Using social media enhances your relationship with clients, partners, and future prospects. It allows you to build a following, as well as to share your company’s message. However, social media can be tricky because it’s fast-paced and always changing.
Trying to stay current and engaged can be a daunting task so we’ve put together some tips to help you successfully craft your online presence.
Engage
It’s important to be social while online. As you would acknowledge a person attempting to connect with you in person, social media is the same. You have to communicate and speak to—not at—your followers so you can better connect with them. Your online activity shouldn’t just be promoting your own business; it should include a conversation with your followers—such as posting a picture with a question. Engagement is key!
Offer Value
Mahfuz Chowdhury, Account Manager at digital marketing agency Candybox Marketing, emphasizes the importance of offering value to your followers. “If 80% of your social media posts are not focused on providing value to your customers, they will pay attention to the competitor that is doing it right.” Before posting, ask yourself if what you’re putting out there will offer something new or interesting to your audience. Your followers will feel more inclined to like, retweet and share your content if your content is valuable to them. Don’t just post for the sake of posting.
Share
You don’t have to rely solely on your own content —consider finding other accounts in your industry that you can share content from. Employee or partner accounts allow your audience to stay informed about any possible product or coverage changes. Sharing content from other accounts will not only give your audience a variety of information, it also builds your own expertise in the industry and creates a network of contacts with trusted content.
Focus
Since there are many different social media outlets that you can use to connect with your audience, sometimes it can be hard to schedule posts for all of them or to even plan your posts in advance. Social media managers such as Hootsuite or Buffer offer paid and free options with functionality to manage your accounts from apps and desktop sites, allowing you to manage content and connect with your audience at all times.
That being said, just because you can be on every platform does not mean you should! Pick and choose the social media platform(s) that makes the most sense for your business and target demographic.
“It is better to be valuable in one social media platform than being mediocre in all of them. Earning your audience’s trust is the best ROI.” says Chowdhury.
Grow engagement and following over one or two platforms to create an authentic, curated conversation with your followers.
Take the Next Step
If you plan on managing your content in-house or even personally, consider looking into local workshops for crash courses that can extend your social skills. Digital agencies such as the aforementioned Candybox Marketing or BrainStation offer workshops that are perfect for small businesses looking to expand their footprint in the world of social media. You may also want to consider an online option such as SkillShare or LinkedIn if you want to learn at your own pace.
