In today’s marketplace, social media is the best thing to happen to the small business in a very long time. Not only is almost every person in the developed world using some form of social media but that use is provided free of charge – making it possible for brands to reach an audience of millions with minimal effort.
Unlike traditional television or print marketing, businesses of every size are able to create wildly successful advertising campaigns today on the tightest of budgets. While it’s easier than ever to put your brand in front of your target audience, if you don’t have a strategy for doing so, you’re hurting your business.
Not investing time, effort, and funding into the right approaches can cause your online presence to look uncoordinated and unprofessional compared to your competitors. Here are a few areas to focus on regarding your social media strategy:
Graphics
With all the free tools available, the consumer expectation for high-quality graphics is at an all-time high. We now exist within a very visual society where images and video are what garners the most customer attention.
Scrimping by converting a PowerPoint slide into a JPEG isn’t going to cut it anymore. Instead, utilize free, and low-cost platforms such as Buffer’s Pablo, PicMonkey, Canva, or Adobe spark to create high-resolution graphics and memes to share with your audience.
When it comes to editing video content, using the basic features on an iPhone (iMovie app), YouTube, and Facebook’s video editing tools can take you a long way. Other free or inexpensive video editing platforms include Overvideo, GoAnimate (free 14-day trial), and again, Adobe Spark.
Now, keep in mind that it’s going to take time to create all the rich visual content you’ll need for each your social media accounts. Posting the same picture to all of your feeds isn’t a wise approach because different audiences prefer different formats on each platform.
Creating graphics will take at least a few hours each week, and can quickly become a fulltime job. If you are too busy to be able to manage it on your own, you might consider hiring a content creator/social media manager. It’s an investment that will pay high dividends in the end. Contact us for more details.
Erratic Posting
Continuously developing and sharing relevant content via social media can be a daunting task, but if you commit to making it a part of your overall marketing strategy, it becomes less tedious and more rewarding over time. The key is to develop a schedule for sharing your content that works for you while satiating your audience’s hunger for valuable and entertaining substance.
Posting randomly and sporadically makes your business appear as disconnected – the opposite of what your followers want you to be. Try to establish a slow trickle of content which is posted at least every few days to demonstrate your connectedness to your audience.
Even if you don’t have a cushion of your own original content to share, content curated from the web via tools like Curata, Drumup, and Curation Suite, can be scheduled in advance to be posted while you’re away from your desk.
Pro Tip: If you don’t know what kinds of things to share with your audience, take a look at what your competitors are sharing to gain some insight.
Not Engaging with Your Audiences
While sharing relevant content helps to grow an audience, engaging with your followers helps to keep that audience. When your followers “like” or share your content, they’re vouching for you and your brand. When they leave comments or questions, however, they’re speaking directly to you. Leaving their feedback unanswered is the fastest way to lose their support.
Whether it’s a question about a new product, a comment about poor customer service, or a person giving you props for your services which solved a problem they had, you must strive to respond to each comment and contribute to each discussion.
If you fail to at least give a thumb’s up on Facebook to a follower who is giving you praise, you’re ignoring the very life source of your business’s success. Also, if you fail to respond to a negative comment, it leaves the door open for your followers to engage in their own negative dialogue about your lack of concern, which can easily snowball.
As things tend to blow up and go viral literally overnight, you don’t want you brand plastered across multiple social media outlets for the wrong reasons. Nip those undesirable issues in the bud by responding quickly to the public comments and moving it to private messaging or phone calls when necessary.
The McGee Group can help you with all your social media needs www.themcgeegrp.com.