Social Media continues to be a regular activity in many households and offices.
For this reason, companies have to maintain their presence on a multitude of different platforms.
“Fueled by intense competition between networks to capture advertising dollars, social media tools and tactics will continue to evolve at a breakneck pace in the year ahead.”
-Ryan Holmes, Contributor to Forbes “2018’s Biggest Social Media Trends For Business”
A few tips to start your Social Media presence:
Know Your Audience
If your company has one primary audience for its service then this is a pretty simple step. Your audience will remain the same across all of the platforms. However, if you offer products or services to both industry professionals and general consumers, that’s a different story. In this case, you want to be sure you know who you are talking to on each social media platform. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are geared toward individuals or general consumers. The reason being, they offer them other options like sharing their personal photos, stories and connecting socially with family/friends. Websites like LinkedIn are specifically geared toward social interaction between professionals. (We have a great article to expand on the importance of knowing your audience in general Here!)
Spread The Content
Once you have established your audience, it will dictate which social media platforms you want your company to participate within. A presence on two or three social media platforms is ideal.
Clean Content
It’s important to be sure you are presenting your customers on social media clean and clear content. Filter all of your posts and “shares” through the lens of how it interacts or is associated with your company and its vision. Avoid posting, sharing or commenting on topics that are personal or unrelated to your business. You also want to be certain any links or outside websites you reference are accurate and efficient.
Branding
Here’s something I often see. A company has several social media platforms in addition to their website, and then they get a new logo or change their sales slogan but don’t update all of the different pages. This is a super important detail that truly needs to be top priority. It’s so important that your company is represented accurately and consistently across all of the different avenues a customer might find you.
Your Company Website
Since most of your posting will direct customers to your website you want to be sure your primary space represents you, your company and its service/products as well as possible. This means, accurate and up-to-date information, clear and easy contact information, recent and relevant content that supports the professional you want.
Know The Language
Before you start posting on social media, you want to be sure you are familiar with the expected language and communication on each one.
Start by doing a little research on a personal account.
This way you can shop some of your favorite companies and services or even your own competition first. Additionally, pay attention to which platforms are made for photos specifically and which are more geared towards text. For instance, Instagram and Pinterest are specifically designed for high quality images to be shared. So be sure you are only posting images that match this standard. Facebook and Twitter tend to have text and video links consumed and shared.
Social Media Management/Follow-Through
Keep every page updated. This is important, but there are other elements of management too. You also need to manage responses, comments and lead generation. A note sent via Facebook messaging or a direct message on Twitter is still a lead. Theses forms of contact should be treated and responded to like every other lead.
(Pro Tip: There are quite a few social media management websites that will combine all of the platforms on one dashboard to assist with this step. My favorite is: Hootsuite.)
Hopefully, this breakdown of the basics gives you a great place to start your endeavor into social media marketing.
Look for MHVillage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn!
