Most small businesses start out on social media without a plan. A little experience can help you understand social media and help you to gain  a vision for how to use social media for your business.  At some point, your business needs to develop a social media plan, a systematic way to understand and use social media to grow your business.

• Before You Start: You are thinking about using social media for your business. Or, you have one or more social media accounts and you are ready to build your social media program.
• Learning level: 1 | Social Media Basics
• Article Last Updated:  Sunday, December 4, 2011

Recently, I was invited to conduct a live webinar for a small business professional organization. I took advantage of this opportunity to create something new. I wanted to create something more strategic, something that would help small business people understand and put together a social media program. The result is the webinar, How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Business: 5 Easy Steps to Build and Maintain Your Social Media Program.

Catch A Vision For Social Media First

When you start your social media program, it’s a good thing to observe first, and then jump in. Start small and build. Try things. See what happens. Look for smart examples to mimic. Try your own ideas. In other words, its about splashing around in the social media swimming pool to see what its all about.

But there comes a time when you are ready to get serious. You have an idea of what this social media thing is, and you see where you are starting to fit in. You also have a feel for how your customers are immediately engaging you, and how this new activity fits with your business culture.

Every business has a different experience on social media. That’s because your experience depends on many factors, and some of them are out of your control. Maybe your business has lots of young, social media savvy customers. Or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe you are eager to jump in and try new things. Or maybe you aren’t.

Putting Together A Social Media Program

When you reach the point where you have experimented and you are ready to get serious, there are some common guidelines about how to organize and focus your social media efforts. A solid social media program contains some standard components. Every business emphasizes the components differently. In the same way, every business might have the same general goal (to be successful) but goes about it through different strategies and has different ways to measure success.

So splash around in the social media pool. It’s a great learning experience. And when you are ready to set up a structure and a program, all of that experience will serve you well.

Your turn: When did you understand the pieces that make up your social media program? What experiences helped you understand the process?

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