Developing a social media presence is one of the first things you should do when starting to market your company. 96% of small business owners use social media marketing and believe it is important to their business. This means you should, too. What platforms should you use? What should you be posting? How do you grow your follower count? How should you be managing all of the channels you are on?
These questions are easier to answer than you think.
What Platforms Should I Use?
There are many different options of social media platforms that your business can use. Remember, though: you don’t need all of them! Especially when you first start out.
When first establishing your channels, first focus on the Big Three: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These three platforms are the most important for any business conducting B2B marketing. Here’s why you should focus on these three platforms:
- Facebook: 78% of 18 to 34 year olds (your upcoming target market) who discover a new product on Facebook are interested in buying it.
- LinkedIn: 79% of B2B marketers see LinkedIn as an effective source for lead generation.
- Twitter: 93% of Twitter users who follow SMBs plan to make a purchase from a brand they follow.
Once you have established a rich presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, you can branch out to other platforms that are of interest to you. Possible suggestions are YouTube and Instagram. Make sure the platforms you choose are ones that your target audience is on, and these platforms don’t appear as if they’ll be going away anytime soon.
What Should I Post?
When it comes to social media, variety is key. Your customers and prospects aren’t going to follow you on social media if all you’re posting is advertisements for your products and services. Here are some ideas of things to post:
- Blogs and Articles: Writing your own blog will allow you to showcase yourself as a subject matter expert. You can share other articles written by other people that you believe your audience will find relevant as well, but try to focus more on original content.
- Advertisements: Running promotions and marketing campaigns is important and you should definitely be doing it. Just make sure that isn’t all that’s on your channels.
- Humanizing Content: Including fun content that showcases the people working for you and what you do to celebrate them (birthdays, office events like Crock-pot Thursdays, employee anniversaries, featuring employee pets, etc.) will make other businesses feel good about potentially doing business with you.
- Fun, Educational Content: Including industry-relevant trivia, facts, and statistics can also showcase your subject matter expertise, and are a fun way to do so.
- Holidays: Holidays are a great excuse to get in front of your audience. Don’t just cover the major holidays: take a look at lesser known holidays, and include both ‘fun’ holidays and ‘industry-relevant’ ones.
No matter what you are posting, try to include a Call To Action for your audience when relevant. And, make sure what you are posting is relevant to your target audience.
How Do I Gain Followers?
The best way to start gaining followers is to run a campaign to promote your channels to your current clients. Encourage them to follow you so that they don’t miss out on any ‘important content or promotions’. You could even offer some sort of incentive: “follow us and be entered to win _______.” Encouraging your employees to follow can also bump that follower count up. Boost your posts. Social media channels allow you to pay to push your content to people globally, nationally and your local area, who - based on their algorithms and the requirements that you set - they believe might be interested in seeing that content. We recommend waiting until you have at least 100 followers already before you do so, so that it is easier to target those who would be interested in your products and services.
How Should I Manage My Channels?
When first setting up your channels, it is important that they are all branded to your company’s logo and look professional. Once you do start posting, you need to do so regularly and consistently. It helps to create a schedule in advance for each month so that you are not scrambling to come up with ideas each day. Using a service like Hootsuite can help you manage your postings for all of the platforms you are on and schedule them out in advance.
You should be tracking how successful your posts are, and use this information to optimize your postings. Ensure that you are posting at good times, using keywords your target audience will be interested in, and making improvements to improve your reach. It is also important to actively manage all of your channels. When people comment on one of your posts, ‘like’ their comment or reply back. Respond to questions posed in comments and directly messaged to you. This shows the person that you see them, and you care. The faster you do this, the better: the average user expects a business to reply within 4 hours, but the average response time for businesses is 10 hours.
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