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18 February 2014

Social Media Tips: Get The Most Out Of The Platforms

Social Media Tips

Social media tips

When shaping successful social media campaigns, it can be hard for small businesses. Often the problem lies in attempting to best engage with an audience through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Collected beneath are a selection of tried and tested social media tips for small businesses to employ to ensure the highest possible levels of engagement in their social media activities.

social media tips frustration

1.       Careful platform selection

Small businesses often wrongly feel that they need to establish and maintain a presence on every social media platform. This is untrue. Some companies and businesses will fare far better on photo sharing based platforms such as Pinterest or Instagram due to the nature of their products and services. However, others will do far better on the fast paced format of Twitter. In order to have the highest levels of success one of our first social media tips is that a company should spend time considering which platforms their brand is most catered to.

2.       Outsource or In-house?

There are a number of different options which a small business can utilise for social media management. Conducting social media campaigns in-house enables a company to ensure that their message completely conforms to their brand identity. In addition employing a member of the workforce to manage social media platforms ensure that all content is completely accurate and timely.

However, many small companies and businesses simply do not have the time, resources or knowledge in required to effectively conduct their own social media campaigns and ensure they run successfully. In these cases giving control to a professional social media management agency may be a far more effective solution. If small businesses intend to run their social media campaigns in-house they should ensure they are willing to commit 100% to these activities as failure to do so can reflect negatively on the brand.

 3.       Social media is 24 hours a day

Unlike many jobs, social media does not conform to conventional nine to five working hours. The fact of the matter is that in all likelihood the majority of a company or businesses social media following will interact with the brand outside of working hours. Posting content on platforms on a daily basis is an excellent way for a business to engage with their following. However they should also spend time monitoring the number of shares, retweets, likes and comments their content receives as well. This is not to say that a business needs to employ someone to monitor their account 24/7, however they should avoid long gaps between activities and should endeavour to respond to any correspondence as quickly as possible. Otherwise companies run the risk of missing out on potential business and angering disgruntled customers by not responding to complaints or concerns. We have to say this is one our hot social media tips as even negative comments can be turned into positive social media if the company responds in a timely manner.

 4.       Provide incentives

One of the easiest and most effective ways of growing a social media following is to provide users with incentives to like or follow a brand page. Providing a contest or giveaway is an excellent means to create excitement around a business page or account as the majority of people like to receive free things. This measure is also likely to increase the overall social media reach of a brand thus increasing the chance to attract new customers and followers.

Whilst incentives do have a number of merits, businesses should not expect every participant to become a loyal and committed customer of the brand. However brands have the ability to nurture these individuals into brand loyalists over time through interacting with them and providing them with fresh and interesting content.

Before embarking on their first social media based contest or competition, small businesses would do well to conduct research on best practices, more social media tips and other successful social media campaigns.