Crafting A Social Media Business Roadmap

Post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess

I know. I know. You’re probably tired of hearing me harp on and on about having a business plan. However… for any of you who are attending the BlogPaws 2015 Conference you will find it helpful to have a social media business plan in place before the conference. Why? Because it will help you with crafting the messages you want to send while you’re there (when you Tweet, FB or blog about the conference use the hashtag #BlogPaws… and we encourage you to share often about what’s going on at the conference and while you’re in sessions — don’t forget to tag the speaker you’re listening to as well!)

Another reason to have a social media and blogging plan in place is to help guide you toward your goals. Remember, the more specific they are, the easier they will be to track and monitor.

What should go into your social media business roadmap aka plan? Here are a few items to consider:

• Where are you today? Start a spreadsheet or write in a notebook your starting numbers. These should include Facebook and Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, blog page views, the number of blog comments you receive on a weekly or monthly basis, Instagram and Pinterest followers and other metrics you find valuable to you.  One way to see how relevant you are is to go to Google.com and type in your website name “blogpaws.com” (for example), hit the search button and you will see how many times Google has indexed it. This may be a good starting point for how often you’re being searched. Write it down.
• Want a free “check up” of your website? Go to WooRank, type in your web address and peruse the results.
• Make sure you understand who your audience is. Do you truly understand why people are following or liking your posts? If not, you’re just flying blind. A business plan with a mission and vision statement can help you focus in on who your clients/readers truly are. Gear your social media messages toward your ideal client — that is good common sense.
• Decide which social media platforms make sense for you to put your efforts into. If your business is not graphic-centric, Pinterest or Instagram may not be your ideal platform. If your clientele are more business-focused than interested in where you took your pet for a walk today, you may want to target LinkedIn. If you know that your audience is involved and active on Twitter or Facebook, that is where you should be. I am not saying you shouldn’t interact on the other sites, but if you have limited amounts of time for social media, you need to use it wisely and target those platforms where your clients gather.
• Brainstorm ways in which you could become a trusted and valuable resource to your followers and fans. If you become the go-to person for, say raw feeding or clicker training or dog grooming, your followers will tell their friends about you and your legend will grow!
• Stick to a schedule. If you’re determined to be on social media daily, then do it and stick with it. If you are going to blog three times a week, set the schedule and let your readers know when new material will be live — keep up a steady diet of your posts to keep your readers interested and engaged.
• Hone your offline networking skills. This is something you need to do — and put into your social media networking roadmap — because truthfully you need to do face-fo-face networking on occasion. I know, I can hear you groaning and saying that you’re an introvert and you like to stay in your home and toil away. If you’re a newbie and you’re attending the BlogPaws Conference for the first time, you need to make the effort to shake hands, interject yourself into conversations, join fellow bloggers at the Newbie tables and in the BlogPaws Community and make some friends before you even set foot in the conference halls! You will also want to
  interact with the brands because they are as interested in getting to know you are you are to get to know them!

Just because we are hoping you’re going to be tweeting and sending updates to your social media pages while you’re at the conference doesn’t mean we don’t want to shake your hand, have a conversation and get to know you! After all, BlogPaws is all about pets and the people who love them and we want to get to know you!

Get your starting numbers in place and then measure them against those you research after the conference. We’d love to know your results!

Also, I’d love to meet you at the conference so please make it a point to seek me out and say hi!

(Photo Shutterstock: Road map)