Social Media Tools and How to Use Them
In my previous blog we looked at how to approach the use of social media as a marketing tool, aligned with business goals. It?s really important to ensure you identify what you are aiming to achieve from the activity, before you put your plan into action.
Once you?ve identified your goals, you can consider which social media options are going to work most effectively for you. Below is an overview of some of the tools that are currently used widely in the business community.
Social Media Tools use to Fit Goals
| Tool | Purpose and Strategy | Outcomes |
| Outlook | Contact data capture – add to LinkedIn contacts | Retain awareness within community, increase potential for future proposals |
| Newsletter | Thought leadership, advice and expertise | Website hits. Grow database – widen reach via other social media tools |
| Engagement, networking, build community, recommendations, | Become ?active? – increase visibility | |
| Brand building, sharing links (newsletters), news headlines, engagement, competitor insight, drive website traffic, relationship building, | Widen reach to contacts not yet connected with – potential new customers. Remain visible to existing customer base
Increase website hits |
|
| YouTube videos | Brand awareness, thought leadership, credibility, engagement | SEO (via keyword tags), website hits, awareness |
| Share visual informationAccess another platform to engage with existing and potential customers. | Extend your brand and grow links – great for SEO.Extend your reach – uses can re-pin your product images and information if they like it, to their network of contacts. | |
| Google Alerts | Be visibly current – feed Twitter and LinkedIn updates to engage, respond to current affairs and pose relevant questions | Respond to latest news via Twitter with statements, advice and questions to engage. |
Don?t think you have to use all the options available, pick and choose the ones that best fit your offering and your objectives.
At Appletree we use a variety of combinations for different clients, always with the overall objective of delivering an integrated campaign.
