We work with small businesses a lot, and we’ve noticed a bit of a trend when it comes to social media. Lots of people, including some of our clients, seem to struggle with it – they don’t know how to start, and so the whole task seems monumental. We want to make getting started on social media accessible to everyone we can, as you can’t really avoid it these days. It’s everywhere, and it’s an incredibly powerful tool.
We’ve already got an article on building your brand on Facebook but we recognise that, for some, you just need to know where to begin. So here are three tips to help you get started, if it’s completely new to you.
Set up your business
Firstly, make sure to correctly set up business accounts on the platforms you’re on. This means having a company page on platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Each social media platform you’re on should include clear calls to action (CTA). A call to action is what you want visitors to your page to do i.e. send you a message on Facebook, or click through to your website. If you want visitors to your Facebook page to browse your website, make sure your website address is clearly visible! If they can’t find it, they won’t click it.
Whilst you’re setting up your business accounts, make sure you check your @ handles. These are your usernames on social media, and you can customise them on most platforms. Our Facebook @ handle, for example, is @soxdigital.
Make these relevant to your business and then promote them. They don’t have to be the same across every platform you’re on – sometimes that’s not possible. Just make sure that they are relevant to your company.
Show up
Once you’ve got your business pages set up on each platform you want to be on, show up and post regularly. And make sure to keep the content varied! Don’t post the same thing on every single platform, else why should anyone follow your different social media accounts? After all, they’re all saying the same thing; so keep it different.
Whilst there are ideal content levels for each platform, focus more on getting something out there than what “the experts” say you should do. Whilst it’s best to tweet multiple times a day, if you can only tweet once then that’s better than nothing at all. Once you’ve got the hang of it, you can increase how much you’re posting.
When you’ve got your content out there, make sure to engage with those who engage with you. The old phrase “content is king” still stands, but “conversation is queen” really deserves to be touted too. Keep the content you post balanced; don’t just try and sell. Make sure to have a healthy spread of engaging, social and shareable content across each platform you’re on. If you get great engagement, then use this to drive more content later. For example if someone leaves you a rave review, then share it!
Finally, regularly remind your customers who you are and what you do. Your customers are likely following a lot (possibly hundreds) of accounts and their news feeds will be saturated. Make sure to remind them of you!
Don’t spread yourself too thin
If you’re looking to get started on social media, then remember that it’s better to do one or two platforms well, than five very badly. Make sure you pick the platform that suits your business best. Look at which platforms your customers are on – those are the ones you want to invest your time in.
Once you’ve identified which platforms they’re on, start to build an understanding of why they are there and what motivates them. This should link to the content you are producing – if your customers suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out), leverage this in the posts you make! (Think along the lines of phrases such as “last chance to buy!” or “final savings!” for those FOMO posts.)
Hopefully these three micro-introductions can help give you the confidence boost to give it a go. If you’re really struggling, we can help you get started with social media on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. Drop us a line about the packages we offer.