5 Questions You Must Consider Before Launching Your Business Online

If you ask any business owner the question, "why do you think your business should be using Social Media and they respond, "because everyone else is!" That usually a bad sign.

Yes using social media can have many benefits and does seem to be the "in thing" but before you take the plunge, or if you've already dived in and you're wondering did I make the right decision, or am I just wasting my time with all this?

If your efforts seem greater than your rewards, maybe you didn't spare a moment to answers these five important questions.

Where are my customers?

With so many platforms to choose from, how do you know which is best for your specific type of business? You may have been tempted to jump on to the most popular, but that may not be the best place to effectively showcase what your business has to offer and if your customers are not there; then why are you?

For example, in Trinidad and worldwide, Facebook is the most poplar Social Media Platform and it can certainly be the best place to be if you offer Business to Consumer services (B2C).

However if your business is predominately, Business to Business (B2B) then Linkedin may be the better bet. So you see, it's crucial that you understand your customer dynamic and where they 'hang out' before you dive in.

What are your goals?

Many people jump on to Social Media platforms without a set of clearly defined goals. What are you hoping to accomplish online?

Are you hoping to increase brand awareness, engage and reach your customers or are you launching a new product?

This is the why you're here, question and the first one you should answer before jumping in.

Do you have a budget?

Social Media advertising is no longer free and has not been free for a long time. Yes you can setup your pages for free, however to really target and reach the people you want to reach, you'll have to spend.

So what's your monthly budget? Are you going to do it yourself, or hire a consultant? How much are you willing to spend on advertising? This is another one of the questions you need to ask yourself before, you launch!

What will you share?

Content is King! Many people get online, without realizing that they'll need to be in constant contact with their customers and while sharing information on your business and products is all good, you'll find that this soon start to bore your followers

You must remember that most people are not on social media to buy but firstly to socialize; to be entertained so you must find and share content that keeps them engaged and interested in you and your brand.

With Facebook for example, cutting back on the number of promotional post that your fans see, you now need to share content that is creative, fun and engaging.

Your content should encourage your fans to participate, share and most importantly join your email list but if your are constantly taking about sales and product details, your communication will quickly lose it's appeal and if you have nothing to say, you'll soon have no one to say it too.

How will you measure your success?

Like the title suggest, how do you plan to measure whether your efforts on social media are working or not?

How do you know whether you are reaching your fans or increasing your fan base at an acceptable rate? There are many tools available for measuring the items noted as well as measuring if your post are converting fans into paying customers.

One of my favorite bloggers, I call him the tool master, Ian Cleary over at Razor Social shares some really great ones in this article 7 Multi-Platform Social Media Analytic Tools so be sure to check this out as he goes into great detail to explain how you can use each one to your advantage.

The questions above are crucial to your success on Social media and you should not set foot on any platform until you have the answers to each. Hopefully I've given you some clarity on where to begin. Good luck on your journey and see you at the top!

Article originally published at www.kleonmm.com