Social media has no relevance to your life, interests or activities cluttering up your Twitter feed are the equivalent of being trapped at a great party with someone telling you a really boring story. They might even be able to tell you’re not interested, because they can see you’re not really responding and your eyes are darting around the room in desperation, but they still keep talking. Why? Because they don’t know what to say – so they say anything.
It’s easy for businesses, especially those just starting out in social media, to fall into the Twitter trap of alienating their customers through uninteresting, uninspiring and frankly useless tweets, because they think it doesn’t matter what they say as long as they say something.
Wrong! But if that’s you, then worry no more. What you need is a content strategy – and that’s what we’ll give you.
A content strategy stop you from being the boring-story guy hovering around the buffet table, and instead be the fabulous-story, charming guy surrounded holding court at the bar. And it’s not as hard as it seems; just follow four simple steps to put yours together.
First, look at your business goals. Twitter itself isn’t a business goal – but what you can do with it is. For example, consider offering a reduced customer response time to queries, or first-sight of discounted products and sales.
Second, know your audience. You might use Twitter to enhance customer service, but are your customers there, on Twitter itself? Are they the right customers, if so? Your content is only relevant and interesting if you’re actually reaching the people it’s meant for.
Third, plan your social message. Everything you say not only reflects on your brand, but stays there. A couple of ill-considered tweets won’t go away anytime soon. And don’t go in all guns blazing and then tail off after getting your customers interested – they won’t come back in a hurry. At the heart of every tweet should be the customer – ask yourself, what does this tweet give my customer? Can they use it? Does it help them?
Fourth, measure and evaluate. Watch carefully to see how your customers respond. Perhaps they are more engaged in the evening, or at lunch. Adapting your strategy accordingly is a sure-fire way to give your customers what they want, and need. Make sure your goals are achieved, and work out how you will know you’ve achieved them – if its to grow your sales, how will you plot the customer journey from Twitter to checkout?
Time to get your content strategy together – and don’t touch Twitter without it!