Does Your Organization Have a Social Strategy?

What is your brand’s message? What is the voice of your company? What is the message you wish to convey to people via Social Media? How will you communicate it? Will your organization speak on societal and current issues? Will your organization push out marketing updates and never respond to people? Make sure your organization isn’t one-dimensional. There are many types of people you can reach, so you must distribute many types of Social Media posts in order to reach them. To give you some guidelines, here are five focal points in establishing your organization’s message via Social Media: Education/Inspiration - Make sure to provide education, inspiration, and motivation via your social networks. These are the best types of posts. Whether they are quotes, photos with encouraging words on them, or quick videos that give educational tips about your organization or industry, everyone wants content that enhances their lives.

Information - Provide information about your organization by using your social networks. Please do not assume everyone reads your website or even saw your eblast. Distribute the information about events and other happenings through those same social networks. You can also repurpose flyers, newsletters, eblasts, and other marketing materials and send them out.

Communication - Social Media is social! Therefore, it should be a two-way communication. If you post to a network and people comment, ask questions, and take time out of their busy day to respond, make sure your organization takes time to acknowledge them and respond back. Do not appear too arrogant to respond to your social network fans, even if you do not have the staff or time to answer every comment or question. At least answer some. Show that the organization sees their comments and questions and cares about their audience’s concerns.

Consistency - Make sure the content from your organization flows consistently from your online properties to your online users. On some networks, this means posting multiple times a day or once a week. It depends on the network. That being said, no matter which one your organization uses, you must maintain consistency.

Diversification – Have you noticed that neither Social Media network has been mentioned to be better than another? The network you use to distribute content to your online users is irrelevant if there is no consistent strategy behind it. Ten years ago, everyone was using AOL email to communicate with the masses. Five years ago, it was MySpace. Three years ago, Facebook and Twitter became popular. Just recently, Instagram, Vine, and Snapchat have become very prevalent. The networks will come and go. So, do not make the mistake of putting all your eggs in one Social Media basket. Find a network you want to use and grow on it. Then, add another network and repeat. You do not have to be present on all the social networks that are out there. Simply don’t depend on just one network to be your savior.

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