If like me, you grew up in the noughties, then social media will have come of age around about the same time as you did. And boy, what a wild ride it’s been right?

Upon its fledgeling debut into the big wide world, your Facebook page was more of a safe space for fangirling over Leo, uploading an entire album of photos from your digital camera after every night out, or writing cringe-worthy inside jokes on each other’s walls and timelines – now, it can be a powerful marketing tool.

Since then, the world of social media has become a little bit more sophisticated. US President numero 45 activity excluded of course. Apps have become smart-phone accessible, keeping users insatiably engaged with such a vast amount of features that it is simply impossible to keep track of them all. And, although the tweens of the current not-so-roaring twenties might prefer to spend their time online lip-syncing to the words of TOWIE stars on TikTok* some mainstream platforms are a pretty great place to advertise your business and interact with prospective – and current – customers.

*other short-form video blogging sites battling hefty lawsuits have always, and will always be, available

Even though the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been comfortably sitting on our phones, laptops, and tablets for a while now, many still do not know how to properly utilize them to promote their business appropriately.

Now, as we’re all pretty much glued to our devices and willingly offer up our valuable user behaviour to the data-collector powers that be, it’s only fair that you’re able to use a little social media nature vs nurture to your own advantage.

Here are a few tips to help get you started…

 

1. Create a business page

Not to be confused with a personal page like the one you already have; a business page is the most compliant and effective way of easily promoting your business online. Simply log in to your FB/Twitter/Insta account, visit settings and select ‘create new page’ (or similar)

To get started you’ll need to upload a profile picture, cover photo, and basic info about your business. This is easy enough to do by yourself, but keep in mind that in order for your page to look super slick and be easily found by customers, you’ll want your bio and imagery to be optimized…

2. Optimise your content

Optimising your page means writing an about section and social media posts that will engage your audience and provide useful information that search engines can easily pick up and rank. To do this effectively you’ll need to understand your audience and create posts that they’ll find interesting and useful, consistently encouraging people to like, share and engage with your CTA’s.

3. Be active

To make sure your business page is working hard for you you’ll need to be consistent in your activity on the platform. This means participating in groups (public and private) and posting regular updates with a variety of content types including personalized imagery and links – you’ll also need to make sure you’re frequently replying to customer queries and comments, even the bad ones.

4. Promote events

If you’re a local business, using Facebook to promote an event for your business is especially important. Be sure to use all of the tools at your disposal to attract people to the event. This can include creating an event group, sharing teaser or countdown posts, and even planning an ad campaign around it. Most people check their Facebook app multiple times a day, so don’t miss out on the chance to engage with people who are quite literally waiting for something to tune in or turn up to.

5. Interact, interact, interact

This might seem pretty obvious for social media, but it really is a must if you want to see any real engagement or traction from your online community. Make sure you answer questions, respond to comments and participate in conversations that are happening online to ensure that your posts are showing up to your followers, and theirs.

6. Stream events

In the current climate, hosting real events or attracting customers to a shop or place isn’t realistic. Luckily, you can now host events virtually via the ‘live’ option across most platforms. This allows you to interact in real-time with your audience, safely. This is another great way of promoting your business because when you go live, all of your followers will receive a notification that you’re there, prompting them to engage with your page when they see the notification pop up.

7. Run ads

Social media PPC ads are now one of the most popular and cost-effective ways to reach a large, targeted audience. Even if you’re a complete novice, you can get a lesson directly from FB themselves to get you started. You can also easily control budgets to ensure that you’re spending as much, or as little, as you like.

8. Get Creative

The beauty of social media is that it’s always on, which means that your prospects and customers are too. That gives you plenty of opportunities to promote your overall brand and ethos in lots of different ways. A great way to show off your company culture is to share candid day-to-day tasks, images and video clips of your team to engage with audiences on a personal level and thus encourage interaction.

9. Get competitive

If you haven’t already guessed it, encouraging engagement is one of the main objectives of social media promotion. A good way of enticing more followers to your page and thus raising the profile of your business is to host competitions and giveaways. This is simple, easy to manage and helps to increase brand awareness, whilst also generating interaction with followers.

10. Be valuable

No matter how invested you are able to be with your social media business pages, the most important thing to remember is that your content should always provide value to your audience. Whether that’s providing useful insights, sharing relevant news items or blogs, creating powerful imagery or telling important stories, if you’re generating valuable content then your business will ultimately benefit as a result.

For most businesses, social media is an essential part of your marketing strategy and should be treated as such. To keep this as effective as possible it’s important to develop both organic and paid social media strategies to support the growth and success of your business, especially in a more digitally reliant world.

To chat in more detail about how best to boost your socials, get in touch!