Unless you have had your head buried in the sand, you are probably well aware of social media. Facebook, Linked in, Twitter, Instagram etc seem to be mentioned in the media almost as frequently as economics, the environment and politics.

But why should I have a social media strategy for my business?

• It’s Free
• It can improve your search engine ranking – Facebook pages rank highly in Google and can improve the search engine ranking of your business’ website
• It helps keep your business top of mind – If you update regularly it keeps your business top of mind amongst clients as updates will appear on their ‘newsfeed’
• A client communication vehicle – A simple means of providing valuable information to clients
• A means of attracting new clients and a great way to get client feedback.

Do

• Ensure you update regularly.  Post relevant and helpful information
• Post questions or conversation starters. This will help you engage your audience and enlighten you about their needs
• Mix up your updates to keep them fresh e.g. Links, photos, discussion topics, latest promotions etc.

Don’t

• Use anything other than your business trading name
• Use your business page for personal interactions (ie. communicating with friends in an open forum)
• Overtly sell your services all of the time.

A good rule of thumb when deciding whether to post something online – would you be comfortable with this appearing on the front page of the newspaper?  If so, post away!!

But which one should I use?

That decision will need to be yours, but here’s quick overview of a few different platforms to pick the one right for you.  If you want to be active on a number of platforms, there are providers such as Hootsuite or Buffer that help you update multiple platforms at the same time.

Linked In – LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking site, ideal for B2B relationships.  Australia has over 6 million members on LinkedIn and over 40% of members log in and check their news feed every day.

Facebook – Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.  Through your business page you can share a variety of content, like updates and keep in contact with your clients.  Just keep in mind the most effective posts aren’t the advertisements, it should be something casual that starts a conversation.

Twitter – Twitter enables users to send and read short messages – “tweets”. Registered users can read and post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them.  The problem is there is a lot of traffic on Twitter, so it will take some effort to stand out from the pack.  Use a tool like Buffer to schedule tweets throughout the day, tweeting 2 – 5 times daily.  Keep your tweets relevant, short and include hashtags where you can.

Instagram – Instagram is an image and video based platform best suited to business within the food, fashion, luxury, or lifestyle industries.  Instagram is owned by Facebook, so it’s easy to share your Instagram content on Facebook.

Pinterest – Much like Instagram, Pinterest is a great platform for anyone involved in the food or fashion fields. However, Pinterest has been shown to be an effective platform for travel, design, home decor, and anything related to DIY. Think of it as a virtual pin/ideas board.

YouTube – If you’re offering advice or sharing expertise, there’s no reason why you can’t be creating informative and useful videos for your customers. You could also create ‘meet the team’ footage.  Add a link from your other social networks to your YouTube video.  Because Google owns YouTube, these videos do extremely well in search rankings.

Google+ – Google+ is a social network that builds off a Google Account.  Contacts are arranged into ‘circles’ so you can decide what you share within each ‘circles’.  ie friends will not be in the same ‘circle’ as your clients.

If you haven’t seen it already, click on the link below to watch a video showcasing the power of social and mobile. Created by bestselling author and keynote speaker, Erik Qualman (@equalman).  Always interesting viewing.

#Socialnomics

Social Media Revolution 2017 by Erik Qualman