Are you making the most of your social media?

This week, I want to talk about the growing power of social media for businesses.?

It hasn't always made impacted the property sector so much, but I’ve recently noticed that there are just so many platforms and users now that it’s no wonder certain personalities out there have become legitimate celebrities and business icons in their own right!?

But there’s a real difference between using social media for leisure and entertainment, and leveraging it effectively for business and marketing, and it’s easy to get lost in the noise of all the competing advice out there.

So this week I’m sharing a few of my top tips, advice that I’ve found works well for me.

Decide why you’re there in the first place

Before you start posting anything, using social media in a business sense requires a little thought and strategy.

The first thing to think about is how your social media content is going to benefit your business, followed closely by understanding what you want your audience to get out of it. There has to be some value in it for them. It’s all very well thinking of crazy things that make you look great, but is that going to give your audience any benefit, or just stoke your ego?

Decide on your schedule too (and try to stick to it) – if you know that you’re posting on specific days, it automatically makes your life easier and allows you to plan things out properly, rather than posting something sub-par on the hoof because you’ve realised you need to get something out on your channel.

Find ways to be unique

Take a close look at any specific sector on social media, and you’ll often find that it’s a big game of ‘follow the leader’. With so much chatter out there, it’s really important to find an angle that sets you apart from the rest of the noise, that isn’t just doing what someone else has already done (and probably done better). If you’re very obviously copying what someone else is doing, you’re going to lose your audience, or (even worse) people won’t engage with you in the first place.

Remember as well that when it comes to deciding on your social media strategy, authenticity is key. Audiences can see through fakery straight away, not to mention that if you’re presenting something that isn’t true to your values, it’s much harder to maintain!

Get training and support

It’s important to remember that you don’t know what you don’t know when it comes to social media for your business. Posting a bunch of pictures on Instagram is a very different beast to (for example) building a channel on YouTube.

There are far more experienced people out there who understand best practice when it comes to things like YouTube, who can help you get things set up, and importantly, make your content look good.

As I often say, it’s not always about the ‘How’: you can't do everything yourself! Think about the people in your network who can help you out and pick up some of their knowledge as you go. Remember, the ‘rules’ for social media algorithms are constantly changing (I’m looking at you, LinkedIn), so you have to stay on your toes.

The personal brand is more powerful than the corporate

Daniel Priestley often talks about the difference between a company brand and a personal brand.

I find that a lot of people are reluctant to have anything to do with building a personal brand, but in this day and age, it has become absolutely essential for your business to have a human face.

Take a look at (French football club) PSG’s Instagram account – they’ve got 64.5m followers. That’s pretty impressive, but if you take a look at Kylian Mbappe (widely considered to be the best player in the world, who has just left PSG to go to Real Madrid), he’s got 118m followers.

People are more interested in hearing from the person, not the brand. It’s all about human connection – although that does bring me neatly to my next point…

Don’t overshare

A bit of personality is good but no-one needs to know what you had for breakfast! This goes back to my first point about being relevant for your audience.

What do want them to get out of your content? Do you want them to learn more about your business and your values, or do you want them to think that avocado on toast is a great way to start the day?

Make sure your content is relevant for your business, otherwise you run the risk of pissing people off and losing whatever audience you’ve built. By all means, post personal stuff if you want to – but do it on a private/personal account, not your business pages.

Develop a thick skin

Again, with the audience in mind, remember that you’re never going to please all the people all the time, especially if you’re posting about something that divides opinion.

I can remember when one of my videos went viral on TikTok for the first time: I posted it one night, when to bed, and when I woke up in the morning there were 58,000 views and about 200 comments.

Half the comments were really positive… but the other half were completely negative, people calling me names and asking how I dared have an opinion on whatever it was I’d posted about. Keyboard warriors are sadly part and parcel of having an online profile, especially as you become more visible. Blocking and deleting rude or abusive comments is absolutely acceptable – it’s vital to have know what you will and won’t accept

Set boundaries

Following on from my previous point, setting boundaries is a key element when it comes to social media, both in how you engage with your followers (blocking anyone abusive), and how much time you spend curating your pages.

It’s easy to let your online personality absorb your life. Say you’ve gone for a hike or a run in the country – do you spend all your time taking great pictures for your Instagram feed, or do you switch off and really be in the moment? I’ve seen people who are constantly taking pictures for their profiles, almost like ‘If it’s not on Instagram, did it really happen?’ and I don’t think it’s healthy.

There’s no point in half-arsing it

With that said, you can’t half-arse a social media strategy – posting ad hoc and expecting to develop a following – it takes time, commitment, and above all discipline! Build your strategy, start to post and publish, look at what works well (or doesn’t) and take it from there.

Like anything, building up a social following takes time. Don’t assume that you can set up a platform and on Day 1 you’ll know everything and have thousands of followers. Be patient!

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I hope you’ve found these tips useful, but really, they’re just scratching the surface! I took a deep dive on the topic of social media in Episode 205 of the podcast, in conversation with Joanne Lavelle, an estate agent based in Ireland, so go and have a listen for more tips and to hear about her winning YouTube strategy.

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