Z Connections | Edition #10 Oct 09 | WHAT THE TWEET IS IT ALL ABOUT?
Article by Julia Szatar

Social media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube – conjures up images of spur-of-the-moment personal remarks, bursts of conversation and invitations to events. However, in the small business world, we are just starting to understand the power of social media as a business tool and how best to use it. 

Sure the aim is to be spontaneous with your tweets, show personality through Facebook, and engage your audience with organic conversation – but the power of social media can only be harnessed with a strategy  –  objectives and guidelines that will help you achieve your overall communication goals, save you time and help your business stay active and relevant online.
 

Strategic Twittering

Stop a second to think about what you want your business to achieve from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn or why you might need a business blog. Like your mum always used to say, don’t just do it because everybody else is – set some clear objectives for your social media campaign so you can measure its impact and justify time spent on it.

Some examples of possible goals to set include: building brand recognition, positioning yourself as an expert, engaging with clients and prospects, increasing survey engagement, increasing website hits, increasing entries to a competition, increasing sales, obtaining feedback from industry or clients, and personalising your brand.

Who's in Charge?

Do all staff members have free reign over your business tweets? Does everyone know the password to the business Facebook account? Remember, the key to effective and credible communication is consistency. Assign one person as project manager on all tweets and messages to avoid inconsistencies and broadcasting ideas that aren’t aligned to your company values.
 

The project manager can also gather ideas for future tweets, ensuring all angles and objectives are covered and that the entire business is engaged.

Creative Parameters

Rather than using parameters to restrict you, use them to help you get creative*. The parameters you set in your plan should be largely determined by your goals. For example, if your goal is to position yourself as an expert, your tweets should include handy tips that relate to your service, re-tweets (see tips and tricks in Z Connections) of industry commentary and articles as well as links to white papers and case studies of successful projects. Your parameters and goals will also help you choose people to follow! 

Timing is Everything

One of the first rules of traditional PR and journalism relates to relevance and timeliness – and nothing has changed in the fast paced world of social media. Your tweets and promotions should hinge on latest trends and media. This means you need to be an active follower, contribute to the general social media conversation and be aware of what is newsworthy.
 

For the time poor, having a plan will help you stay active and timely. For example, if you have post relevant links at least twice a week in your plan, it will remind you to stay focused.

Setting deadlines for goals will help you activate them and give your campaign structure. Other ways to use timelines are to create mini-campaigns that last 2-4 weeks. This will keep your followers interested and keep you motivated!

Before you Embark, Make a Plan

So before you embark on a social media campaign - stop and make a plan!

A Social Media Plan will:

1. Help you Achieve your Business Goals: a plan will help align your communication goals with your overall business strategy.
2. Ensure your Communication stays Frequent: a plan will give you something to tweet when company news and promotions are having a slow day.
3. Maintain your Consistency: a plan will ensure your message is consistent across all social media channels giving your message credibility and potency.
4. Help your Communication get Creative: implementing a few guidelines and parameters will help your campaign be more creative than you thought possible.

* Read Nigel Collin Creative for more ideas on using parameters in business creativity