Published on 28/05/2019 by Any Business.Com.Au

It's time to take a closer look at your social media use

No matter what industry you are operating in, social media either is or has been playing a role in the general marketing, messaging and brand awareness of your small business.

But now that you've dipped your toes in, perhaps it would be beneficial to take a more targeted approach, step back and plan on how best to get the best out of the various social media platforms available to you.

Your social media plan needs to include an in-depth analysis to help you determine how social media may best benefit your small business.

It will include an analysis of your business, your market, your customers and the social media tools available to best meet these needs.

Social media plan - conduct your analysis

For each tool, include the purpose or a general description and any opportunities or limitations. Include and consider the following in your analysis:

• List the name of the social media tool website
• List each social media tool that you intend to analyse
• What is the purpose of this social media tool or website? How do your customers use it?
• Outline the specific areas of each tool that you think your business will use and how
• Are there any rules or functionality that limit your ability to use the tool? e.g. strict terms and conditions. If needed, you may like to include a link to each tool's terms and conditions.

Business analysis

Consider the following questions when analysing your business:

• Overall, is social media suited to your business?
• Are your customers or potential customers likely to use social media?
• How will social media complement your other online business channels such as your website or blog?

To analyse each social media tool, list the main business goals, suitability for your business and the skills & resources needed to use the tool:

• List each social media tool that you think you will potentially use.
• Which business goals / objectives does this social media tool align with or help achieve?
• Rank the tools according to how suitable the tool is to your goal(s).
• List any specific skills / resources and/or training that are needed to utilise this tool.

Online customer analysis

For each social media tool, include details of your customers and their online usage:

• List each social media tool your customers use.
• Customer demographics: Analyse your customer base and your customer demographics. You can include age, gender, social status, education, attitudes, beliefs and interests.
• Estimate the number or percentage of your overall customers using social media.
• Include the details of your customers use, including frequency of use, purpose, and interaction quality (high, medium or low interaction).

Competitor analysis

For each social media tool, list your main competitors and details of their online presence:

• List each social media tool / website you intend to use against your competitors and the tools they are using
• Enter an estimate of your competitor's percentage of market share for this tool / social media site. Alternatively, you can include the number of followers
• What are your competitor's main social media strengths?
• What are your competitor's main social media weaknesses?

Manage social media risks

In your risk management section of your social media plan, list the potential risks of using social media in your business (in order of likelihood). This will include your mitigation and contingency strategies.

• Business risk: A description of the risk and the potential impact to your business. e.g. risk of exposing sensitive information
• Impact: The level of impact it may have on your business - high, medium or low.
• Likelihood: The likelihood of this risk happening - either highly unlikely, unlikely, likely or highly likely.
• Migration strategy: What actions will take to minimise / mitigate the potential risk to your business?
• Contingency plan: What is your contingency plan in the event that this risk happens?

Set up a social media team

If you need help to maintain your social media presence, find out if your existing staff have any skills or professional experience with social media.

If not, you might like to consider providing your staff with some training. Once your team has the appropriate skills, establish their roles and responsibilities carefully and familiarise them with your internal policies and procedures before they start.

Measure and Assess

It's always important to monitor and measure the impact of your strategies to see if you have achieved your goalsOnce you know how effective your strategies are, you can adjust them to improve the result.It might also be useful to develop some achievable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)Once they have been achieved, you can review the results and slowly increase your expectations.

AnyBusiness.com.au

Curtis is a leading expert in the business-for-sale industry, serving as a senior content creator at anybusiness.com.au.

With a career spanning over fifteen years, Curtis has accumulated extensive knowledge in the domain of business sales, acquisitions, and valuations. His deep understanding of market dynamics and his ability to translate complex industry jargon into accessible insights make him a trusted resource for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to buy or sell businesses.

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