This feature will provide insights into the how’s whys and wherefores of developing a social media strategy that gets you connected to your customers and increases brand value.

Whether your organisation is looking at diving into social media for the first time, or is ready to expand its social media efforts, you might well be wondering: Is this something we should do ourselves, or should we hire experts to do it for us?

Social media can transform business, from engaging with customers to proving on point advertising targeted at specific demographics. The rapid expansion of social media beginning with individual users and expanding into business has become a major resource. From reaching out to individual customers and presenting a company image to delivering focused advertising, the value of well-planned social media strategy has skyrocketed in recent years.

While social media is a relatively recent platform for business, for some companies social media strategies have remained static over multiple years. The nature of technology and social media services means that platform is rapidly developing and regular strategy updates are necessary if businesses are to take full advantage of its potential.

Using analytics within social media.

Global companies and big businesses used to dominate the use of social media, however it is now increasingly valued by SMEs. Virtue, which specialises in providing social management services to global brands, have seen growth of up to 400 percent year-on-year, helped by a increasing percentage of mid-sized companies.

Richard Beattie, VP of EMEA at Vitrue, identified Social Media Management Systems (SMMS) as being used by SMEs to a greater extent: “Traditionally, it has been the Fortune 1000 companies that have utilised SMMS platforms-recently we’ve seen the emergence of mid-sized companies embracing social more”.

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Social media strategies will vary greatly from business to business. Many companies do not have the resources and time to dedicate manpower towards the updating and interaction that the effective employment of social media requires. Social media requires constant interaction and can be time consuming for those companies that choose not to use out-of-house specialists.

Raman Sehgal, owner of PR firm Ramarketing, commented: “ The golden rule for social media is if you’re going to do it, do it properly. This does not mean start a Twitter account and update it every three months. And therein lies the main barrier to the in-house approach – time”.

Effective social media strategies should seamlessly co-exist with other marketing tactics. It should provide engagement with customers, while providing insight into competitors and engaging disaffected customers while increasing presence.

Businesses need to identify and examine their goals, many will not need to outsource social expertise and technologies. Companies that are expanding with growing customer bases are much more likely to use additional resources in order to deliver an effective social media strategy. Rapidly growing businesses are also more likely to look to outsourcing such strategies to specialised companies, in order to free up human resources.

Social media strategies need to be carried out with diligence, when employing an external business to carry out a social media campaign, a clear strategy needs to be in effect before effective outsourcing can occur. Not all businesses need to outsource their social media, however all business need to ensure a well-planned and consistently renewing strategy is in place. Social media is rapidly growing and transforming, business regardless of size need to constantly engage with the social media platform if they are to reap the potential benefits.