So often I am asked about how to run social media for a small business, people know they should, but just feel overwhelmed at the idea. I get it, I’m a small business, and goodness knows I can feel as disturbed as the next person when it comes to putting my ‘real work’ to the side and considering the behemoth that is social media.

So I’m starting my new series of blog posts with actionable steps to get going.  Once you put this cycle in motion, you’ll have a clear plan for your future, and will see some results. And I promise, I’m going to shut up with my excuses and take my own medicine too – let’s do this together! Warning, it’s a biggy, better get a coffee.

Here’s what we’ll cover in the magic 5 Steps:
1. Preparation
2. Planning
3. Action
4. Reaction
5. Measure

WHY DO THIS ANYWAY? I HATE TALKING TO STRANGERS
OK, I’m going to assume you’re not living under a rock, and do know why you should really. Also, if you could start enjoying talking to new people, that will help… That aside, if you want some straightforward answers here you go:

To drive traffic. Social media can make a big impact on organic traffic to your website. The more social media shares you receive, the higher your search ranking will be.
Gain valuable customer insights: The sheer amount of information being shared means you can learn way more than your average questionnaire, and target accordingly.
Increase brand awareness and loyalty: put a fully rounded vision of your brand in front of new people, connect with current customers, help them out – and turn them into evangelists.
Social media is effective, measurable marketing: While traditional marketing has its place, working online means you can target specifically and measure in detail, so you can learn what works, fast.
Monitor your competition: Go on, you know you want to get nosey. And inspired!

OKAY, I GET IT. I HAVE TO BE SOCIABLE.
Afraid so. But don’t worry, you don’t have to go to every party, that would be silly. The channels and actions you choose should be defined by your audience, so let’s begin.

1. PREPARATION

GOALS
What are your business goals for this quarter? Social media is just another tool you have in your content toolbox to help you get ahead, it is not an achievement in itself (though you should surely congratulate yourself with a glass of wine for getting this far). Success is not ‘likes’, success is defined by your business goals being achieved, digital marketing is just one way to work for them.

AUDIENCE
All digital strategy should begin with your customers, so spend some time documenting examples of people you deal with as a business – a minimum of 4. These are your customer personas. Everything you do comes back to these personas. They might be at very different places in their customer journey, so think about their needs and problems that you can solve. What do you need to say to them? Where do you need to say it?

Pick the platforms that make sense to your audience – are you a Mama brand? You’d better be on Instagram and Pinterest. Riding with the silver surfers? Facebook is the place to be. Need to talk to other professionals in your industry? Linkedin baby. Maybe you’ve got some skills you can demonstrate in person – start your own YouTube channel (then share the posts elsewhere). Keep an eye on the demographics, research your audience, and go where the big fish are.

2. PLANNING

WHAT DO I SAY?
The most common comment people make when considering their social strategy is “I don’t know what to say”. And that’s why we have to plan, all those big brands out there are not sitting at their macs all day coming up with witty and relevant posts, they’ve got some serious planning and advance posting in place. And so will you.

PLANNING YOUR THEMES (Half a day a quarter, plus a quick review each month)

• Create a content schedule in a spreadsheet for the next quarter.
• Add a column for key dates – general calendar dates, plus all your promotional plans.
• Come up with a publishing routine that appeals to your target audience, including regular themes and features alongside your promotions gives your readers something to relate to and look forward to.
• Ask a friend, bouncing ideas off another person is infinitely easier (and more fun), even better? Ask a professional!
• Plan to post regularly (but don’t be annoying) – this is a great blog post on how often to post on different platforms. That said, test what works for you, retail businesses will have very different limits to news sites.
  Research subjects: use Facebook Graph Search to learn more about the users who like Pages based around products or services that are similar to your own. This is an excellent blog post and video by Jen Smith, on how to use Graph Search in Facebook.
• Types of content: Blog posts, products, promotions, interviews, use the type of content that elicits responses – questions, conversations, inspiration, teasers, how-to’s – pique their curiosity, entertain and inform. Answer their questions, solve the problems you came up with when defining personas, reassure them about the challenges that prevent them from taking up your offer (worried about cost/difficulty/how it owrks?).
• Be generous with your knowledge, don’t be afraid that people won’t then hire you – demonstrate you’re an authority in your field, show people specific skills.
• Research hashtags: The right hashtags will get your content in front of the audience you’re actually targeting. They are searchable and shows you know what they’re looking for.
• Ensure all bios are up to date, and optimised for keywords. With the right terms you’ll be found by new and existing customers.

