Business leaders of any size company all benefit from practical business tips and advice from other business owners, CEOs, and leaders just like them. That is why TAB members and business coaches submit business tips to help create our Tips from the Top newsletter. This edition of business tips from the top focuses on how social media is used to promote products and services, increase brand awareness, and drive website traffic.
Social media marketing is long past it’s “infancy” stage as a viable marketing and relationship management resource. Unless your target marketing is squarely in the 80+ age range, if your company does not have some level of social media presence, you are way behind the curve.
If this is the case, one option is to hire a social media & PR firm (or freelance professional) to help you get set up. They can provide you with recommendations for which platforms you should focus on—given your target market—and set up your accounts for you. You may also decide to let them run your social media accounts for you for several months until you are ready to delegate the activity to employees on your internal team.
Post updates to your social media accounts daily—several times a day. This can be managed using a service, such as Hootsuite, to schedule posts in advance to all your social media accounts. This will allow whoever is managing your social media accounts to schedule posts for the week all at once, without interrupting their work throughout the day to post regular updates.
Pro Business Tip
Does your company also produce an email newsletter and/or blog? Repurpose this existing content into social media posts. This will save time as well as increase the visibility of your other important marketing assets.
You can also use your social media connections to collect client testimonials. Keep an eye out for positive customer reviews on your accounts, taking advantage of these testimonials in other channels such as on your website or in printed materials. Take it a step further by reaching out to your client connections on LinkedIn and asking for a Recommendation. If you have provided your clients with a positive experience, they should be more than happy to post a quick recommendation. This text can also be repurposed in other marketing channels such as your website.
Above all, engage with your social network. Remember, social media is a platform for conversations. You should participate in conversations that others in your network start, as well as encourage others to engage with your content.
Easily track what people are saying about you on social media (and other digital platforms) by signing up for Google Alerts, Social Mention, or Addictomatic. These will alert you when your company (and other keywords you select) are being mentioned on social media.
Pro Business Tip
Set up alerts for your competitor’s brand names in your Google Alerts account so you can easily keep current with their social networks and trends as well!
To many, social media marketing can seem overwhelming, with a low return on time investment. When executed correctly, this could not be further from the truth. Accessibility and engagement on social media have become the standard, and is not about to go away any time soon!
TAB’s Tips from the Top series is all about sharing advice. So, tell us, how are you using social media to promote your business? What works well, and what have you found to not work for you?