Why You Should Invest in a Social Media Audit to Kickoff 2013
Kickstart 2013 with a social media audit.
The truth about social media is, anyone can do it. Everyone can log in to Facebook, Twitter, and the like, type out a sentence or two, and hit “post.” Should I be saying this as a social media professional? Absolutely. I’m not going to pretend that social media is brain surgery.
Yet, there is so much more to social media than just haphazardly slapping a sentence together and then shooting it off into the digital sphere. Choosing keywords, tagging and/or hashtagging, using images effectively, responding to customers, being interesting, studying trends, following the ever-changing rules, and being clever day in and day out…it can get overwhelming for a business owner. Most importantly, you have to work at NOT being all about the sale in social media.
In many social media audits, this is the #1 problem discovered. Social media is unlike any other form of advertising and marketing because of the key word, “social.” Some social media gurus are even preaching that the term “social media” is out, and needs replaced with the phrase “social business.” No matter what you call it, the majority of your content has to be NOT about selling. Sure, the cold, hard truth is that it’s all about the bottom line, but the actual content can’t be.
While those same social media gurus also say that the sell/not sell ratio should be 80/20–80 not sell/20 sell–but I find I’d be thrilled to even see 50/50 because far too many business are selling the majority of the time and failing to create engagement and a sense of community. Since most business owners are used to putting out print ads, brochures, or content for their websites, it’s foreign not to be sales-y. Yet, that is exactly what it takes to be a company that people want to socialize with.
A social media audit can give you the perspective you need. And I take my audits one step further and analyze your entire online presence so you can understand how you are coming across to your current and target audiences. So if you’re trying to decide what is worth a slice of your 2013 marketing budget, consider a social media audit for a piece of that pie. It will not only give you a solid analysis of where you’ve been, but also a road map for where your business can grow in 2013.
To get your social media and online presence audit, shoot me an email at shawndrarussell.com/contact.
Photo courtesy Digital Eye Media.
