Social Media Development is critical for web-based business success. As search engines now look for social signals to improve their rankings to better serve users, it’s more important than ever to use various social media platforms to your advantage to educate and engage your audience.
No matter whether your business has one employee or 10,000, one location or 100, is online-only, or brick-and-mortar, you need a social presence. Oftentimes, business owners are overwhelmed at the idea of managing their own social media strategy, falling victim to the idea that they must be everywhere. When you consider the sheer number of social platforms available – Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, WhatsApp – it’s no wonder so many strategies fail.
There are 50 million active small business Facebook pages, but only 2.5 million of them pay to be active advertisers. And yet only 40% of users actively “like” brand pages, meaning advertising is the only way to reach them.
65.8% of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees use Twitter for marketing. 77% of Twitter users feel better about a brand when they get a reply to their tweet. Average Twitter users follow five businesses, and 80% of users have mentioned a brand in a tweet.
At Sachs Marketing Group, we’ll analyze your existing social media accounts, and help you determine where your audience members are, so you can cultivate an actively engaged following on the most valuable platforms for your niche, and stop wasting time on networks that won’t generate a positive return on investment (ROI) for you.
We’ll work with you by creating a social media development strategy to grow your following across the platforms we select together, and even manage it for you, so you can focus your efforts on the things you’re best at.
Will more users on a network (Facebook is the most popular) translate to more competition for audience attention?
Are your customers actively engaging (spending time and paying attention to) on the network? Does it fit your demographic? If you’re not targeting Millennials, then it may not be not a good idea to focus efforts on newer networks like Snapchat, for example.
Does the network make sense for your content? If you’re not planning a video strategy, or it doesn’t make sense for your niche – focus less on networks like YouTube and Periscope.
Does it make sense for you as the business owner? Do you have the time, budget, and tools to create video content for YouTube?
If you don’t know who your customers are, we can help with the creation of a customer/buyer persona, so you get an idea of who they are, how they act, and what they will expect from you. This persona can guide everything from your website content to your social media content, and more.
It’s safe to say you’ll end up with a Facebook and Twitter, as these are the main networks for the vast majority of businesses, regardless of size, niche, or demographic. Unless you’re in the B2B market, you won’t need to invest time and effort in LinkedIn. But, on Facebook, because everyone’s there – you’ll have to deal with a lot of competition, and face the fact that at least in the beginning, you’ll struggle to gain traction with your audience, courtesy of Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm that determines how many of your fans see a post at any given time.
Select a profile photo. For corporate-type accounts, it’s okay to use a logo. Just make sure what you choose is quality and used consistently across all networks to make it easier to build brand awareness. If you’re building a personal brand, use a good quality headshot.
Write a concise profile description. Tell your fans and followers what your business does. Avoid the hot buzzwords, and be practical.
Completely fill in all information. Don’t leave fields blank – the more information you can provide – the better. Each of these could be a deciding factor for a potential customer, so the only reason to leave something is blank is because you don’t have the information to provide.
Include keywords. The keywords should describe your products and services, to make it easier for people to find you when they’re looking for a business like yours.
Include your location and operating hours. Local businesses need to include the exact location and hours to help get more foot traffic. That information should be listed consistently across all social media profiles, directory listings, and your website.
Backdate some posts to fill your profiles with content. When your profiles are empty, prospective new fans and followers are less likely to follow you. Backdated posts are an easy way to create the illusion of activity even though your profile is still new. Keep that content evergreen – useful regardless of time – and you’re well on your way.
Unless you’ve got a targeted following, social media won’t provide value to your business. There are several ways to do this – but all of them rely on executing a carefully crafted strategy with stellar content and useful, relevant information. For a a social strategy to effectively bring in customers who convert, you must regularly engage with that following.
One way to start the machine is through the use of advertising on each social platform to draw attention to your profile, targeting only those who match your demographic. From there, you can use your content assets, such as white papers, eBooks, and other incentive-based offerings to entice fans and followers to share your content with their following. It’s possible to use integrated apps to run contests and offer coupons, to promote your social presence as well.
Include links to your social profiles on your website. Include social sharing buttons on each of your blog posts, and include your social handles in the share text. If you’ve got an email list, alert them to your social presence and include links so they can follow you. Actively search for and follow people who fit your demographic, in hopes they’ll follow you back. Be responsive. People want to know you’re paying attention.
To stay consistent and keep that following actively engaged, you’ll need to post on a regular basis. While there’s no magic bullet posting schedule, data tells us there are certain times where your audience is statistically more likely to see and respond to the content.
While you’ll obviously want to promote your own content, products, and services, you don’t want to be a broken record constantly tooting your own horn – that’s the fastest way to ensure your audience begins to tune you out, or worse, chooses to unfollow you. Ideally, you’ll create a mix of content that originates with you, and share information from other sources that users will find helpful. You share memes, ask questions, post articles and blogs, videos, and more.
As tempting as it can be to post the exact same update across all your networks, it’s best to customize it according to the format and style of each network. It can be about the same general thing, but for best response potential, needs to be adjusted accordingly.
Want to take your social media development to the next level? Call Sachs Marketing Group today.