a big impersonal company; You want them to think of you. People don’t do business with your company. They do business with you. This video is a perfect example. People now call and say, “I want to talk to the guy in the video.”

Use your blog to educate and inform. You are an expert in your field. Convey that by providing helpful advice and education.

Outreach

The second phase is to engage in an outreach program. If you attend your local Chamber of Commerce mixers, you know that nothing happens if you stand alone in the corner. You must get out there and engage in conversation. Social Media is no different.

I highly recommend Twitter. It’s easy to understand, easy to use, and doesn’t consume a lot of time.Use a tool like TweetDeck to create some searches for keywords in your field. PIck keywords that indicate someone is articulating a problem you can solve. If you are an expert at stain removal, search for ’stain’. Use Twitter to help people. Make sure that your Twitter profile points to your blog.

Whenever you write a new blog post, tweet about it. Whenever you are on the radio, tweet about it. Whenever you find something interesting that you think others should know about, tweet about it.

Use Twitter to stay in close touch with your tribe. Turn your loose collection of supporters and business associates into a tight-knit group that refers business back-and-forth.

Community

Finally, find a place to hang out online. Think of it as an online version of Cheers. Hang out there for a few hours each week. Get known, Get Credible, Get Trusted. Make sure that your pointers there lead back to your blog.

Summary

That’s not so hard, is it? If you do these steps, you will be accomplishing more than 90 percent of the online population. You will build a following that will tell your story for you.