Social media

Why Bother?

Like email, social media is a great way to push messages to a large audience. The difference between social and email is the potential audience is infinitely larger than any email list (that's not to say email marketing has no value). The second advantage is that you can engage in conversation with people publically, and the more conversations you have, the more visible your message.

Where to start?

Social media is a slow burning process and it can take a while to build up networks, connections and followers - once again there are lots of good guides out there as to how to build your social following.

Once you have an audience, keep gently pushing your expertise and message amidst sharing information you have found elsewhere. Don't be too heavy on self- promotion and sales messages, ensure you broadcast and share plenty of content that is in-tune with your audience's needs.

Social media is also a great way to find out more about your ideal customers or prospects. As with the user profiling process, you can use people, companies and groups searches in LinkedIn for example to find out more about your audience.

Useful tips:

• Be timely with conversation. If someone comments on something you've posted on LinkedIn for example, jump right in and thank them and perhaps even point them toward something of similar value or worth.
• Many social channels can email you when someone comments on something or mentions you which takes the burden from having to sit and watch each channel all day.
• Ensure you factor in your social media broadcasts in your content marketing plan. When you have a particular blog planned for example, think about the key message and how you're going to summarise the benefits of reading it in one sentence.