There’s no getting away from the fact that social media and social networking are a great way to reach a global audience. 
But the thing you have to remember is that once you’ve put something out on the Internet, it’s there forever. That’s why it’s essential you get a strategy in place before you start.
Here are three tips to help you navigate the world of social media/networking safely.
1. Strategy
There’s that word again.
The problem is, without a strategy, you’ll just be chucking things ‘out there’ randomly without having any idea about what they’ll do for your marketing efforts, reputation or readers. So, before you get going, make sure you:
- Know what the goal of your campaign is
- Who you’re aiming your content at
- What that audience wants to know
- What you’ve got to do to get results
2. Your optimisation is missing
The whole idea about social media and social networking is to boost your on-line profile. But for that to happen, you must make sure your profiles are optimised, which means including your keywords in your biography.
3. Ignoring feedback
Regardless of whether the feedback is good, bad or indifferent, it has to be dealt with.
Ignoring them is rather like sitting in your office and ignoring your phone or customers as they walk in.
Social media makes is much easier for customers and potential customers to make contact with you. Whether its through Twitter or Facebook, they’ll take the opportunity to contact you about your products, services and your customer service so it’s essential you monitor these channels regularly and respond in a timely manner.
That is where your strategy comes into play.
Make sure you have social media guidelines in place and that all your staff are aware of them. That way, you’ll have happy staff, happy customers and oodles of great PR.