Social Media: Do It Better in 2015

According to Forbes, only 8% of people achieve their New Year's resolutions (though 40% set goals). Yikes. At that success rate, why even bother? Because it's still setting goals. And, by writing down those goals, you are still 40% more likely to achieve what you set out to do than those who don't formalize the goal-setting process. So, go ahead. Write down your 2015 resolutions. Be healthier. Rest more. Save money. All of these are good (& common) personal goals. But, what about your business? Shouldn't you have resolutions for it, too? Yes.

Let's focus on social media resolutions for 2015.

Maybe this year you realized social media is a necessity for your business. Maybe you set up your accounts, or you finally began using the ones you've had set up for years. Kudos! Those are positive steps in the right direction. But, if your efforts stopped there, you fell short of the point.

Social media is, now more than ever, completely & messily entwined in your marketing efforts. As such, it should be not only a part of your marketing plan, but it should have its own plan. A social media marketing plan. If you didn't get to that in 2014, let's make that a priority for 2015. Need help? Here's a quick overview to get you thinking about what might fit your business in the new year.

• Commit yourself (and your business) to the staying power & the potential of social media. Solidify social media's importance for your business by establishing a complete (written) social media marketing plan. It doesn't have to be complicated, but it has to be thorough. It also must be rigid enough to require time & financial resources, yet flexible enough to shift quarterly, monthly, or even weekly.
• Give each social platform its own section of the plan. You shouldn't assign one goal to all of your social media platforms. Of course your goal is to make more money for your business, but the platform goals must be much more specific than that to measure & achieve success. Remember to make SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, & Time-Bound) goals. A few examples of loose (not SMART) goals: If your business's Facebook audience is mainly made up of employees, make that your platform to connect team-building efforts, boost communication inside your brand, & strengthen your employees' commitments to your business. If you find yourself with an audience of partners on Twitter, make sure you speak to topics they would find relevant & attractive to the continuation & strengthening of the partnership, such as new services, expanded capabilities, or industry awards.
• Put the right people on the right tasks. Age doesn't qualify or disqualify someone to be a social media expert. Likewise, social media enthusiasts are not always the best fit. You need a person or team who has experience in marketing, knows how to build relationships, can communicate effectively, is able to write well, loves change, and takes pride on staying up-to-date with social media news (daily basis). That may sound like the description of a social media unicorn, but the right person or team is worth the search effort.
• Don't let 2014 define 2015. Good or bad, the things that happened (or didn't) for your business in 2014 on social media will not guarantee success or failure in 2015. Social media is an ever-moving target, which means there is always time to (and the need to) improve your efforts. Facebook is a perfect example. Thanks to the "FacebookFlux", no one is safe with their plans from 2014. Shareholder pressure has forced Facebook to go against its founding principles (write good content = get likes = be social) to be stock-market friendly (write good content = get a few eyes = boost posts = get more likes = advertise page = be social for at least a week).
• Never lose sight of the true purpose of social media for business. You don't have to forget about social ROI, but you do need to change how you place importance on it. It's ALL about building relationships with your community. You are branding your company. There is also some advertising involved, of course. But, mainly, you are shouting (from every possible rooftop) who you are, and then you are listening (in every place your community goes) to what people say back to you. If you share, listen, & act you will find yourself ahead of your competition. You are harnessing the power of online word-of-mouth marketing.

Social media can certainly be intimidating, thanks to its size, numerous platforms, continuous changes, and requirement for your business to be vulnerable. All of those things also make it extremely exciting.

So, here it is. Your 2015 social media resolution: Do It Better.

Educating yourself is already a step in the right direction, and we can call that a resolute success.