Menu
So your Branding is done and your Website’s development is complete, what’s next? Well, there’s a plethora of things you can be doing as a small business, from Google Adwords to online ad campaigns. However, one of the most impactful things to look into is Social Media. Utilizing Social Media is one of the best ways to engage with your audience and get your business’s name in front of new eyes!
This can be a tricky question to answer since there is such a variety to choose from. From Facebook to Twitter it can be confusing! This is why we are going to focus on just four of the platforms for now. This will help us go a little more in-depth on each one and help you better understand what you should be using to help your social engagement.
Everyone should be slightly familiar with this platform already. Facebook is one of the most popular social platforms available today. Sure it can help you reconnect with old friends but it’s also a good way to get some social engagement going. Facebook offers a great option for company accounts. It’s referred to as a Business Manager account. Rather than acting like a normal profile, it will show important business information and reviews which is a big plus. Essentially the idea behind using Facebook for your business is posting relevant information. This can be anything from new promotions your company is running to a blog post you found that is informative and gives insights on your company’s field. This gives you the opportunity to show your followers what your company is about and interact with them through posts and comments. For more information on the Business Manager account and what you can do with it click here.
Think of LinkedIn as the more professional Facebook. It’s meant to bring together professionals through an online community. It’s a great platform to show other companies what you’re about. Not to mention that it’s the best online networking platform. Just like Facebook, you’ll create a full length profile with your business information, what your company does, and any specialty services you offer(This is the key to having a successful LinkedIn profile). You’ll want to make sure that you put as much information on your profile as possible while being as consistent as you can be. Once you’ve perfected the profile, you’ll be back to posting relevant information and anything about recent projects your company has done. You’ll get the same opportunities to engage with an audience, not to mention you’ll have the ability to join groups with other businesses to connect with. Want more information on creating a Company Page? Click here.
Twitter is the short-form platform, it’s character limit is set to 280 characters per tweet. It’s best for getting short messages with media to your audience and it still gives you the ability to still engage with your audience through conversation. So, to begin with Twitter you’ll sign up and set up some basic information for your profile. During this process you’ll choose a handle, which is similar to a username and makes it easier for people to find your profile. Once you’re done with picking the perfect handle Twitter will have you follow three people from a selection it gives you. It will keep giving you this option to help you fill out your timeline a bit or you can choose to skip it and search for more relevant profiles. Searching will allow you to find local businesses, state and city accounts, as well as anything else that is relevant to your business. Once that is done you are all set! Same rules as before when it comes to posting, you’ll want to continue to post information about your business and anything that is relevant. Looking to create a Twitter Business account? Check this out.
So, take away statuses and replace them with photos that have captions, then you’ll get Instagram. The premise of instagram is to use photos rather than just text. Anytime you want to give an update for your business you’ll have to post a photo along with a caption and a few hashtags. The platform gives other options as well, such as doing live videos or creating a “Story” that appears for all of your followers and then is removed after 24 hours unless you specify differently. This gives businesses a unique way to interact with their audience, since instead of just posting you can give viewers a way to see into the business’s everyday life. Similar to Twitter, an Instagram profile is short, sweet and to the point. You’ll choose a handle, choose a photo for your account and then write a short summary(including a link to your website). Once you’ve completed your setup you’ll want to follow the same guidelines as Twitter and begin to follow other accounts to fill out your feed essentially. Again, going local is a good recommendation. Want to get an Instagram account made for your company? This is the perfect place.
I’m glad you asked because this is the fun part! Managing a Social Media account is all about figuring out a content strategy. To do this effectively it’s best to figure out what your target audience is. A good way of doing this is by creating a User Persona based off of your current clients. Essentially to create a User Persona you’ll want to ask yourself a few questions such as: Who are they? What are their goals? How do we help them?. With this information in hand you’ll want to put your persona into writing. It will help you visualize who your audience is and help you cater your posts to viewers who are of a similar mindset.
Another great thing about Social Media is it’s a great platform to post any content that you’ve written for your company such as blogs or information for a monthly newsletter you may send out. This helps direct traffic to your site by utilizing back linking, it’s also helpful for Search Engine Optimization. Giving people an easy way to access your content or engage with you through a post is ideal. You want to be able to show your audience information that will help them or give them a way to reach out to you.
So now that we’ve got your Social Media profiles set up, your User Personas created, and you’ve got an idea for content it’s time to think about strategy. An example of this is how we at AP Technology handle our social media. We have planned days for our posts, normally Wednesdays and Fridays. We also typically choose a topic to post about each month. This gives us time to decide on what we are posting and helps us stay on track so we aren’t posting random articles or promoting a different blog each week. Staying on track and on schedule is one of the most important parts of effectively managing your Social Media.
Chase is AP's Project Manager and Digital Design Guru.
Oklahoma City’s premier digital design agency.
