A Guide to Ramping Up Your Business Pages on Social Media
“My business has been running fine for years without social media!”
“I don’t have enough time to post consistently.”
Common misunderstandings about Social Media prevent businesses from entering the Social Media world and tapping into a market of over 3 billion users!
With each person spending over 2 hours per day on social media, there is a huge platform for businesses to reach customers.
Why Your Business Must Be On Social Media
It all starts with creating a profile, but the social media experience is far more for businesses.
Social media is a platform for connecting with your audience and provides an outlet for a free form of advertising.
Social media is also an important tool to help with developing a brand identity, reaching new target audiences, and receiving feedback from your target audience.
With over 3.1 billion social media users worldwide and internet users making up 53% of the population, there is a massive audience for businesses to interact with.
There are many different mediums for businesses to use, which at first can be intimidating for those who are unfamiliar with each.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and other social media sites each serve different purposes.
A good way to figure out which is best for a business is to try them all out at separate times.
Dedicate a specified amount of time to understanding how to post, what content your audience wants to see, and which platform your audience responds to.
If there is another company in your industry that does well on social media, look at how they are engaging their following and understand how your business can find success.
Create A Profile
The very first step is to just do it!
If your business has no profile on social media, it’s time to create some profiles.
Your customers are looking up your company on Google and other search engines before they purchase or do business with you.
Show them why they should choose your business with a great profile picture, a complete profile and updated contact information.
As a business, a logo is a great picture to use for a profile. Make sure it is easy to see and not cropped at all as seen on this Twitter profile.
On most platforms there is also a section to fill out about your company details.
This section is usually limited to a specific amount of characters so be short and direct about your services and provide a way for customers to reach you.
Include contact information and links to a website, podcast, alternate social media profile, landing page: wherever you would like to direct traffic.
Here’s an example of an Instagram profile that has a link to a subscription as well as a hashtag to use for featured content.
Once you have created a profile, post some content!
Depending on the platform, use a great video, post or picture to let your customers know you are now active!
Identify your Buyer and target Audience
Each social media platform serves a difference purpose.
For example, LinkedIn’s main focus is on building a professional community and encouraging networking.
It is important to identify what you want your company to share with your audience.
Your target audience may be on different social media platforms or one only one.
Research where the target audience is most active and see what other companies are doing well.
Decide messaging for your profile
Consistent messaging on social media is important.
Some companies decide that taking a professional approach is the most engaging method for their clients.
Other companies take a more creative approach and use comedy or witty methods to get engaging results from their audience.
Wendy’s Twitter account has a ton of personality and even challenges their competitors like this post about Burger King, in their marketing efforts.
Research your competition
Find out what other competitors in your space are doing.
Using Google search and tools sites like BuzzSumo to conduct research on the top searched companies will allow the ability to see what competition is doing on social media.
A few questions to consider about the social media marketing for their business :
- Are they providing content that gets people to respond?
- What markets are they targeting and is what they are doing effective?
- How can you improve on their content efforts?
Find other companies
Look for other companies – outside of your industry, in other locations, different size – and see how they are telling their story.
Inspiration for ideas can come from anywhere and reviewing other companies that share a similar vision is a good way to start.
Other companies may interact with customers in a way that you never thought of.
Have a few posts ready
Take advantage of scheduling resources included with some of the social media platforms.
For example, Facebook has built in scheduling capabilities.
This will save you from dead time if you have a consistent log of posts ready.
Sharing a variety of posts – information, photos, specials, customer stories, blog posts, event information – will allow you to have a supply of content that your audience will appreciate.
Use Analytics to Strategize
Wondering how to get more likes, views, shares, or comments?
Take a look at analytics for your business accounts.
The analytics will allow you to take a deeper dive into each post and see how to adjust.
If you have one post that is killing it, it’s time to make more posts similar to that.
If one photo got a ton of people to comment, try to find more posts similar.
Find the sources of engagement and with social media advertisements, find what customers are clicking to replicate and improve the process with future posts.
Conclusion
Social Media may not seem important to you business but in today’s quickly changing online landscape, it is more important than ever to build a presence.
As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago and the second best time is now!
It is not too late to get started and your customers are waiting to hear, see, and watch your company’s journey.
Is your business ready to dive deeper into social media? Leave a comment below!
Written by Emerge Marketing Strategies. For questions about Social Media or any digital marketing needs, please visit emergemktg.com or email: [email protected] for more information.
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