Advertisement feature by Peter Dorotiak, Director of Aspect IT
SOCIAL MEDIA marketing is an important aspect of promoting your small business, and it can allow you to develop a strong social network which could become an asset.
By following our top tips, you can soon become social media savvy:
1. Be real – It’s because of social media that consumers have the rare opportunity to see the face of the human business. Interacting through Facebook and Twitter is far less formal than e-mail, which allows you to talk to your clients in a more genuine way.
2. Don’t use every social media – It will be difficult to post evenly and effectively across all channels. Instead, try building a strong network on two or three platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin which are arguably the most popular. You should also consider blogging to get clients interested in certain topics relevant to your business.
3. Be consistent – People easily forget you if you disappear for days or weeks on end without updating your profile. This doesn’t mean you need to be on social media 24/7 – posting at least once a day should be enough. You can schedule posts if you don’t have time each day.
4. Don’t favour quantity over quality – Social media should be about brand awareness and customer engagement, and too many businesses are using social media as a broadcasting/sales channel. But it isn’t just a free advertising channel, it has the potential to build customer loyalty.
5. Co-ordinate your channels – You can link your website to your social media channels with a few simple buttons. You can also include a live social media feed (e.g. twitter) so visitors can see your recent posts.
6. Update your images – People judge a book by its cover, so it is really important to put some thought into your photos. Informal photos, for example of your staff, also prove very popular as you put faces to a business.
7. Keep the same tone – If you keep the same style of writing across each platform you have more chance of having a more recognizable style that people associate with your business.
8. Decide on a target audience – You might have limited content and time so have a specific audience you want to reach. For example, Influences and Bloggers love Twitter, businesses are common on Linkedin, and young adults are most likely to use Facebook.
9. Make valuable business connections – Use social media to make key connections to make valuable connections that could come in handy later on.
10. Encourage feedback – Feedback is a powerful tool that leverages social proofing to authenticate your business. Receiving good feedback can add value to your business, making it look more reliable to potential clients.
Remember to take it a step at a time. Your social media presence will not just rapidly grow overnight, but with sustained effort your business will start to make its mark.
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