Many great brands and even small businesses have been experiencing a lot of success with Social Media over the last couple years. Businesses in North American and Europe have all taken to Social Media to amplify their brands’ presence. These companies have all been experiencing different levels of success with Social Media. There are even ordinary people who have been able to build a brand for themselves and a community around themselves using Social Media. Caribbean Brands have been using social media for the same purposes as well, however there are many brands in the Caribbean that are still resistant to change and resistant to the idea that social media can be the vehicle to take their business to the next level.

Why Caribbean Brands Need Social Media
There are many reasons why Caribbean Brands should be using Social Media, some of these includes;
1. Increase Exposure – Businesses, especially small businesses can get more exposure on social media for little or no cost to them. People spend one hour on average on Facebook alone, and more time on other platforms. You need to be where your audience is.
2. Grow your business – There are three ways to grow a business, you can increase the amount of clients, increase the average amount of transaction per client or increase the average transaction value per client. Social Media is ideal for this because you can achieve all three business growth strategies there.
3. Connect with your clients on a personal level – Social Media allow you to connect one on one with your clients, you can speak to them and they will respond. Also social media allows you to offer customer service to your clients, it’s always amazing when I have a problem with a company and I can tweet them and someone from their customer service team reaches out to me.

How to Implement Social Media in your Business
Implementing Social Media in your business as part of your marketing strategies or business growth strategies is easier that most people would think
1. Conduct A Social Media Audit – The first thing that a business need to do is conduct a Social Media Audit
• Find all your Social Media Profiles and document them, ensure you know
-Why you’re using this profile
-Why you want to use it
-Your main goals for using it

-Whether your Target market is using it

• Check the details of all profiles and fine-tune them, ensure consistency across all platforms with the message being sent and images

2. Create a Social Media Policy – A policy will mandate how Social Media will be used in the business. What will be your voice on Social Media, who is allowed to post on behalf of the company, how the company will respond to critics, what type of contents will be posted. Also what employees should be allowed to post since they are a reflection of the brand even on their personal profiles

3. Objectives – You need to decide what your objective is for using Social Media, whether it is brand awareness, brand engagement, to sell a product, launch products among others. Objectives must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely (SMART).

4. Create a Social Media Strategy– Your Social Media strategy should include the following:
• Tools that will be used to manage your social media
• How you will be using Earned, Owned and Paid Media
• Your Content Calendar
• Your Editorial Calendar
• Your Tactical Plan

5. Create a content plan– Many businesses today are having tremendous success from operating like a media company. Creating and curating valuable, informative and entertaining content for your community is a sure way to gain credibility with them. Share useful information with your community and build your influence among them.

These are some quick steps to implement social media in your business as a Caribbean Brand, every Caribbean Business, large or small should be taking advantages of Social Media to help them grow their business. In many cases if they are unable to implement it themselves, they can seek out the services of a Social Media Consultant and amplify their brand presence online. Some Caribbean brands are doing a good job of this right now while there are other up and coming Brands using social media to build their brand online such as Greenz Elite which is a Grenadian reality game show where five contestants go through elimination challenges to come up with a winner. They began with a promotional campaign by spray painting their logo and the words “The revolution will be televised” on abandoned buildings along a main travel area to intrigue potential audiences earning a spot on their local news. Using this as a springboard they opened their Facebook page, (facebook.com/greenzelite), twitter and Instagram. The social media is being used to share production updates, create hype and connect with their audience while “feeling” out the reception of the concept’s pilot from pre-production and its evolving direction during production.