From the course: Entrepreneurship Foundations
Social media management: Do I need it?
- I get it. Everywhere you look, people are constantly talking about social media strategies. What's your Snapchat strategy or Instagram strategy? Oh, and you can't forget about Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, the list goes on and it is exhausting. But before you put creating social media strategies on your to do list, ask yourself these three very important questions. First, are your customers even on social? It's important to know that you're not yelling into an echo chamber and speaking to no one. Hello? Anybody out there? Hello? If they are on, figure out which channel they're most active on. For example, I run a B2B business, so the people I need to get in touch with the most are marketing managers or live event producers who tend to frequent LinkedIn. So LinkedIn is my main social site as opposed to SnapChat or Instagram for getting in front of my potential customers. Next up, do you have the time to create compelling, meaningful content? Don't wait for somebody else to set goals for you. You need to set goals for yourself. People are more likely to buy your product or hire your business if your social channel looks great. I like to think of it as fixing up the exterior of a house to sell it. If you want a home to look really great from the street, you have to spend a lot of time on it. You have to think about the paint color, the landscaping, the roof, the siding. You have to make sure it all looks good, and then you have to maintain it. If you just sloppily throw up one coat of paint or plant a tree and don't have time to pull the weeds, not a lot of people are going to want to buy your house. Same thing goes for your socials. Creating and up-keeping meaningful content is time consuming. Look long and hard at your schedule, your employees, and your bandwidth to see if you actually have the time to create meaningful, well-crafted content. That way, you know it looks good for your customers. Now, let's assume you've found an audience and you're creating amazing content. Here comes the real test. Are you seeing a return on investment, or ROI, from your socials? If you have a product-based business, this is much easier to gauge because you're essentially looking at if sales based off links or referral codes that you promote on your social media channels actually work. However, if you're a service-based business like me, then it might be a bit harder. It might be meeting someone virtually on LinkedIn who you ultimately end up working with. Every month, check in and see what your ROI actually is. Continue to adjust and make changes to make sure that your social media plan is working. And remember, the easiest thing for people to spot on social media is inauthenticity. If something feels forced or faked, it never goes over well. Make sure if you do venture down the social media road that it's something you're excited about. If you're one of those people that have realized, you know what? Social media just isn't for me. That's okay. In fact, it's great that you've realized this about yourself. Not every aspect of entrepreneurship is going to fit, so if the social media part isn't for you, no sweat. There's always plenty of other marketing tactics to keep you busy, but if it is the right path, then I hope you're encouraged to go after it.
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