Are you looking to get started with social media for your business? Believing that in order to “do” social media properly you must have a presence on every platform will only make your life difficult as you are starting out. And if you spread yourself too thinly, your impact will be weak. For the beginner, we recommend choosing just one or two platforms to focus your attention on first before moving on to others. By focusing on mastering one site at a time you will learn what works best and how best to utilise the sites for your business. If you want to pack a punch, start small.
Start where your customers are.
If you’re just getting your business’s social media efforts up and running, you’ll need to do some work to find out where your customers are. Don’t just set up profiles and expect them to come to you, you should be following THEM.
A lot of business owners assume that there’s some special trick to figuring out where their customers reside online. And while there are some ways to find this information on your own, you can start by just ASKING your customers what social media platforms they use. Do you have a Contact Us form, an online lead generation form, an email newsletter sign-up or a shopping cart? Then add data fields for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Pinterest etc.
Spend time on each of the major sites for business: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and get a feel for which ones suit your business best.
Complete Your Social Media Profiles …completely!
Once you’ve decided on your site(s), you’ll need a profile for each account. Think of each social media profile you create as a landing page for your brand. This could be the first encounter that someone has with your brand, so make sure that first impression is great and that it creates interest in your brand. The most important things to pay attention to are:
1. Profile Picture
For smaller brands, a personal picture can work better than a logo. People are more likely to want to engage with a person than a brand logo. Once you have selected your photo, stick with the same picture as your default photo from one network to the next, so that people will easily recognize you across all social networks.
Be sure to name your profile photo file properly before uploading it to help with SEO.
2. Website Link
If there is an opportunity o get your link on the main page of your social profile, use it. Many people miss this, for example, omitting to add the link in the box underneath their profile picture on Facebook. Make sure that people people can find it quickly and click through to your website.
3. Your Bio
This is usually just a sentence or two about yourself or your business. It’s a perfect place to put your elevator pitch and include your main keywords. Make sure you fill out your bio to its full potential. While some networks allow you to only have a limited amount of characters, others encourage more robust and lengthy bios. Take advantage of this to generate interest in your brand.
Each site is different and will have varying fields to complete. The important thing is to complete every area including name, username, location, background and interests.
Be consistent
Consistency is vital when it comes to social media, especially as you begin to explore more than one site and grow your online presence. Not only should you complete your profiles, but it’s also wise to keep your branding as consistent as possible across all of your social media sites. This will aid in recognition, brand awareness, broader reach, and ongoing communication with the same contacts on multiple sites.
So, now that you’ve chosen your platforms and completed your profiles, it’s time to start talking! We’ll be offering tips on how best to get interacting on social media in our next blog!