PLANNING YOUR IMAGERY (Time or money)
Images are important, Buffer.com found that tweets with images get 150% more retweets than without, and other platforms follow suit. You’ll need to prepare a range of images for your posts, so make sure you know the optimal image sizes for each platform. Even better, employ a graphic designer – a good working relationship with a freelance designer can help you bring your entire brand together across all digital platforms. They will generally do it faster and better than you, it’s worth spending some money to use your own time for the stuff you’re best at. Also, include them in the initial planning process and they can help!

3. ACTION!

WRITING YOUR POSTS (-/+ 3 hours a fortnight)
Schedule your posts at least 2 weeks ahead using tools such as Buffer, Grum, Edgar. These tools can also help you decide what time of day to schedule your posts.
See? This bit is simple, if you put in the work beforehand.

4. REACTION:

PLAN AHEAD, BUT BE PRESENT

• Make sure you set aside at least 15 minutes each day (be strict with yourself, this can balloon) to actually engage with your audiences, respond to messages, monitor brand mentions.
• Nurture relationships: create conversations with advocates, at least ‘like’ their comments.
• Find new relationships: monitor keywords that signal intent, e.g. people who say they’re hungry within a few miles of a restaurant – the restaurant jumps in with directions to their door.
• Network – Comment and share others (relevant) blogs and interviews, share and be shared.
• Follow likeminded people in your business, surround yourself with a network who value your brand and expertise, so that you can become an influencer among them.
• Be nice. If you get a complaint via social media, suck it up, make it better, you’re in their world now, and it’s VERY easy for them to share their discontent. Or happiness. You choose.
• Use social media tools like Facebook live or Instagram stories to give your audience an insight into you and the background to your brand

5. MEASURE

Why? So you can check what’s working and what’s not. Power up a new spreadsheet and get used to using the individual platform analytics tools to check your weekly/fortnightly analytics (or at least monthly). Ensure you compare month on month, and year on year. This way you can:

Measure and identify seasonal trends.
Identify the types of content that work (and don’t)
Plan based on reality.
Maximise results, increase efficiency.

So which insights are useful? Again, a huge subject, and one I’ll address in the future, but assume you’re looking for growth over time, engagement, and activity measurements. You want to know that people are actually acting on your efforts. Once you’ve established what’s working, you can return to step two and do it again for the next month or quarter.As Jay Baer said in regards to all content marketing:

The end goal is action, not eyeballs

The growth and engagement just tell you you’re keeping people’s attention, but you need to ensure they’re actually following through and helping you towards your business goals. For more details, check out this blog post by Sprout Social.

BONUS NUMBER 6: ADVERTISE

Facebook especially is a good place to plan some marketing spending, even starting small, it’s way more sensible to target specifically and see the results, than to put an ad out in the real world and never know who has seen it. There are so many strategies to making this work, that’s (at least) a whole other blog post. This podcast from Perpetual Traffic is a great place to start.

Key Points to Remember

Be honest
Be consistent, for your benefit and theirs, stick to relevant topics, and post frequently. 
Be informative, become known as an authority, be helpful
Be entertaining, no-one is all business all the time, humanise your brand.
Be inspiring, people love to be inspired
Offer platform-specific deals, a daily deal just for twitter, let people feel they are exclusive.
Be social! Respond, be human, it’s not all about selling.
Be helpful. Again. Always provide service.
Be trustworthy. When you screw up, admit it.

Final thought: Don’t get overwhelmed, because Social Saturation sucks, I’ve been there. Do whatever works, at your own pace, just make sure you do it.
Or, pay an agency to do it, sometimes your money is better spent than your time and sanity.