As a marketing manager, I have been asked on numerous occasions by MDs whether posting on social media accounts is really necessary and beneficial for business.
Like it or loathe it, we live in a fast-paced digital era today so social media needs to be embraced as part of an overall business marketing strategy; prospects are savvy and with lots of competition no doubt on your doorstep, they want to know that you are keeping up with the times. However, I can appreciate that social media marketing is just one element of your sales and marketing function, and it is a minefield that looks very time-consuming; but it doesn’t have to be. It’s about being smart and looking at means and ways of doing things efficiently and knowing some basic things that can help the end goal – getting more business. Here are some basic tips to get you started:
- Quality over quantity
It is not necessary to be on every single social media channel and it wouldn’t be possible as there are 100+ platforms. It is important to be selective. Think of your target audience and find out which platforms your target audience spend time on and focus your efforts on doing those selected platforms well
- Automate where possible
There are some useful scheduling social media platforms out there such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer etc. that allow you to schedule posts in advance to help better manage your time or when staff are away on holidays to make sure you are always engaging with your prospects
- Images/videos are key
Images, gifs and videos have higher engagement that just text so make sure you are utilising them where possible
- It’s meant to be social
The key is in the title itself – it’s called “social” media for a reason so bear this in mind as well as your brand in what you post and how you word posts. As a guide 2 out of every 5 posts should be something not necessarily to do with your business
- Short but sweet
Don’t make posts too word-heavy otherwise your audience will switch off. Where possible post hyperlinks to send prospects directly to your website for a full article; also remember you are limited on characters on some platforms. And not to mention a long link of letters and numbers not only looks like it could be spam but also ugly. There are some helpful URL shortener tools such as Bitly, Tiny etc.
- Evaluate evaluate evaluate
Although a lot of social media is about engagement and not direct leads, it is part of the process of a prospect becoming a lead, therefore you need to know what is and what isn’t working. There are some useful social media analytic tools out there – free and paid for such as Google Analytics, Twitter Analytics, Facebook Insights etc. as a starter.
Helen Roughley
Marketing Manager, The PC Support Group