Why Use Social Media For Business – 7 Tips To Setup Success
Social media can be an excellent way for business owners to find and connect with new customers. According to study, more than 50 percent of business owners across the globe rely on social as their primary digital-marketing technique.
However, taking that first step into social media can be overwhelming if you want to use social media to market your business because there are so many platforms, and users out there waiting to be explored. So, where do you even begin? Here are tips to get your business started on social media.
1. Start with a plan
Your social media actions need to be carefully planned just like a business needs a business plan. You need to know your objectives, and what you want to achieve for your brand. Do you want to enhance your brand awareness, boost sales or increase engagement with your customers or you’re looking to create a little more visibility for your brand?
Answering all these basic questions will guide you in the right direction of your social efforts. Once you have to know your objectives, keep it in mind when planning your strategy, so that you can benchmark and measure your progress.
2. Choose the right platforms
There are a lot of social media platforms out there that everyone seems to be using such as Twitter to Snapchat, LinkedIn, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and many more. Therefore, you need to figure out whom you’re trying to reach and where they can be found because different businesses attract different people; those different people actively use preferred platforms.
One way you can know is to use Google Analytics or survey your mailing list to see which social media platforms most readers use to find your website. Once you determine the best platforms, stay put and masters your marketing strategy there first.
3. Using scheduling tools
If you want to use social media platforms to strengthen brand awareness and reach new potential customers, then maintaining an active social media presence is essential. Having a great website is not enough. Many customers want to be able to reach you on social media ask questions about a company’s personality and see you post on any platform you use.
However, it would help if you planned your post to stay on track. The best way you can do that is by investing in a social media management application tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social or Sendible, which will help you to schedule and post updates on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, WordPress, and other platforms you use. But the best tool you can use is Hootsuite if you want to streamline your social marketing and increase your productivity. Therefore, let’s take a brief look at what is Hootsuite.
What’s Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a social media-planning tool, which helps keep track and manage many social network channels. Hootsuite is aimed at companies where the marketing department uses multiple social media accounts. It helps business to monitor what people are saying about their brand and respond instantly. Below are just a few features of Hootsuite that are designed to make your job easier:
- Engagement
- Scheduling
- Platform integration
- Social media monitoring and social listening
4. Engage with your audience
The more specific information you know about your customers, the more effective your social media messages will be. There are different ways you can engage with your customer. An easy way is by showing personal interest and asking them to share their opinions, preferences, likes, dislikes, and many more.
Another tip is to create audience personas for your customers. Audience personas should be the foundation of all your marketing activity. You can also build suspense if you have a new product coming soon. Tease it for sometimes before you introduce it. You can also host a giveaway contest. People love to get something for nothing. You can also use the Shareaholic plugin or Social Bookmarks for WordPress to add share buttons for any post on your page.
5. Don’t try to do all yourself
It can be challenging to be active on every social media platform as a business owner, so delegating your social media work to someone, or engage an outside expert will be ideal. A good social media manager takes time to research, and this can be difficult for business owners to take advantage of everything social media has to offer. That’s why it can be a good idea to ask for help.
Don’t be scared to seek for help if you don’t have the time to handle social media marketing on your own. Professional social media manager can help you find your way on social media, creating an online presence that makes a great impression.
6. Don’t over-promote
Don’t spam your people with constant sales-speak because social media isn’t for continually asking people to buy your product or sign up. Not every post needs a link to your online store or even a sales pitch in the caption. Focus on being social, nurture relationships, create brand love and build trust to influence a purchase.
As a starting point, we recommend 80% social and 20% promotional. Therefore, 80% of your social content across all your channels should be about your customers engaging while your promotion should not be more than 20 percent. Encourage people to share relevant content that they find valuable and let them know the fantastic people behind your company.
7. Spy on your competitors
Let your competitors do the try and err for you. Review competitor profiles with the same customer bases and see what they are doing. What posts are generating lots of shares or comments? What hashtags are they using? What pins are getting lots of saves?
You can pinpoint what to do and what not to do using your knowledge of social media best practices and what you learn from your rivals. Also, find time to track your business reputation. If the word is positive, vow to keep up the good work and if the word is negative, promise to improve your service.