How to make the most of Social Media

Social media is an important part of the marketing mix and an integral component for any growing business; more than one third of the world is connected to each other. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have changed the way we not only do business but how we engage with others in our life.

A recent presentation hosted by Hootsuite noted that the nature of social media is changing with some arguing that it’s like a "Blind man, chasing a black cat on a dark night, that isn't even there... that's social media"

The theory of social media is simple (i.e. if I write great content, people will be able to engage with it), the execution is not quite as straight forward. 

So how can we have an effective engagement with our audience, given that 77% of people don’t want a relationship with a brand, according to a recent Harvard Business Review:

Take heed of advice from Ryan Vince at that same Hootsuite presentation

“ Social Media has become not enough social and too much media"

Part of the key is to ensure you are fully engaged with digital content and the variants of social media.

Content

Content is the primary trend that will define effective digital interaction in 2017. Whilst, the focus for the past few years has been content production, whether blogs, website, social media tweets or Facebook, now there is more emphasis on the quality. Information needs to be informative and original and if one company fails to deliver, there are plenty of other like-minded businesses out there to buy product or services from.

The goal, of course, is for the content to be read by many - to be shared leading to find out about the products/services on offer. Use Google Analytics to determine the most effective method of communication. And then take note of the following points:

Have a Plan

You need to have a clear thought about what you want to achieve with your social media activities.  Do you want your account to drive traffic, entertain, be a customer service channel, be a PR platform or something else?

Frequency 

The number of times that you post per day should differ by social network: the life span of a tweet is far smaller than the life span of a Facebook post for example. So spend some time working out what frequency you can commit to and dig into your analytics to find out when your audience are most likely to be online; this will maximise your reach.

On Google Analytics -  behaviour - overview and select hourly; hover your mouse pointer over the peaks to see the stats.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a powerful tool, using them in moderation help make posts easier to find; don’t use long, difficult to read #longhashtagsaretoodifficulttoread but do use relevant ones to your business.

Here’s a tip for iPhone users – there is a feature called text replacement (go to Settings – General – Keyboard – Text Replacement). Here you can create a word so that every time you type it, it comes up with pre-set phrases, so select a word such as ‘insta-hash’ and it will pop up with up to 15 hashtags that you have preset. 

Typos

Typos and grammar will happen on social media, but when they do it distracts the user from the message which you are trying to communicate; carefully check all words, sense and meaning before pressing ‘post’.

Social media

The first question may well be which is the best social media platform to get business from? The answer really depends on your business and target market; there's no harm in being on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook as long as you can make regular, relevant posts.

As a snap shot:

·        For SMEs with a local focus, Facebook might be the most appropriate option, as you can link in and participate with local communities easier, as there is own specific pages to like and interact with.

·        Twitter is great for speedy interactions, a true social medium but it needs to draw people to your own website/business pages.

·        LinkedIn is different, more B2B, less social but a great way to connect to other professionals, whether in your business or not.

Consideration also, the content of your postings on social media; avoid confrontation, words or facts that cannot be backed up. Do not give mixed messages, staying close to the brand values at all times.  Social media works best as a story rather than trying to promote something; people don’t like to be ‘sold’ to. Social media is about interest and quality, relevant content makes engaging others so much easier.

Other thoughts for your website

It is essential that content, whatever it’s platform is optimised for mobile phones, Google may downgrade business listings that don’t meet this algorithm. More and more people are using their smart phone to access the internet, and with faster connections becoming available, this will just grow.

SEO (search engine optimization) has gone through much change over the years and in reality, your website will not get noticed if it is not in the first 5 organic results from a Google search. Spend some time on your SEO, even if you have to look to an expert. 

Questions for your seo

• Content – is your content relevant to what the user is searching?
• Performance – how quickly does your site load? If it loads slowly, you’ll rank lower in google 
• Authority – is your content useful enough to be link to by other authoritative websites? 
• User experience (UX) – is it easy to navigate around your website? Is it safe? What’s the bounce rate?

I hope these tips and ideas are useful, please comment to add more, or share your social media and/or content story.

With thanks to Jeremy Waite and Gary C. Bizzo Athina Bluff for some of the ideas