Source – http://www.marrestaurant.com
How much do you know about social media? Did you know that more than half of Twitter and Facebook users are more likely to purchase products from a brand they follow online? People send more than 350,000 tweets per minute, and nearly 60 percent of people check Facebook at least once per day. If your company isn’t using social media right—or worse, not at all—you are missing out on valuable advertising.
Keep Your Bio Short and Sweet
You want people to know who you are and what you’re about right away. Twitter and Instagram make this easy enough because they don’t give you a lot of room to get too wordy, but Facebook is a bit more difficult. When it comes to your bio, mention your company name, your product or service, and a short, plain mission statement.
Get Right to the Point
It’s not just your bio that needs to get to the point. Your posts need to do the same. Again, Twitter’s character limit makes this easy, but Instagram and Facebook allow you to be considerably more wordy, so it is important to know what you want to say before you say it. Keep your message above the “fold”—the place where a reader must click to see more on Facebook and Twitter—and be sure to keep it interesting if you want to keep them engaged.
Use Your Branding
A good business has a solid color scheme and a recognizable logo; don’t just use it on your website. It needs to be your profile pictures or backgrounds on every social media account your company uses. Without the right branding, your targeted audience may not realize you are the same company. Whatever you do, do not stick to using the defaults provided when you create an account. Many users view these accounts as fake or spam.
Ask Questions
Get your followers involved by asking relevant and targeted questions. If you have specific products or services that you need feedback about, ask for it. Do you simply need to spark some chatter on your page? Ask about everyone’s weekend or what their favorite part of a recent holiday or event was. Not everything needs to be used as an advertising opportunity. Good, old-fashioned communication will keep people interested in your business.
Respond to People
When you do ask questions, comment on some of the responses to show you like to talk to your audience. Have your followers messaged you on Facebook or asked you questions on Twitter? Answer them. If you appear non-responsive on social media, your followers will assume you’ll be non-responsive if they need customer service, too.
Post Often, But Don’t Overdo It
Do not abandon your account. If you post less than once every few days, people will likely because bored and begin unfollowing you. However, you shouldn’t post too often, either. Once or twice per day is usually sufficient. If you post so often that your followers constantly see you at the top of their feed, they are likely to stop paying attention at all.
Add High-Quality Images
Your posts will be more interesting with images. They are required on Instagram, so start planning now. Consider showcasing your best employees, uploading pictures of a recent company event or creating funny memes targeted toward your audience. However, never joke about tragic events under any circumstances. You’ve probably seen those viral posts about huge social media faux pas made by large corporations. Don’t add your name to the list.
Follow the Right People
Especially if you are just starting your business, it is important to follow the right people. However, this doesn’t mean you need to clutter your feeds by following every person who follows you. Instead, think of who you admire in your industry. Do you run a restaurant? Try following celebrity chefs. Are you an artist? Follow some of your favorite museums. Don’t forget about local non-profits. People love to support businesses that are genuinely interested in their community.
Use Trending Topics
It is important to know what’s popular in the world, again without making jokes about serious topics, though. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook all provide ways for you to see what people are talking about most. Find topics relevant to your company and talk about them. This is a perfect time to ask questions and respond to followers, too.
Give a Little of Yourself
Your followers want to know there are real people behind the brand name. Don’t be too technical and don’t keep everything strictly business. Show off your human side by offering anecdotes about your family, posting pictures of vacations, or talking about your weekend. To quote Twitter as an example, some CEOs and executives have started to share a Twitter profile which reflects their business as well as friends & family aspect. For instance, the Twitter profile of Keith Krach, CEO of DocuSign, features family, friends, and colleagues as well as references popular entertainment and other trending topics on a regular basis.
To conclude, the bottomline is that you need to ‘know’ your audience in order to effectively interact with them. If your business is geared toward providing a product to college students, for example, memes or anecdotes about life with kids won’t reach many of your followers. On the other hand, an insurance company geared toward helping older clients probably wouldn’t find a “poor college student” meme funny. By following these rules and taking time to plan what you post, you can use social media more effectively and hopefully bring in new clients along the way.
