On the surface, social media appears simple. As an individual, connecting with family, friends, and colleagues online is relatively straightforward and requires very little forethought in terms of content generation or profile building. Yet when examined from a business perspective, social media’s simplicity can be deceiving.

Nearly anyone can create an online profile, throw up a few photos, and fill out the informational questionnaire to complete an “About Us” page on any one of the major social media sites that currently exist, but that doesn’t mean it will be effective. Thanks to a multitude of promotional and performance management tools that are now available, the process of creating an effective online social presence has become increasingly more complex. With this complexity comes the ability to promote brands and products, target specific users based on a variety of demographics, and monitor traffic and total reach of your content with just a few clicks of a mouse.

The Power of Social Media for Business

Social media has become a powerful marketing tool, and harnessing that power may seem daunting. OffWhite works with clients to develop effective social media marketing strategies and manage their tactical implementation across a variety of venues. Our approach involves a number of steps and in-depth market research, yet follows the general outline below:

1. Set Goals: Before a company page or profile is even created, it is important to set specific goals on what you want your social media presence to accomplish for your organization. Do you want to perpetuate your brand? Be viewed as a subject matter expert? Connect with customers? Capture leads?
2. Create a Strategy: Once your goals are set, OffWhite helps you devise a strategy to achieve those goals. We research your competitors, available social media avenues and industry best practices. We then develop a systematic plan that allows you to grow your social presence over time and capture measurable results incrementally. This process includes creating a posting schedule, developing a master content document, assigning responsibilities and reviewing your message to ensure all content is managed appropriately across mediums.
3. Setup Profiles and Monitoring: Depending on your goals and strategy, our team works with you to focus on the social media venues that are most appropriate for your industry. We can then assist in developing profiles, populating content, uploading photos, and integrating the monitoring tools that will be used to measure the results of your campaigns.
4. Education: A major factor in the effectiveness of your social media campaign is education for you and your employees. The OffWhite team will train you and your staff on managing social media, best practices as individuals, and how best to capitalize on resulting “buzz” from your posts. We can also help in managing all of these areas to ensure proper implementation and support.
5. Measuring Results: As your social media program evolves, it is important to accurately measure results based on the goals originally set in the strategy document. A variety of powerful tracking tools are now available to help monitor clicks, shares, followers, reach, and even “clout” of your posts. Utilizing these tools and understanding the data they provide is critical to the success of any social media program. This data allows adjustments to messaging, timing, content, and targeted audience to be made in real time, ensuring a nimble, but disciplined social media campaign is maintained.

OffWhite manages social media with the same systematic, integrated approach that we use for print and online media, delivering proven results over time.

To learn more, contact Jane Cirigliano at 800.606.1610.