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Your Social Media Presence: Which Platforms Are Right for You?
Your Social Media Presence: Which Platforms Are Right for You?
Social media done right can be an excellent asset to your business marketing efforts. But How can you choose the right social media platform(s) for your small business? Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter — the list goes on and on.
And once you’ve chosen your social media outlet(s), how can you ensure that your efforts, and perhaps your money, are being spent wisely? As it turns out, there is no magic wand. While it’s wise to stick with one or two platforms at first, as your business expands, your social media presence can (and likely should) expand to more specialized services.
Choosing the Right Platform(s)
A basic aspect of properly utilizing social media for your business is understanding how different social media platforms work. There are three basic categories that are generally recognized as social media platforms: microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr), video and photo sharing (Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo) and peer sharing (Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn). Facebook and Twitter are especially good starting points for small businesses, according to according to Brenda Harjala, Head of Community at Rabbit. Rabbit, a video sharing service, is based in Redwood City, California, but has many employees, like Harjala, working remotely.
“Most businesses would be hard-pressed to find a client not on either Facebook or Twitter already, or willing to like or follow their page. And with both platforms, an extra element of customer support is already included, without any additional tools. Both Facebook and Twitter come with built-in analytics and insights so you can see, at a glance, how your pages are doing. You can see your fans and followers, schedule posts, and see details about each post’s reach and interaction, without the need for additional management tools. With Facebook in particular, promoting a post is as simple as clicking an icon on it,” Harjala stated.
Mary Cochran, director of marketing for Sleep Easily, a medication-free sleep solution based in Boulder, Colorado, agreed that Facebook was a good social media starting point.
“For a small to medium sized business, if you can only do one thing I’d put the effort there. Facebook in the beginning will be based on friends and clients; you can build a great referral base. There are many easy to do promotions to promote the website, the company and posts which will help build your client base,” Cochran explained.
Administration of Social Media Accounts
Depending on the size of your business, you may or may not have a dedicated social media team or individual expert on staff. If you don’t, utilizing social media means becomes an additional task. As a business owner, you may decide to add social media to your own to-do list. But it can also be desirable to recruit one or more of your employees as well. However, the key is to persuade, not coerce participation, according to Harjala.
“Everyone isn’t cut out to be a brand advocate, or someone willing to actively share your business with their peers,” Harjala stated.
Harjala also emphasized that company social media accounts should be established by and remain the property of the company from the very beginning. Doing so minimizes the potential disruptive effect of departing employees.
“As a business owner, you should be the admin on your social media accounts, while your employees are managers or contributors. If someone departs, remove their account access. (There’s) no need to close the accounts entirely. If someone’s managing your social media but decides to move on, definitely retain the accounts. This way you can take them over, or easily hand them off to a new hire, and not need to start from scratch,” Harjala explained.
On the other hand, Individual employees using social media on their own time should do so with their personal accounts. These accounts must remain off-limits to company interference, according to Cochran.
The main account should be the company account so on Facebook, (that means) a Facebook page, on Twitter, the company Twitter handle. Individual accounts tend to go with the employee when they move on. Don’t try to hijack an employee’s Facebook page,” Cochran warned.
Proper Social Media Engagement
The best-imagined social media efforts inevitably fall flat without proper engagement. However, this varies from platform to platform, according to The Next Web. With Facebook and Instagram, posting once per day is plenty. Posting on LinkedIn just two to four times per week is fine. On the other hand, you should be prepared to post on Twitter and Pinterest multiple times per day. You or your designated social media point person must be willing to maintain the necessary posting frequency for your chosen platform, according to Cochran.
“Only be involved in whatever social you can handle and monitor. Don’t have a Facebook page if you don’t intend to use it,” Cochran insisted.
Indeed, effectively dealing with criticism and complaints is also a necessary aspect of social media engagement, according to Harjala.
“Responding quickly, and not leaving negative tweets or posts on your wall without a response, is the best way keep everything in check. If someone writes that your product doesn’t work, reply with assistance or contact info to work it out together. If a user leaves a bad review of service they received from your business, follow up with an apology and an offer to help make it right. If someone blasts your wall with spam, be there to clean it up right away. Instead of potential customers seeing only the negative, they’re seeing a company dedicated to good service,” Harjala explained.
Paid or Free?
One major advantage of social media platforms is that it’s possible to establish and maintain at least a basic profile for no cost. However, many social media platforms follow a “freemium” model that reserves certain features, such as sponsored posts and advertising, for paying customers. As a small business owner, you may wonder if it’s actually worthwhile to spend your hard-earned dollars on social media advertising or “soft” promotional strategies such as promoted posts. Once again, there is no hard and fast answer. While Cochran noted that sponsored posts can help your business gain visibility (and potential new customers and clients), Harjala recommended saving your money, at least at first.
“Unless you’re overflowing with real, supportive, active followers, stick to free social media for a while. This may seem counterintuitive; how do I get followers and more sales if no one sees my posts? The experience spent building a genuine audience, and learning from your audience, is worth more than a few extra views on your posts by people you don’t even know are interested. You’ll not only get a better feel for your niche, but you’ll get the chance to see what your fans respond to. And if you build your community right, in a way that’s valuable to your followers, “ Harjala explained.
