Social media – everyone’s on it, but are you really using it to its full potential? An active, engaging social media presence can do wonders for your business. So you think you’ve got it covered with Facebook or Twitter and the platforms you find yourself scrolling on a day-to-day basis. Because what’s the use of having Facebook if you don’t even talk to your friends on there, right? The same applies for business.
With so many platforms available, sometimes it’s hard to stay active online. That’s why we thought you might appreciate the following;
5 tips to help put the ‘social’ into your social media strategy
- It’s all about engagement
The first thing to remember is that engaging with your customers involves much more than a simple follow or ‘like’ on Facebook. There’s no better way to engage your fans or followers than through conversation. Asking people to get involved with questions, competitions, or a simple ‘thank you for following’ (or liking) note can really open the gateway for future conversation.
Once you’ve established a conversation, there’s an opportunity to increase the value of your interaction, by allowing consumers to drive conversation and influence discussion. This is a great way to build a positive relationship, while benefiting your brand and the consumer at the same time.
Remember – a relationship is a two-way street. Don’t consume conversation with how great your brand is, when your customers are really just concerned with the value for themselves or the “What’s In It For Me?” philosophy. You might want to read more on being active on social media.
Also, there’s no point spending all this time trying to engage customers if you aren’t going to respond! If a customer comes directly to you with a question, comment or feedback, it is crucial to take this on board and respond as quickly – and as genuinely – as possible, even if it’s negative.
- It’s all in the timing
Consider this – you wouldn’t post something online at midnight when no one’s awake to see it, right? It seems obvious – you need to be aware of when your customers are online.
Generally, there are three hotspots during the day: 6am-8am, 1pm and 6-8pm. Facebook posts gain the most attention on Thursdays and Fridays and Twitter’s engagement levels increase on the weekends. Of course, it is important to monitor your specific customers’ social activity to find the best time to post for your audience.
- Monitoring & tracking your social media performance
The best way to monitor and track is to use your platform’s analytical tools. For example, Facebook have an array of insights available to business pages for free. If you’re not sure where to begin, check out their help page. Twitter offers “Twitter Cards” (currently accessible through twitter ads for free) – an analytic tool used when you’re logged into your account for tracking tweet numbers, followers, engagements, impressions & much more.
- There’s a line between too little and too much
It’s important to get the right balance on social media. With the growing number of status’ and tweets being posted across platforms every day, remaining consistent is key! Of course, this depends on the medium you are using. For example, Facebook’s official recommendation is to post once per day on your brand page. So my advice? Listen to them. As for Twitter, however, it is a much more fast-moving platform and if you’re not present multiple times per day, you’ll be lost in the endless feed and your customers won’t see you! Using Twitter analytics, we’ve noticed the incredible correlation between increasing number of tweets per day and increasing impressions and followers.
- Mix it up a little and post it right!
As important as it is to be present and consistent, it is essential to be interesting. No one will respond to seeing the same content day in and day out. They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, so why not try sharing some images? As people endlessly scroll through their home feeds, a visual can really stand out and grab attention. A recent study Stone Temple of 133,000 tweets found that using high impact images for tweets make tweets more engaging (and increase your chances of getting indexed by Google) and longer tweets tend to generate more engagement on average.
Similarly, a humorous post can be just as effective in catching and maintaining the attention of your customers. A funny, light-hearted message can put a smile on anyone’s face and if you can do that, they are more likely to like, comment on or share your content.
It can be that simple! Of course, if you need help with your social media strategy or anything marketing, we’d love to help. You can give us a call on (02) 9994 8005 or drop us a note.
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