How to Improve Your 2013 Social Media Profile

7 Social Media Resolutions for 2013

Social media use reached a plateau in 2012 among US marketers. According to a July, 2012, Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey, 90% of US marketers employed social networks; flat with 2011. Further, US marketers spent an estimated $3.6 billion advertising on social media platforms, just under half of the 2012 global total based on eMarketer estimates.

What does this mean for your 2013 social media marketing? It means you must continue to expand your presence on various social media platforms. Further you need to become more effective at breaking through the clutter and noise to engage prospects and customers while supportings sales and branding.

To help you, here are seven social media resolutions for 2013. (Here’s our list of 2013 resolutions for marketing in general.)

1. Listen to your community across different social media platforms. Just as you’d do research before diving into any marketing campaign, take the time to find out what your prospects, customers and the public are saying about your company, employees and products. What issues does your community want you to respond to? What do they want you to do? Think broadly in terms of products, employees and brand. Don’t just collect information—process what it means for your prospects and your company.
2. Get your senior management team on board and engaged with social media. Most C-level managers don’t get social media; they don’t have profiles or engage on social media. Now is the time to get them involved on social media so that they understand how its used and contributes to your business. Social media can’t continue to be something that’s done by a junior employee, or worse, a college student who knows Facebook. (At a minimum, show your team this data on management engagement on various platforms.)
3. Provide social media training for your employees. With increased use of social media, it’s critical that everyone on your team understand how to use these venues appropriately. Don’t assume that if they can use a personal Facebook account they can handle your business’ presence appropriately. This includes how they present themselves when they’re active for personal reasons. Further, you must have a set of social media guidelines and crisis planning guidelines. (BTW—We can help your organization with tailored training sessions.)
4. Set up a social media engagement schedule. Understand your target audience with the use of a marketing persona and a social media persona to engage them where and when they’re active on social media. This translates to having appropriate, trained personnel available to interact on social media. Additionally, you’ll need relevant content that’s been optimized for social media engagement. If this work is handled by more than one person, you need a way to keep your communications on track without duplication.
5. Tailor content by platform. Create content and adapt it for specific use that’s contextually relevant. This means don’t just post the same link across websites. Spiff them up and/or personalize it for your audience on that specific social media platform.
6. Drive sales by adding a targeted social media call-to-action. Ensure that your social media supports your customers’ need for information about your products and how-to’s. Use a social media call-to-action to steer prospects to take the next step towards purchasing from your firm.
7. Test new social media platforms as they emerge. With most marketers on a variety of social media networks, you need to continually try out newer options to determine their effectiveness for interacting with your target audience.

Regardless of what your 2013 marketing plans are, you must incorporate or expand your use of social media. When you do, it’s critical to ensure that you can show its effectiveness in supporting sales.

What social media resolution would you add to this list and why?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

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PLEASE NOTE:

Today’s the last day to nominate your favorite social media blog of 2013 in Social Media Examiner’s 4th Annual Top 10 Social Media Blog Contest. We encourage you to vote by naming your fav in their comment section. (Of course, we’d be delighted if you chose us!) Again please cast your nomination by commenting here.

 

BTW, here’s what marketing experts thought about last year, in terms of the biggest marketing break throughs of 2012,  biggest marketing surprises of 2012 and the biggest marketing #Fails of 2012.

Photo Credit: HeidiCohen.com