A Do’s And Don’t’s Guide For Business Social Media
By Emma Raho - Social Media Manager
You've clicked create page and locked your name and presence in but what now?
The whole point of creating a business social presence is to generate brand awareness which will in time, lead to sales. To do this you will need to make sure your pages stand out from the crowd and generate good engagement. To get you started here are some basic tips to make sure you're on the right path to social success.
DO - Fill in all the sections. You'll need a bio, product information, and contact details. It's important to add lots of high quality pictures as you'll need to catch people's attention as they scroll. Facebook will prompt you to fill in important sections so following the directions on the screen is a good start to laying a solid foundation.
DON'T - Be ambiguous. Vaguely hinting at what you do or asking people to private message you for details is not good business practice and you risk being perceived as untrustworthy. Transparency and honesty are very important.
DO - Add a call to action. Explain what you do and how you can help your potential customer or client, then ask them to contact you, click through to your website, or come to your physical place of business. Make sure to add a send message button to the page and direct your audience there.
DON'T - Fill your page with posts or images that are not relevant to your brand. Some jokes and memes are a good thing as they cushion out the selling posts but consistent obscure memes and personal content is off putting and you will find engagement drops off.
DO - Get to know the business account features and make the most of them. Facebook has provided ways to streamline and optimize your page. Make sure you use them. If you are unsure how it's a great idea to book in some lessons from a social media specialist.
DON'T - Leave your page for long periods or post erratically. How your audience sees your posts is controlled by Facebook's algorithm. The less you post, the less the algorithm will show your content organically. Scheduling posts can help if you are concerned you won't find time through our the week to post
DO - Boost posts for promotions, events and adverts. Boosting important posts is well worth the money and will drastically increase your reach. If you're having a sale, competition, event such as an end of year show, or time specific booking period it is important to boost those posts.
DON'T - Ignore your insights. Your insights can tell you a lot about the kinds of posts your audience responds best to, what times you should be posting, occasions where people have liked or unliked, and how your posts track in general. This should be your 'what to post' guide. If you are unsure how to read and collate your insights a social media specialist can help with that.
DO - Make sure all your online channels are linked. Your website should have direct links (buttons) that lead to your social accounts, and your social accounts should have links back to your website. Nothing should stand alone.
DON'T - Post anything in a rush. Doing this generally leads to low quality, off brand content that no one will be interested in. Another don't is constantly posting one type of post - an example would be only posting product pictures and nothing else. Your social channels need a wide variety of brand focused content.
DO - Engage with your audience. Reply and react to comments. Keep an eye on your inbox and follow up with enquiries as soon as you can. Troubleshoot any public complaints straightaway. Always keep your replies professional even if you know the commenter well. Remember: potential clients are watching.
DON'T - Treat Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as the same entity. They are completely different platforms that need very different posting styles. You will need separate content plans for all your platforms.
DO - Seek help from a social media manager if you are struggling. Social media may appear quite simple but managing it properly is actually quite a long and complex process. You can choose from a couple of hours of lessons right through to outsourcing your channels completely to specialist who will manage them on your behalf. Social media advertising has now eclipsed print, radio, and television advertising so it's important to get it right.
Get in touch with us for all your social media enquiries, questions, and concerns. Our expert team can advise you about the best ways to move your business social up to the nest level.
robecca@sanspareilonline.com and lets chat!