Whether you’re searching for new customers, looking to build up your brand awareness, or just hoping to create a network of connections, social media can be a dream come true—when it’s done right. But with over a billion members on Facebook alone, making a name for your business on social media can be tricky. That’s why you need to be clever about it if you intend to grow.
Every marketer seems to have a different strategy when it comes to social media. How do you pick the right one? Well, there’s no point in signing up for a social media site just to let your profile collect dust.
Start at the top: pick a strategy and stick to it. If it isn’t working well (you should be measuring your results using specific performance indicators), change it up a bit. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t.
And at the end of the day, remember these two very important words of advice: Be Unique.
Standing Out in a Room Full of Strangers
When you’re successful on social media sites and grow your following, it’s essentially like standing out in a room full of strangers. What do you do to make yourself seem different from the rest of the group? Well, you’ve got to have your own style, be original, and maintain your own point of view.
But it’s not just about signing up or being original. Really, you have to maintain an active persona if you intend to be successful. Draw in potential customers with unique posts, tweets or updates, then engage them in conversation—start a meaningful exchange. Something they’re likely to remember, which in turn will help them remember your business name.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to make sure you keep up with all your interactions, a process that can be greatly simplified through the use of a CRM with social media from Insightly. After all, you don’t want to miss a beat if a follower tweets you props or (gasp!) a complaint; you want to address it immediately and set it straight, so people know you’re serious about customer service.
Get Smart with Twitter
Your Twitter bio is technically the most important part of your Twitter persona. Why? Because, it’s what people use to determine whether or not to follow you, and it’s searchable within the site.
You could be tweeting the world’s best 140-character wisdom and still miss a massive number of potential followers who don’t get the point of your bio. Lesson? Use carefully selected keywords in your bio and make it POP. If you’re feeling especially clever, use a haiku or short poem to write your Twitter bio. The point is to make it stand out among all the others out there (and there are A LOT).
Recently, Twitter updated their search capabilities to make them more refined for mobile operating systems. This is an important step. It means everything you’re tweeting (especially if you attach pictures to your tweets) should be mobile friendly.
In addition: users can now search for local content on Twitter. That’s more important than you may think. Start tweeting about things with #local relevance. Use hashtags that mention your city or state, and get savvy with growing your local business following.
Part of being smart about social media is keeping up with the latest updates. Don’t miss out on opportunities to be savvy because you’re not in the know!
Finding Success with Facebook
First things first about Facebook: you need a snazzy and attention-grabbing profile pic. Make sure your cover photo is equally as cool, so people who visit your business’s page are encouraged to stick around. The goal isn’t always just to garner “likes,” but really to get your name out there and create positive interactions with potential customers.
Humor is a GREAT way to cleverly grow your following. It’s also smart to search through hashtags relevant to your business and join conversations by liking or commenting on other people’s posts that you find relevant. Clicking the ‘share’ button doesn’t hurt either, especially if you find the post inspiring.
Be sure you fill in every inch of your Facebook profile. Better to give people who visit your page as much info as you possibly can about your business, right? What’s nice about Facebook is they will give you a heads up by letting you know if your profile is incomplete.
Keep an eye out for a little red square next to the “update info” button on your home page that indicates you’ve got some updating to do.
What About LinkedIn?
LinkedIn has a lower percentage of active users than Pinterest, Google+, Twitter or Facebook. Many people sign up but don’t regularly use it. Our advice here is not to refrain from joining LinkedIn, but to be especially smart when it comes to utilizing this social network.
Companies the world over use LinkedIn Company Pages to share content and promote their businesses. But LinkedIn has recently taken this a step further by introducing Showcase Pages.
What are Showcase Pages? Well, if your company has more than one unique product or service to feature (and many companies do), now you have the option to create a Showcase Page for every item you carry.
Users have the flexibility to follow not just your company page, but the pages that specifically showcase products or services they like. Why is this special?
It gives users a way to express their interest in specific products and gives businesses a way to promote multiple products. A win-win situation for all!
Kelly Lucia is the Lead Staff Writer at PostsbyGhost.com. A ghostwriting service that provides businesses with the opportunity to build their online presence and grow their companies, Posts by Ghost offers strategic blogging, content marketing and SEO assistance to businesses of all shapes and sizes. Kelly hit the ground running as a web copywriter several years ago and hasn’t stopped since. Over the last few years she’s developed a vast range of knowledge within the realm of content writing, and she prides herself on being able to write clear and unique content for an immense variety of industries, from overseas blogs about raffle tickets to small business and marketing advice on ChamberofCommerce.com.
