- [Voiceover] One of the most important things to consider
when developing your business' social media plan
is picking the best channels and times
to connect with your customers.
In order to do that successfully, you have to understand
the behavior etiquette for each platform.
It's a bit like traveling in a foreign country.
Even with the best intentions,
your actions can make you seem like a boorish tourist.
We're gonna show you how to pick your social media channels
based on the ones your customers are using,
and where they're most likely to engage with you.
You can find out a lot about customer social media habits
by listening and seeing where, when,
and how they're most active.
Observe whether they're using social media
personally to connect with friends and family,
or if they also interact with brands.
Maybe they use it to gather product information
or get customer service when they have a problem
and expect a speedy response, even after hours.
Get familiar with your customers' behavior
by watching what they do in the social media wild.
You can also learn a lot about
your customers' social media preferences
by asking them directly.
There are many ways to accomplish this.
If you have a mailing list,
you can ask them to complete a brief survey.
You could write a short article
in your company's e-newsletter and ask for comments.
Does your company have a discussion forum
with an active community?
That could be a good place to start a conversation.
In a bricks-and-mortar location,
you can have your staff inquire.
You can also check your competitors' channels.
Because most social media's public,
it's easy to see if your competitors' posts
are getting comments and shares,
or maybe they're just talking to themselves.
Determine whether or not their content is working,
and if not, figure out what you could do differently.
Knowing that, which platform should you be on?
Facebook's got more than a billion and a half users,
so you should definitely be there, or should you?
You're a B2B company and LinkedIn specializes in business,
so that's a no-brainer, isn't it?
You're a restaurant and your food presentation is amazing.
You should be all over Instagram, right?
Isn't Twitter the best place to share quick updates
and company news?
The answer to all of these is it depends.
It depends on what your customer's looking for
and whether you can be helpful in a non-spammy way.
While your post can be self-promotional some of the time,
most of your content should be focused
on providing value, not selling.
The Hootsuite Blog suggests businesses
consider the rule of thirds,
1/3 of your content should be about yourself,
1/3 should be sharing other peoples' posts,
and a 1/3 should go to building relationships
for your brand.
Whichever social media platforms you choose,
remember you have to earn your customers' trust
by showing and doing, not just telling,
and that doesn't happen overnight.