9 Best Practices for Social Media Engagement for Small Businesses
Social media marketing offers a great opportunity to get your brand noticed and engage with your targeted audience online. However, don’t just jump in and start tweeting or posting willy nilly. Not to dis Nike but “Just Do It,” does not apply in this case. Take a look at these social media best practices to save you time, energy and resources. Resources are precious commodities for small businesses and you don’t want to run out before you hit your goals.
Every social media account and communication from you is a chance to make or break your brand message. Keep these best practices in mind so you can MAKE IT, not BREAK IT.
1. Start with a Strategy. Kissinger said “If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.” You can’t move forward or evaluate your efforts if you don’t know what you want. Without a firm strategy and end goal in mind, social media will be just a time suck.
2. Fish where the Fish Are. Survey your customers to find out what social media they use most. There is no point spending time marketing on Facebook if your customers are all on Twitter.
3. Conserve Energy. Even if the audience you want to reach is using multiple social media platforms, you only have a limited amount of time. Invest your time in only one or two platforms. Social media should SUPPORT your goals, not BE your goal.
4. Valuable Content is Invaluable. If you have nothing to say, nothing to share, or no new discoveries then your audience will take their conversations and precious time elsewhere. How many of you think the Internet needs more information? Enlighten, Instruct, Entertain or Engage. Bottom line, provide value.
5. Your Web Presence Speaks Volumes About You. Take the time to invest in creating a great profile page no matter which platform you use. Add your logo, include your photo, show your products, and definitely make it easy to link back to your blog or website.
6. Time is of the Essence. People expect a faster response when they reach out to you on social media. Set up alerts to your Smartphone so you can respond quickly.
7. You May Build It, But Will They Come? Don’t assume that you can just publish a blog post and everyone will see it. Remember the 20% / 80% rule: spend 20% of your time creating killer content and 80% of your time promoting it.
8. Invest in Timesaving Tools. Use Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or Pinerly to schedule your social media updates all at once. Spend half an hour creating and scheduling the week’s posts.
9. If you don’t have a large audience, borrow one. If you are just getting started, you might not have a big audience yet. That’s OK. But you need to get your valuable content or personal brand seen. So, find an influencer and borrow their audience. Ask if you can write a guest post, comment on their posts, or add tips in their community forum. All of this gets your name and link in front of people so they will be intrigued enough to click through and discover you.
Keep these best practices in mind to help you build your social media muscles and Brand Strong!
If you need any help with developing a social media strategy that will help your brand to stand out and attract customers, prospects and influencers to your web site, please give me a call. I can also train you or your employees on how to engage customers online. Give me a shout today at 847-963-1805.
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