13 ways your business can attract more social media followers
13 ways your business can attract more social media followers
Social media and marketing pros share their advice for how small businesses can get more followers and likes on Facebook, Twitter and their LinkedIn company pages.
Most businesses these days, especially retail and service businesses, have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn. But in order to attract prospective customers to your business page(s), you need to actively court and engage fellow Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn users. How? Here are 13 suggestions.
1. Leverage your company social media bio/profile. “Make sure that your company’s online profile [or bio] is [informative] and designed in a way that quickly shows users who you are and what your business is about,” says Bernard Perrine, cofounder & CEO, SocialCentiv, a Twitter marketing tool.
2. Do some research. “Keyword research will help you identify what your target audience is searching for,” says Ashley Orndorff, market research analyst & copywriter, Visual Impact Group. “Once you know what questions they have and the topics they find interesting, you’ll have a better idea of the types of content they’re likely to find valuable.
“Also check your competitors’ pages to see what types of content get the most engagement,” she suggests. “Are their followers engaging the most with an image with a quote, a funny joke, something about their office day-to-day, certain hashtags?” Figure out what’s working for others and try a similar strategy.
3. Don’t just talk about your business. Instead post content your followers will find interesting or helpful. “If all you do is post articles [about your business], people will lose interest,” says Patrick Gillooly, director of digital communication and social media at Monster. “Be a thought leader by sharing content from a wide variety of sources. That way, you create a compelling stream of information that a potential customer would have more interest following—and a lot of the people whose content you shared might start following you too.”
“Deliver content that is positioned in a way that you are solving a problem for the person vs. being overtly promotional,” says Katie Welch, digital marketing strategist at Flowroute, which provides calling and messaging for cloud-based companies.
4. Engage with followers – and respond quickly to questions. “Remember to keep on top of answering questions and responding to followers with thoughtful responses instead of generic answers,” says Alice Williams, communications specialist, Frontier Business Edge, which provides data, voice, video and equipment solutions to businesses.
Moreover, “if you offer up a custom response to someone who either has interacted with your business or has a need your business can fulfill (e.g., [someone] looking to book a flight [or a trip] if you’re a travel agent), you are very likely to gain a quick follower,” says Gillooly. “Do 5-10 of those interactions a day and your numbers will grow very quickly.”
“For example, if someone tweets, ‘I love the Dallas Cowboys!’ and you sell Cowboys fan gear in your shop, reply that he can shop with you,” and offer a discount or coupon code, says Perrine.
“Keep your finger on the pulse of industry-specific conversations and engage with thoughtful questions and helpful answers,” says Mostafa Razzak, principal, JMRConnect, a public relations & influencer communications company. “Do not patronize or waste people’s time by stating the obvious or making comments that show you haven’t paid attention to what they’ve written or the message they’re trying to convey.”
6. Interact with influencers in your industry. “Interaction with influencers that is not promotional or furthering your own agenda will earn you respect and, by extension, convince [them and their followers] that it’s worth their time to follow your company,” says Razzak.
7. Join groups – and group conversations. “Join groups that are in [your] industry and [post] and comment on posts,” says Mary Cochran, director of marketing, Sleep Easily. “Post articles your company is featured in,” and share articles written by or of interest to others in the group.
8. Give people an incentive to follow you, such as a discount code or free giveaway. “Provide compelling incentives that are available only via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn,” says Tim Lavelle, director of SEO & social media, U.S. Interactive Media. “Exclusive offers could include coupons, discounts, freebies, limited editions or other things of interest to your targeted audience. When your audience can only acquire a desired discount, deal or exclusive product/service via social media, they’re far more motivated to connect.”
“A great way to generate buzz about your business, as well as increase your social following, is to run a contest,” says Tracy Willis, content strategist, N2Q Consulting, a creative marketing agency. “Think of a quick and simple contest that encourages fans to share information about your business, and reward the winner with a gift card or tickets to an event.”
9. Ask people to follow you. “Use calls to action (CTAs) to directly request that visitors friend, follow, like, etc. your social media profiles,” says Lavelle. “Numerous studies have shown that telling people to do something (or asking them) makes them far more likely to actually do it.”
10. Include easy-to-find links to your social media accounts on your website and/or blog. “You [may be] missing out on followers by not including a link to [your] Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages” on your website and/or blog, says Jennifer Matthews, a marketing specialist at Igniting Business, which provides web design, marketing and technical services to small businesses.
11. Time your posts. “Post content at times when [it is] most likely to get shared [on] each platform,” says Matthews. People look at “Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter [at different times], making it crucial to test which days and times get the most attention for each platform. Finding your ideal audience is all about testing, and you want to post to social media when your target market is active on each platform,” she explains. Also, “make sure to keep track of which posts get the most interaction for each platform, and keep all that data in an organized document that you can refer to easily.”
12. Don’t try to be everywhere for everyone. “Being active and engaged on a few social networks will get you more followers in the long run than posting infrequently across many networks,” says Welch.
13. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. “Do not get hung up on trying to reach as many people as possible,” says Williams. “It can be more valuable to focus on a [smaller] community that is more likely to convert into customers in the long run.”
