So, you know what’s interesting.  When I ask most people what their strategy is for social media they look at me like I am crazy – or they are crazy.  “Well” they say “ I want more customers”.   That’s a desired outcome, not a strategy.

There are several parts to developing a strategy for social media and it starts with knowing who you are as a business and who your customers / potential customers are.  And – yes – I will give you that one – knowing what your desired outcome is.  The more specific you can be about all of those things the better your social media strategy can be.  And – like any strategy for your business – it needs to reflect your business goals, your personality as a business and it needs to understand and speak to your customers.

The first step – is understanding your own business.  If I ask most people to sum up in a couple of sentences what their business is all about (not what it does), but why it exists and where it is going – most people can’t do that.  But you see if you can’t do that – how can you ever hope to develop a social media strategy OR a recruitment strategy (2 businesses I know something about).

The next step is understanding who your ideal client is.

For me – my audience is owner managed businesses with up to maybe 30 staff.   This is a business where the owner is a solopreneur or has a small team working for them, but they are not large enough to have a strategic HR/Recruitment Director, or their own Marketing Department.  They are aged between 35 and 60, family is important to them, as is offering a quality product or service to their customers.  They like people and are great networkers (that is probably where you and I met). They care about people, family, the environment and self development, and they like to collaborate.

Now – will every single person reading my blogs/tweets/LinkedIn posts etc be the above spec?   No.  But most will and the important thing is when I am creating content, I am doing it with my ideal client in mind.  Because if you are not talking their language then you are wasting your time.

So – your ‘homework’  is to think about why you created your business – what problem were you trying to solve and what is the end goal.  And then – if you don’t already have it – create the picture of your ideal customer and write down as much as you can about them – the more detail the better.  And if you don’t know all this stuff about your customers – give them a ring and have a chat, or go have a coffee.

Because – the better you understand your customers and their needs, their fears, their values, their goals – the better you can tailor your service, your communications and your business – to meet their needs.   Only then can you start to develop a meaningful recruitment or social media strategy.

In the next blog we will look at developing your social media goals.