Setting a Purpose for your Social Media Channels.

Businesses needing support with their social media isn’t going away any time soon.

There are currently 576 open Social Media projects on People Per Hour, and countless others across other freelance job boards, word of mouth requests and full time permanent roles.

It makes sense to outsource to a professional, with so many social channels to consider, the task to manage all of them, know all the ins and outs and understand how they fit into the bigger picture can feel quite daunting.

Before you hire someone to help you with your social channels, a conversation I have frequently with clients is to consider the role, voice and support Social needs within your business.

If you’re a CEO with a large following, be sure to think how closely linked your brand needs to be with your own personal views and voice, or do you want some separation.

How do you leverage your team and advocates to share your message? Are they natural sharers, or will they need a little support and encouragement to spread the word?

How do each platform’s continual updates affect your potential customer base? Are they likely to be early adopters, or like most of us, a little resistant to change.

Before you get started, take a step back and consider the following:

• Think about who you are targeting.
• Divide your potential customers into groups and think about which channels these groups are most likely to use.
• What is it you want out of social? Is volume of followers the right metric for your business? And does it matter by social channel? If you’re a B2B business, is going for volume of followers on Instagram right for you? If you're a B2C brand, how does LinkedIn fit with your strategy?
• Do you want people to stay on your social media channel or drive them to sign up to a newsletter, browse your site or ultimately make a purchase?
• What space does your business occupy other than what you’re selling - what facets of your brand make people want to interact with you? Make these the cornerstones of your social content.
• What news articles are relevant and of interest to your audience? How can you elevate yourself to be the brand with the finger on the pulse of the latest developments?
• Is there anything you want to avoid talking about or have a particular stance on?
• If you’re in an industry that is experiencing some change, do you want to present a balanced story? Or a purely positive one? What angles do you want to tackle or avoid?
• Any content around your competitors? I don’t mean “they’re rubbish use us instead” but consider what they say and what makes you different.
• Do you have someone in your business that’s qualified to talk in depth about a subject? Can they become your Spokesperson?

What next?

Understand how Social fits into your overall channel mix, not just marketing, but sales, customer service (a whole other post unto itself), account management, PR, HR and beyond.

Social Media can handily serve a multi-faceted number of purposes, from brand building to acqusition, to retention for existing customers (and of course, referral).

A worthwhile exercise is breaking down what concurrent stories are occuring in your organisation and then applying a social media lens to each - what should you comment, or have an opinion on, and what should you not?

What comes next?

Understanding how each channel is applicable to your business is important.

Furthermore, understanding the quirks of each channel (delving into creative, copy length, hashtag use by channel), the lifespan of posts and then what makes for a great creative brief or messaging strategy is the next stage.

The upfront work in creating a strategy really focuses what it is you're trying to achieve out of social - for long term success.