Social Media has become a part of everyday life, social media is not just being a place to socialize with your friends or followers, social media is now becoming one of the media to receive and get various information. In addition, social media is one of the most widely used media on the Internetwhere the average person spends 1 hour 40 minutes a day on social media or 28% of the total time spent on the Internet.
On the other hand, to be able to Market Products, build brand awareness, and maintain customer relationships or prospective customers on social media is not an easy task. No less time is needed to create a social media marketing strategy that suits a particular business and ensures its implementation running correctly. Therefore, not a few "Businesses use Social Media Consulting Services" in carrying out these tasks.
If you are great at using social media and building a large number of followers then you can try offering social media consulting services as a side business. But keep in mind, in the beginning it needed a track record and credibility to be able to charge a price for the social media consulting services that you provide. Therefore if you are not having experience in the field of social media marketing it's good you build your credibility first by helping one or two clients for free first.
Here Are Some "Business Strategies for Social Media Marketing Consulting" :
1. Experience
Combined with credibility, you need to show the experience that you have which equates to why you can make money off of others. If you don’t have any social media experience you can’t expect to get any business. Start with your own brand, and then lend a helping hand by offering pro bono work to others in your family and/or network that you can assist and build a track record from. There are also a lot of non-profit organizations who would appreciate your social media contributions.
2. Online Branding
Social media marketing is all about getting found online, so you obviously need to have proper online branding that permeates your own website as well as your social media properties so that there is a sense of trust in your company. If you recommend clients should be on Snapchat, yet you don’t have an account there yet, your online branding is incomplete!
3. Credibility
Without credibility, no one will hire you. How to establish credibility as a social media consultant is a whole separate conversation, but you need to think hard and imagine, if you were on the other side of the table, why they would trust you with their business. Assuming you don’t have any previous experience consulting with clients, a given here is that you have your own robust social media presence and at least can showcase your own online brand to gain some credibility with potential clients. Writing your own ebooks are another way of establishing credibility through showcasing your knowledge.
4. Make Connections, Both Online AND Offline
People buy from people they know as well as recommendations from trusted friends via word-of-mouth. While social media is relatively new, the same old rules of business apply. You need to work hard to engage with others on social media channels to build out the reach of your network, but don’t forget to take those relationships offline and expand upon them. Chances are your first deals are going to come locally, so I would concentrate on local networking before being too ambitious and thinking nationally or even globally.
5. Contribute Your Own Content
Anybody can go onto Twitter and ReTweet everyone else’s content. But what is your opinion on utilizing social media for business? If you aren’t contributing your own unique and insightful content, why would someone who finds you in social media want to visit your website and find out more about you? How would they be confident that you can apply your expertise to their particular situation? This content can be displayed as a blog post, an ebook, or a regular newsletter you send out to prospective clients.
6. Learn from Your Customer
Assuming that you have followed the above steps, you will undoubtedly meet someone who might be interested in your services. Well, what exactly are your services? It’s time not to spy on the sites of other social media strategy consultants for ideas, but to take a tally of what you have done pro bono for those in your network. It’s also time to learn from your customer and understand their pain and needs and provide solutions that solves their problems. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s time to pick up a copy of the classic book Solution Selling for an education that most sales professionals go through early in their career.
Hopefully by implementing the strategy above your Social Media Consulting Business can run successfully.
