This class is coming to an end. I am in the final week and I thought I would take some time to reflect on my learning. Social media is here to stay and marketers, and those who must market themselves, will do well to learn how to use it properly. It is a tool that can and should be utilized if you want to build your business. Here are a few tips I have taken away from this class:
- Research and get to know your audience. Who are they? What do they need? What are their likes and wants? What social media platforms do they consistently use? The answers to these questions are important and should be one of the first steps when creating a digital media plan.
- Create a social media plan. Evaluate what your audience needs and wants and create a plan that will provide those things.
- Create content that gives your audience value and create it regularly. As you are researching what your audience needs and wants, this can inform the content you are creating for your social media plan.
- Research tools, free and paid, that can help you become efficient in creating regular content such as Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, Hootsuite, or Procreate to name a few. There are a myriad of choices – all it takes is a little time to research and find the ones that best fit your needs and budget.
- Use analytics to monitor your platforms. Most platforms have some analytics built right in. Facebook, Instagram and WordPress all have built in analytics tools to help you learn what is working for your audience.
- Be sure to understand all your platform policies and media rules.
- Always remember to build relationships with your audience by building trust and providing quality content for them and listening to their needs and wants.
- Engage with your audience. Don’t leave a comment, positive or negative, unanswered. Even the biggest companies such as Royal Caribbean and Lego engage with their audience.
- Be prepared for any disasters. Know how to deal with anything from bad reviews to post faux pas and everything in between.
- Finally, here is a link to a some free alternatives to paid social media marketing tools: https://buffer.com/library/free-marketing-tools
There is so much more to social media and marketing and I have enjoyed the journey. Most importantly, have fun and be social!!
Jen
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