Defining Your Small Business Social Media Goals

Does not have to be difficult!

Before the end of today, ask yourself a few simple questions:

• Where do my customers come from?
• What search terms are my customers using?
• Where do they hang out online?
• How can I provide value to their online communities?
• What is the best method for engaging with my customers online (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc)?

That’s it.

Next, you need to create a plan of action and stick with it consistently. Not for a week, or a month, but more like six months to a year. Your social media plan can be as complex as you like. Or, it can be as simple as mine, which is used as an example below:

Monday – draft and publish a helpful article to your small business blog. (Remember, fresh content keeps you on the front page of Google.)

Tuesday – upload three to five photos to FLICKR. Make sure they are well tagged and have a complete description.

Wednesday – shoot one to two minutes worth of video (I use an iPhone) and upload it YouTube. Again, if you do not properly describe and tag your video you will be losing out on the primary search engine visibility benefits.

Thursday – catch up on social media blogs to stay current. If you need suggestions see this post, or go straight to ProBlogger, Chris Brogan, CopyBlogger, or Duct Tape Marketing.

Friday – check customer review sites to see if you have any reviews. Respond professionally to anything negative and send a personal *thank you* to any customers that have posted a positive missive.

Note, on a daily basis you should be doing a quick visit to relevant forums, scanning Twitter and checking your custom Twitter searches, and interacting on Facebook.

If you have any questions or need further clarification on how any of the above is done, please let me know in the comments. Also, would love to see your social media goals and plan below.