Essential Tips For Businesses Starting Up on Social Media
Social media is now a seminal force in the average internet users’ daily lives. The amount of people using social networking sites every day illustrates what a dominant force these sites are. Facebook now has over 500 million active users, which amounts to eight per cent of the World’s population. Considering these statistics don’t include the likes of YouTube or Twitter, the influence of social media is clear to see.
I previously wrote an Ezine article about the importance of social media in the business world and how its integration is critical for a successful marketing campaign. However, it is not as simple creating a digital presence and assuming the fans will soon follow. Social media strategies need to be carefully planned out to ensure they prevail in maximising brand exposure as much as possible. Here are a few key points to be considered when constructing a social media profile.
The first step is to know which websites to utilise. There’s a vast majority of free sites at the business’ disposal, but simply joining every one will not guarantee exposure to the largest amount of people. Unless your business is a well-established global brand, it is unlikely many people will come looking for you; you have to find them, and then give them a reason to follow you. Start off by deciphering which sites are most suited to your business, looking at the range of users, and focus your efforts solely on those to maximise your output.
Once a profile has been set up, businesses need to establish how best to target their audience. It goes without saying that the primary focus of a business’ social media page is to promote the brand and allow discussion of the business between fans. Businesses need to be wary of bombarding users with constant product information, as this can grow tiresome and is likely to see an eventual loss in followers, baring a few exceptions for globally-established brands. Social media users will not remain followers of a brand or business if they get bored of the output. It is important to incorporate entertaining posts alongside business-orientated ones. The form of this entertaining material can vary, whether it’s something humorous in relation to the brand, or even other digital material from another website. As long as there is a positive response from followers, the majority are likely to remain with the business and recommend the site to their own followers and friends.
Businesses should encourage their employees to become involved by maintaining their own profiles and joining the conversation on the brand’s site. Followers will find it much more appealing to read updates clearly posted by a person, rather than those which look computerised and often repeat the same information. A more human approach is therefore advisable.
Through following these basic tactics businesses should be able to start attracting the right kind of followers to their social media pages, which in turn should help increase exposure and eventual return on investment. Finding external specialist help to fully realise the potential of the business’ social media pages ought to be considered.