Questions to ask (and answer) before your small business jumps onto Twitter or Facebook
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 01:31PM Getting started with Social Media is so easy, you may be tempted to fire and then aim. This is a BAD IDEA. Here are some questions I've developed to help businesses think through their goals and target audience prior to jumping onto Twitter or Facebook.
#1 What would you like to achieve with your Social Media program? (choose top 5 and rank in order of importance):
- Building and promoting brand
- Increasing customer engagement
- Improving collaboration and communication
- Promoting thought leadership
- Networking
- Marketing/Sales campaigns
- Generate revenues
- Customer service/support
- Help with product development/market feedback
- Recruit and retain talent
- Generate ideas/innovation
#2 Community engagement: Choose the top 3 and rank importance for how you would like to engage with your community:
- Corporate Voice ( speak to your market)
- User-generated content (create excitement)
- Enthusiasts (stimulate a passion around a topic, activity, or hobby)
- Associates/subscribers (engage with members)
- Loyalty (build and reward loyalty among most loyal customers)
- Peer Support (help each other)
- Events (build and sustain buzz around specific events)
- Innovate (generate ideas)
#3 List top 10 keywords/phrases that your audience would be interested in
#4 Who are the top 5 thought leaders and influencers your audience respects?
#5 What web sites, magazines, and blogs does your audience interact with?
Thinking about and answering these questions will give you a solid footing on which to build a social media strategy for your business.

