A Social Media Strategy That Works!

Last week, The Candidate attended a social media strategy event hosted by Prohibition PR at the Novotel Hotel in Manchester. Chris Norton, the founder of Prohibition PR, gave an insightful talk on how various types of businesses could optimise their social media strategy when striving to meet their company goals! For those who unfortunately couldn't make the event, we now share the highlights.

Prohibition PR is an award winning agency, based in Leeds, which specialises in delivering ground breaking public relations, and social media strategies to high profile clients such as Goldsmith, Interflora, Meadowhall and many more!

The first point on the agenda was to discuss the importance of having a social media strategy. There are many risks of not having one, like failing to engage with your desired audience, wasting your budget and exposing your brand to negativity; all of these could be detrimental to your business. One idea that was highlighted to us was that social media content should be directed specifically to your target audience rather than using it to broadcast a message to a large number of people; you'll drive your ROI more by doing it this way!

"What's the use of running if you're not on the right road" - German Proverb

Be where your customers are! Chris started out with the above quotation, where he emphasised the importance of creating a great strategy by defining your goal, before defining your objectives and target audience. You'll then need to decide on which platforms will benefit your company the most whilst planning your engagement strategy. Once you're at this stage, you should develop your content strategy; ensure that you establish your talented team and your tool box before you can continue on the road to success!

Think telephone vs. megaphone! Social media is about listening and interacting vs. shouting! Find out what your audience is talking about and what they want to read. Self-focused content is not going to work if you need to interact with your audience and let them engage with your brand. By this you must research your market, gain valuable insights that set you apart, know the most relevant content of your audience, and, most importantly, spot the gaps in the market! Your competitors may already be talking the language of your audience, so you need to know how you can be different!

Are you on the right platform? 

Image used in the presentation

It is essential to match your customer demographic to the right platforms. Depending on your audience, find out what platform your audience is on and target them at the right time! Once you have chosen the right platform, then define your personas to identify the personality traits of your audience, which network they use, and much time they spend on there!

What is your brand voice? It all depends on your audience and channel! Brands can be lively, positive, fun or professional. Chris pointed out The Three C's of brand voice:

1. Culture- what does your brand stand for?
2. Community- Listening can identify how your community speaks and how you should speak to them
3. Conversation- What do you want to add to the conversation?

When should you post? Each platform is very different for this stage. If Twitter is your main platform, then they say the lifecycle of a Tweet is only 18 minutes long and then it goes off and for Facebook it is 90 minutes. Here are a few guidelines:

Facebook:5-10 posts a week. Twitter: 5-30 a day. Stay to weekdays if you're on the B2B market, as weekdays provide more than 14% more engagement than weekend. LinkedIn: 20 posts a month (1 every weekday). Most people do not check LinkedIn during the weekend, so don't waste time posting during these days.

Social Media only works with a large audience, however, it is excellent for acquiring new customers, introducing them to your brand and enhancing the relationship with your clients. Although it is essential to understand why your customers use social media, and which platforms.

Stay updated on more events from Prohibition PR on Eventbrite or their website.