Getting Social Media right is challenging for many businesses. Where to start? What to post? How long to spend on it? Lots of questions, plus the fact that us small business owners don’t have enough time in the day as it is. But once you get going, and see the results, you’ll never look back- So here are our 5 tips to help you get started on devising a killer Social Media presence!
# Tip 1: Choose your platforms
From Facebook to Snapchat, there are a lot of social media platforms out there and it can be very overwhelming to be on all of them. Choose 1 or 2 that you feel comfortable with, but also that your target audience are on and start there. With over 2 billion users every month, Facebook is a good one to start off with as everyone, including your aunt and uncle are probably on it!
#Tip 2: Give value
This tip- we can not stress enough! DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, use social media as a place to just churn out continuous selling propositions- no one wants to be attacked with spam. Grow your audience, by giving them something that is of interest to them, use your knowledge within your industry to educate or entertain others. This is how you will build your base, because not only will this improve your brands credibility but also your audience will keep coming back to get more value. Look at it from the viewers point of view- If they’re learning new recipes, interesting tips and are being entertained by a good sense of humour, they will be more likely to want to keep you around for the next valuable post you throw at them.
To do this we recommend using the 70/20/10 approach:
- 70% of your posts should teach, entertain or inspire your audience
- 20% of your posts should be user generated by sharing or reposting your customer’s post (Do this by encouraging your customers to tag you in photo’s)
- 10% of your posts should be used promoting new, best selling products/services or offers.
#Tip 3: Use engaging visuals
It’s not a surprise that good imagery can be used as valuable branding tool. In fact stats show Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images, so it is important to have a good stack of images when planning social media posts. But we don’t have to be professional photographers or models to create eye-catching images. There are loads of apps out there to help like Unsplash, Canva and Adobe spark post. Try these apps out, play about and we’re sure you will be able to create some amazing graphics.
#Tip 4: Humanise your brand
Use social media to develop your brand personality, engage and communicate with your audience and other content that promotes your brand values. Consumers nowadays want to feel they are buying from a person not just a corporate enitity. So, don’t be afraid to bring your brand to life by connecting with your audience using video and live streaming. This could include videos featuring members of staff introducing themselves, behind-the-scenes footage, special announcements and so on. Just think of it as vlogging. Vlogging can be so effective simply because it brings about familiarity between yourselves and the audience. It gives you the opportunity to unveil your personality. It helps that videos are also increasingly favoured across almost all social media platforms. More than 8 billion videos are viewed on Facebook DAILY.
#Tip 5: Create a social media strategy.
Plan, plan, and plan again. Success is determined by your level of preparedness; and efficient planning will also make coming up with new content ideas easier to manage. Use a content calendar template to plan what and when you post. Then decide how you will organise your content, for example you may choose to allocate a day of the week with a type of post like “Tuesday Tips” or “new recipe every Wednesday”. This will help you stay consistent and ensure you are on message. Your mission statement should be incorporated into your strategy and should explain‘why’ people would follow you on social media, the kind of content you plan on posting and most importantly; what you hope to achieve. Ensure you maintain social media commitment because success doesn’t happen over night and you may also find it useful to use a social media management software to organise and schedule your posts in advance like Hootsuite.
You don’t have to be an expert in marketing or advertising to attain social media success, all you need is the passion, the right tools and the willingness to stay committed. Find your brand personality and use social media to represent your brand values online.
