Having a plan lets you look at your social interaction comprehensively and see how it fits into other engagement and marketing goals. Plus, it makes it really easy when the social media handler gets sick and the box office has to use that Twitter thing until they’re back.
Ask YOUR audience.
Your people may favor a particular site or want something in particular. The only way to know this is to ask them.
Don’t neglect this step. Yes, I, social media guru and queen of all Instagram, have great ideas and can create fantastic content. But, really, it’s worthless if the audience doesn’t want it. Asking them makes the job easier and gives them a voice. They’ll be much more likely to pay attention (and to create a deeper relationship with you *cough*ticketsandmoney*cough*) if you’ve given them a small voice.
So, how to ask? Create a survey with a few questions.
- What social media platforms do you use?
- How do you currently interact with us online?
- What content would you like to see more of (i.e. pictures, concert links, program info)?
- What would you like more info about (i.e. volunteering, donating, history)?
- What can we do to bring more to you through social media?
[box type=”info” border=”full”]See the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera’s social media survey here: www.surveymonkey.com/s/5CXRNVN[/box]
A few tips:
- Since social media operates online, your survey should probably be online. (It’s also fairly cheap and low maintenance to do it here). But, paper surveys can be a great way to reach people who don’t know you’re online. Choose what’s best for your organization.
- Keep questions short.
- Keep the whole survey to about 6 questions. They should be able to complete it in about 2 minutes.
- Leave an “Other” field. People are brilliant, so let them share their genius with you. You’ll get some great ideas that you wouldn’t think of.
Once it’s created and proofed send it out using your current social media sites, email network, website, any way you can get it to people.
Give people a while to take it, but don’t let it be forever open. Ours was open for3 weeks.
Once you’ve closed it, go through and analyze it. What do people want? Where do they want it? Where are they?
