“I haven’t got the time to become a social media mogul overnight!”
You’ve set up a blog for your business, you’ve created an Instagram account, a Facebook page and a Twitter — that’s all the boxes ticked, it should only be a matter of time before you break the internet a la Kim K, right?
Unfortunately, social media success does not come that easily. Sure, 8.3 million people (the equivalent of the entire population of London in 2015) have decided that they just weren’t getting enough exposure to felines IRL and, consequently, elected to follow the account cats_of_instagram. And true, roughly 10 million people per day log onto Facebook just so they can relentlessly Crush Candies. But don’t let social media’s numerous trivial uses fool you into adopting a laissez-faire attitude.
There are small business owners out there that do just that — put little to no time into their social media marketing. These owners will tell you that social media is the prerogative of ‘hipster’ millennials, and is, therefore, not a priority for them. These business owners are significantly limiting the potential of their enterprise, and you do not want to be one of them!
Conducting a “15-Minute Social Media Makeover” is an ideal place to start. All that’s needed to conduct one is internet access, and your findings will allow you to continually audit your social platforms for strengths and weaknesses.
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Locate All Your Profiles
How many social media accounts are linked to your business? Be brutally honest. This includes that first Twitter you made before you forgot the password and got locked out and had to make a whole new one. That YouTube channel with one video to its name– count that too. Do a roll call of everything that boasts the name of your business and sees if there are any ‘double ups’ or noticeable gaps. Is there a Facebook page as well as a Facebook Business Page that could be causing confusion amongst your prospective clients? You may have listed your business as an achievement on your own LinkedIn, but does your business have a LinkedIn with which to impress? Make a definitive list, and later you can begin creating additional accounts and deactivating any obsolete ones.
Give Your Channels a Quick ‘Health Check’
This step is all about doing a quick assessment of your social media’s performance. Which platforms have the most followers and which platforms have the least? Is your Instagram surging ahead while your Tweets remain untweeted? Looking at your followers is a quick way to get a rough idea of what’s working well, and what needs a bit of TLC. Keep in mind that there is no need to live and die by these numbers in the long term. While it’s great to know where most of your followers reside in your social network, don’t get too obsessed with chasing big digits. As you peruse your accounts, keep an eye out for little continuity errors, you want all your avatars to be the same, your URLs looking uniform and everything following your business’ distinct brand.
This will allow you to get a gauge of your current social media strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you’ve got a great following on Twitter but can’t seem to work out Instagram, keep leveraging your following on Twitter. One company that has done this to great effect is the fast food chain Wendy’s, who have continued to gain outstanding engagement on their twitter posts and used these to grow their business.
Whereas they’ve struggled to gain regular traction on both Facebook and Instagram, their best tweets consistently gain millions of impressions. Instead of figuring out how they could minimise these week spots, they decided to go all in on their strong profile. They rely heavily on humour, memes and trending hashtags to appeal to their target audience of younger millennials. This is a great lesson for all businesses with social media accounts; leverage your strengths on one platform to create an engaged audience before you look to be active on every platform.
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Who Are Your Heroes?
Who are the giants in your field? Go straight to their social media accounts and see what makes them so damn special! They haven’t gotten to the top by accident — their social media marketing will be consistent, on brand, and it will target their market like a heat-seeking missile. It will also be visually appealing. Many successful Instagram accounts are a great example of this, using ‘The Rule of Threes’ to attract followers. Each set of three images will feature similar content to achieve a harmonious sense of ‘flow’ as you scroll through the account. By learning from other successful businesses, you can make your social media work better for you.
Focus On Your Content Pillars
Once you have gained enough followers, it is necessary to maintain the number by keeping them engaged. It is where you need to focus on your content pillars. Try to add content that is of interest to your followers. Informative posts, industry news and giveaways are some post types that one should consider in social media.
You can even showcase the benefits of taking your business services by dividing them into several posts. This would be a long process but surely a successful one. Have a chain of interactive posts that features the benefits of taking your service. With each post, you can feature unique benefits and link back to your website where the followers can find all the details.
One brand that has effectively leveraged social media to increase their organic following is General Electric Motors. They’ve done this primarily by turning their own unique work into inspiring content that has attracted fans from all over the world. One of their highlights was teaming up with a renowned filmmaker to descend into the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua, often referred to as the Mouth of Hell.
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This proved incredibly effective for General Electric, as this type of content suited their brand perfectly. They wanted to be known as more of an edgy brand that loves to take risks and have tailored their social media marketing strategy accordingly. To experience the same level of success with your social media strategy, you need to identify specific traits and behaviours in your ideal customer and create content that appeals to these specific individuals.
What Are Your Goals?
As the 15-Minute Social Media Makeover ends, reflect on what you’ve garnered and how this affects your goals. If you are happy with the amount of Facebook followers you have, but the only voice on your page is your own, you may want to focus on boosting your user engagement in future. If your Instagram posts are only getting love from spam accounts (User get1000_instagram_followers, you are so not real) you may want to try only posting at most three times a day, and staggering these posts so they appear at user peak times.
No one can expect to achieve a loyal following of users in one day. It takes time and demands a prominent digital marketing agency to work on a lucrative social media strategy that creates engaging content to builds up your brand. Setting fifteen minutes aside for your social media marketing may not seem like much but a short ‘makeover’ can get your social channels back on track for success.
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