Social Media can be the great equalizer between huge multinational corporations and small businesses. So what can tip the scale in your favour? How can your business be one of those that have social media pages that enjoy a large following and not a company whose pages are only followed by its employees & their friends?
Here are 5 common sense tips that can help:
1. Content is king!
The first thing to be done is to give people who follow your page a reason to come back. By creating content that is of interest to your demographic base of customers, you engage your fans and can be perceived as a “thought leader”, which is a pre-cursor to increasing sales! You should try to have a nice mix between content that is your own as well as sharing content that your demographic will find of interest. As our parents always taught us, don’t be afraid to share!
2. Open up and let your audience in.
Make yourself available to your audience. Treat them as equals. This will give you a loyal and devoted following. People love to receive a reply, even if it’s just very brief; an acknowledgment. Try to reply in a timely manner. It shows you’re there and you’re listening. Very often your followers will thank you for a prompt, courteous response.
3. Focus, focus, focus.
We all deal with the distractions known as “noise” in both our daily and our social media lives. Stand out as a thought leader rather than as a generalist. Try to be a specialist in one or a few areas, becoming THE source of information relating to your area of expertise, such as your product, service or knowledge. You want to be the go-to resource for your followers.
4. Go get ’em!
Don’t sit back and wait for people to find your page! Those pages that are created, remain idle and are subsequently ignored are most likely to underperform. Set a daily advertising budget and through Facebook ads or by promoting posts, drive traffic to content on your page and give potential consumers a reason to follow your page. You’ll see how quickly your following grows!
5. Baby steps.
Facebook is by far the most popular Social Media worldwide but is it right for you and your business? There are many choices out there. It may be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube etc. Make sure your strategies match those of the platform. Own one media before complimenting it with a second, third or fourth platform. Get to know one platform, make your mistakes (you will), learn from them and once you’ve mastered it and have a significant following you can roll out to other platforms.
Easy enough… Get out there!