In this article we will find out what are the winning strategies to master social networks from a business point of view. The numbers tell us that about 4.5 billion people in the world are users of one or more social network, thus bringing the whole category tops the ranking of sites and apps for which people use their internet connection and all this does even more impression if you consider that the trend continues to be constantly growing.
The global trend is of over 1 million new subscribers to social networks every day, or every second 13 new users begin to use social networks
In the rest of the article you will discover the correct approach that every business should have to better address this new concept of image and branding.
Understanding social networks and how they have changed the world
All this must make us understand that in front of us we have not a simple phenomenon of the web, but we are talking about a real reality.
To understand how entrepreneurship should relate to all this, we need to try to simplify the concept as much as possible and pay attention to the point: we need to know how social networks influence real social relationships in a context where the interactions have almost zero space-time limits.
Our office or shop is virtually moved from the street of our city to the popular world square. To take care of it, it will suffice to follow the 5 tips listed in the rest of the article.
How social networks affect our life and information
Social networks are 24h input distributors, these inputs can cause multiple different reactions in different people (but also at different times on the same people) and these reactions, finally, can be transformed into concrete actions, both in real life and within the internet bubble.
This is evident above all in the information: we are all bombarded with news from social networks on a daily basis.
Consequently information channels calibrate their communication in order to provoke a certain reaction in their audience (which they have learned to know) and then dictate a specific line based on editorial needs or policies.
Luckily we are out of these “power games” and we must deal with our audience and their reactions only with a view to bonding as much as possible.
Why social networks are important for doing business
The fundamental reasons why social networks are important for doing business are basically 2: to keep alive and solid a relationship of trust with our customers and to ensure that people potentially interested in our offer can get to know each other and accurately perceive our overall value proposition.
These two objectives must be managed simultaneously and without ever losing sight of the balance that we are creating or discovering.
Although the acquisition of new customers remains an activity not to be underestimated, never forget that in the long run, maintain and retain your customers / users more and more profitable and convenient. Social networks are nothing more than another channel to put into practice the principles of retention marketing strategies, give space to your inventiveness to implement them on social networks.
First tip: know who uses social networks and how
This first tip is one of the basic concepts of modern marketing: the customer is always at the center of our business.
It is important to lay a solid foundation to ensure that your segments always have well-defined and accurate user profiles. First of all, you need to put in place all the tools and strategies to be able to monitor and update our user profiles.
Simple market surveys, customer satisfaction campaigns, activity reports or any other type of public information gathering method, are all activities that we will have to start evaluating and implementing on a regular basis.
Over the years, people change their characteristics and habits. Our task is to take care of following the trends that, regardless of us, our audience will follow and make sure that our web presence is always available as a reference for what concerns our field or sector.
Second tip: choose the best social network for the activities
This seems trivial but it is not. The answers could be the one with the most users or, worse, the more suitable for our content.
All kinds of activities that we intend to carry out on social networks has its natural habitats and, although it may appear wasteful in terms of energy, it is correct to have a clean online image and consider every possible social network as a potential channel for something specific we intend to do rather than as a place to preside over.
We could be an business not suitable for purely entertainment channels, but despite this, we could plan a more effective campaign using Youtube or Instagram influencers.
In short, each channel (existing or future) could have its specific function and reason to exist within our strategy. It is therefore important to select the best ones for the goal that we have set ourselves and keep up to date on the new platforms.
Third advice: take care of the perceptive aspect of the contents
Knowing how to communicate well is certainly important, but in the light of the above we should already have clear that it is not everything.
No matter how precise and punctual we are in describing ourselves or producing our content, what matters is how all this is perceived by those who are exploring us.
We must always keep in mind that on the other side of the screen we will have a human person and that what we publish must not simply be clear and pleasant to us, but must reach the target in the right way.
When interacting online we always have to ask ourselves fundamental questions about who will see, when will they see, why and anything else that can make us empathize in the target person of our content.
We must always try to be perceived in the right way to get the reaction we set out to.
You don’t have to be focused on yourself, but on the listener. This is serious and fundamental for every area of communication.
Fourth tip: we are users and not just publishers
Don’t ever make the mistake of considering yourself above the public. Today the role of our digital identity is not simply to produce valuable content, but to keep those little outbreaks that stimulate users themselves alive.
We are not jealous of our ideas, we look for collaborations, we let initiatives arise (or we give birth to) and take part in them, in one way or another.
We must be participatory and collaborative in our sphere of competence, intervene in debates, discussions, initiatives, in short, be ourselves an active part of our reality, obviously taking care of any slips, misplaced exits or excessively divisive opinions for our audience.
Fifth tip: plan, monitor and update your strategy
Having understood and understood the previous tips, you just have to systematically set us up what you intend to make of your online image.
We must not leave everything in our head and go to the nose, we must create a well-organized plan, we must establish objectives, resources and benchmarks for what we intend to obtain.
We also need to be structured in order to check on a regular basis that things are proceeding in the expected direction and possibly intervene again on the plan.
Good planning should consider any editorial plans, calendars, agendas, budgets to invest and all of this.
Now you can start working on social networks as a mean of communication
If you follow this procedure you can easily forget all the various realities of social media marketing gurus and their magic potions for success.
There are effective short-term strategies and technicalities to boost your numbers on social networks, but these should appear to you only as simple tools limited to a specific goal.
Your image, your being, your way of doing business totally depends on you, you have to take care of it yourself, always have the helm of what you are doing and why, and then possibly orchestrate with confidence all of what revolves around your online presence and your social relationships.
