The top 3 questions I get asked about social media

We're all at different levels when it comes to understanding the beast that is social media.

Where some people have a basic knowledge of the what/how/why, others are trailblazing best practice, wrangling AI to streamline their process. Then there are those who still don't understand how any effort funneled into social is supposed to help their business grow.

In working with all of these people and the many different conversations I've had throughout the years, the below is a summary of the top 3 questions I get asked:

Q1: Why should a business have an established social media presence?

The question with social media now isn’t “why?” but “why not?”.

Regardless of whether it’s B2C or B2B, buyers are more informed than ever before. When your customers are in the consideration phase, they're wanting to find out if people recommend you. They are probably also trying to get an idea of what the post-purchase experience will be with you. Social media is the perfect place to showcase all of this, as well as encourage repeated and new business with relative ease and minimal cost.

Additionally, Google now knows if you have an official social media presence or not, and not being active on social media can now impact your website's search engine ranking.

Q2: What makes a social media plan effective?

Whilst some of the obvious answers are consistency and strategy, in my experience the best results come from truly (madly, deeply) knowing your audience: both current and ideal.

This is always the best place to start. All the other components like content, campaigns and tracking can be built around this understanding. Thinking like a customer and considering what they want to see or learn about is really important. Once you have this nailed, consistency, agility and performance measurement will help keep you on track.

Q3: What does success look like on social media?

Success on social media looks different for every business, the key is to know what you’re trying to achieve and then ensuring you’re set up for capturing and tracking it.

Depending on your business, ways to measure success could be through click through rates, enquiries or social-derived sales. An engaged and growing audience is always a good way to assess whether you’re on the right track or not.

If you have any burning questions on social media, feel free to connect with me through messages here on LinkedIn.