Social media reaches out to most of us at some point, and with its growing prevalence in today’s marketplace you really could be missing a trick if you fail to effectively harness its power for your business. It should be part of your digital marketing strategy, particularly as it can be free to use. The challenge can be in working out how to use social media for your business, which is where we come in today as we share a few tips.
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Amongst other things that people will expect to find when they visit your website, they will look for your social media links there. These should be easy to spot, either in your sidebar or footer and link out directly to your social media sites. People expect companies to have a social media presence these days and they will often seek to engage with you there.
Selecting your social media platforms
Whilst we advocate using social media for your business, we would not suggest that you attempt to run dozens of accounts. It is better to be present, engaged and successful on one platform than to be inconsistent and absent from several.
It is worth choosing just one or two platforms initially and mastering those. Grow your audience there and learn how to use them, along with understanding how much time they take you to run them.
In order to decide which platforms to start with, it can be worth asking your initial customers what they use and also seeing where others in your industry are most active.
Name and branding
The first thing you will need to do is set up accounts with the social media platforms that you wish to use. Where possible you will want your social media handle to be the same as your business name, or a recognisable abbreviated version. This will make it easy for people to find you there if they choose to search for you.
You will then want to ensure that your accounts are clearly identifiable as affiliated with your business by using your branding. The logos and images will all need to be different sizes for different platforms, so check out the sizing needed and then upload and fit them all to the screen.
Complete your bio for each platform, and again aim for consistency here. You are now all set.
Content sharing
You will now want to start sharing content on your sites. This can be anything from chatting, showcasing your products and services, running competitions and sharing other people’s related content. It is worth playing around with a mixture of these things initially to see what works best for your business and gains you the most engagement.
You might want to use a Facebook advertising agency for small business promotion as they will specialise in this area for you. Facebook can be a challenging platform to grow and yet for the majority of businesses it can be invaluable.
If you select Instagram, take advantage of their Stories option to give regular daily updates on your business. If you opt for Twitter, you will need to chat there regularly and interact with your customers.
