A FEW SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS can ensure that your online accounts are more than just pretty pictures. These tips can make the difference between a page that just sits there and one that encourages community interaction, grows followers, and increases client contacts.

The following social media tips will help ensure that your social media plan is a productive one for your business…

RESEARCH PLATFORMS
Not all social media platforms are created equal. Sit with your team and research the key elements of your “perfect customer” and how you might reach them. Consider the terms that those individuals might search for when researching your services. Finally, research the various social media networks to determine which major networks (i.e. LinkedIn or Facebook) and minor networks (i.e. Alignable or Yelp) would best put you and your business in front of your target customer.

CREATE ACCOUNTS
This is the first creative hurdle in the social media world. You want to set up each business page or account completely. This is going to include mission statements, company descriptions, impressiums, descriptions of your services, team overview, company hours, and more. In addition, you are going to need to include company logos and graphics to highlight your services (make sure that these images are all owned or licensed for your use… copyright infringement, even in social media accounts, is illegal). Good or bad, accounts with comprehensive information and creative imagery attract more followers, reputation, and interaction.

You should note that each social media platform has different size constraints for company descriptions, logos, and graphics. You will need to have variations of your materials to fit the needs of each platform.

SET GOALS
As you set up your social media account and get ready to turn it loose on the world, prepare some benchmarks that can be used to measure the success of your campaign.

Your goals may start fairly basic: learning the platforms better, making at least 2 posts over the first month, getting 10 likes, adding 10 followers, and more.

From there, your goals can grow with your campaign: making weekly posts, adding a set number of followers each week, joining specific groups, responding to client’s contacts within the day, and more.

Make sure you set yourself some specific, measurable goals before you start. Your initial goals can be modest; for example, you may start by learning the platforms, better understanding your clients and their motivations, and learning what types of content works.

As you move forward you may want to set some goals around growing your audience of fans and followers. This should only be a short-term objective though. In the long term your social media goals should be directly tied directly to your business goals.

PLAN YOUR CONTENT
As with so many digital marketing plans, content is king! You should plan on posting interesting and creative content one to two times each week at minimum. You should look for content that shares information and provokes a reaction in the followers so that they want to share it with their friends or engage with you on the topic; thus, expanding your audience and enhancing your market.

Keep it happy, heart-tugging, or informative to get a share and a like!

CREATE A ROUTINE
One of the biggest social media tips (and challenges) to successful social media campaigns that result in target customer contacts is consistent interaction. Accounts cannot be created and ignored. You should plan to interact with your social media account each day: deleting spam, answering questions, responding to comments, posting when applicable, sharing posts from others in your group, and more. Watch for leads as they come in and respond quickly and professionally to ensure your reputation as a valuable community resource and to draw in new customers.

You can think of your social media account as a community wide, ongoing, networking event, you need to show up, share, and listen to form those beneficial relationships.

You are correct; the process can feel overwhelming and time consuming. It is a process… but, if you follow these social media tips, your accounts will provide an incredibly beneficial and lucrative marketing platform.

If you have any questions about the tips for setting up social media accounts or are looking for a company to take over the process for you, then we want to help. We can manage your social media platforms for you or offer a full digital management program that augments social media marketing with geolocation and natural listing (website) marketing. Visit OUR WEBSITE to learn more or to set up a FREE consultation today.