Level-Up Your Social’s

If your business isn’t on social media or you don’t have an effective social media strategy – you could be missing a huge opportunity to reach and engage with new customers.

In today’s world, whether you like it or not, social media influences 74 % of purchasing decisions . And, if you’re not an avid scroller, liker and sharer in your downtime, taking up the task in your professional time can be daunting…and somewhat demoralising.

The good news is it doesn’t have to be.

Helpful as always, we’ve put together a few hints and tips help get you confidently posting away. The goal? To build you an online community of fans, advocates, and ambassadors – and most importantly, loyal customers.

Step 1: Choose a relevant social media platform

The simple fact is, there are a lot of social media platforms to choose from. And every six months, yep you guessed it, another one pops up. But that’s ok, most are flash in the pan anyway and luckily, as a business, you’re not meant to be on all of them. If you’re just starting out or have a small team, we suggest concentrating on one platform, two at a push. This way you’ll get to grips with each app’s nuances, and avoid feeling overwhelmed when schedules, notifications and interactions inevitably start building up.

Step 2: Post consistently

All social media channels, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube, reward and favour content creators that post consistently. This means they prefer accounts that post on the regs. However, it’s no good creating an unrealistic schedule that’s going to fall apart the minute someone has a mimosa too many at Sunday brunch. So, choose a schedule that works for you and make sure it’s robust. Sadly, posting once a week isn’t going to cut it – but three times a week is better. Any more than this and things can get a little confusing with algorithms and peak times etc. To combat this, either make sure you have a solid strategy and schedule in place – or hire a professional.

Step 3: Create content in batches

Once you’ve chosen your social media platform and you’re posting consistently, it’s only a matter of time before you run out of content ideas. The clock ticks towards your next post, your hands start to sweat, anxiety kicks in and you have no idea what you want you want to say. Before you know it you’re shoe horning in a photo of Dave from IT’s neighbours sister’s Chihuahua and making an ill-timed pun about having a Pawsome Tuesday. Well, by getting organised and adopting an efficient process that works around your business goals and availability, things can be a lot easier.

Simply schedule a day and time each week that works for you and create all your content then. We know we know, it’s not always that easy, but you do need to prioritise running your business, so having a set time to think about content is a simple, easy win. And, if you’re looking to take social media seriously, using this time each week to research, design and schedule your posts will allow you to:

• Create useful content
• Produce more content, and faster
• Build up a backlog to ease day-to-day management

Do this and those anxiety filled hours of scrolling through old photos, on the hunt for your next viral post, will be a thing of the past. Plus, if you need help making something look extra shiny and shareable – you know where we are [link to contact]

Step 4: Repurpose Content

If you’ve been at this business game a while, chances are you’ve already good some good content in circulation. If so, it’s time to repurpose it.

For example, any sales brochures, customer testimonials, staff achievements or news coverage can be shared to your social media accounts. You can also take blog posts and turn them into sound bites, Twitter threads or snap-shot images. Again, if you want to share a great quote or stat, having it designed on a professional, optimised image can go a long way in helping to make your brand and sound like you know what you’re doing.

Step 5: Be Social

Posting on social media and not engaging with those that follow you, like, comment, and share your content is a big HELL NO. Like posting consistently, every social media platform favors content creators who engage with their community and other accounts.

So, when you’ve chosen your platform, you’re posting consistently, creating content in batches, and scheduling your posts to be sent at the optimal times, don’t forget too actually be social! Remember to follow, like, comment and share other accounts content. Engage with your followers in the comments and join in important conversations. Do this, and within a matter of weeks, you could build a community of raving advocates for your business.

Still stuck? Don’t know where to start with social media or need some help creating some images, animations or words that’ll really get the people going? Simply drop us a line here, we’d love to help.