Back to basics: don’t just create social media profiles, engage with your network

Engaging with potential and existing clients is the most important aspect of any digital marketing strategy. When you are planning your social media marketing (SMM) strategy, always bear in mind that the number of followers are not the be all and end all of your social media campaign. Most of the time, having a huge number of followers may look good, but are these “followers” engaging with you around targeted and focused topics?

Target people who are active and interested in your market niche. These are the people who will most likely find your content and information useful and engage with you or their network regarding your message. Once these interested followers have been established, it is important to find new ways on maintaining the conversation with them. This sounds hard but it’s not. Once you have the snowball running, add more to it to keep it rolling.

Engaging with your network
The most important thing to remember when you are engaging with your network is the type of discussion that will be appropriate for the specific social media channel. Never neglect your network that wishes to get your attention through social media as it is one of the best methods to discuss issues that arises. With the nature of the online world, you can adopt a less formal tone than the tone you are using in any other traditional correspondence such as telephone, email, etc.

A fine line always needs to be walked between being over commercial and being too formal when you want to start engaging with your network. Conversation should always start the natural way. Use your own judgment as to which topics needs addressing and try to avoid alienating any of your network followers by targeting everyone that is following you and not just those you think will respond to your message. Try to avoid sinking to a level of those that wish to evoke a reaction from you, maintain a calm tone when engaging with everyone. Online decency goes a long way.

Benefit from interesting and relevant content
People that are following you and that have shown an interest on what you are publishing is worth gold. It is always useful to consider whether you — as an expert in your niche — would appreciate the content that you are sharing. No one wants to be bombarded with the testimonials and adverts of your service.

Promotion is likely to be part of your social media campaign but you need to actively offer a service that is interesting and then discussion will follow.

It is impossible to consistently manage all of the social media channels you have chosen to use all of the time. Many of these channels provides the ability to schedule posts so that you can maintain your presence online when you don’t have the time.

If you choose to schedule your updates, make sure the content you are sharing doesn’t have an expiration date and the level in which you can engage with users outside of your normal working hours.

To engage via social media with your network is a necessity to be successful online. By keeping your network of followers engaged and interested with your service is the best chance of success