Social Media Presence

Introduction

Following on in this series on how to get started in business – this week we want to take a look at your Social Media presence.

Getting social

Back when you were getting ready to start your business we recommended that you secure your chosen name across all the Social Media platforms that were a match for your business, these might include some or all of the top 7 in 2020:

• LinkedIn – great for B2B & connecting with the movers and shakers
• Facebook – still the No1 in size with an audience for just about any business type
• Instagram – fab for targeting under 35’s & for product based businesses
• X (Twitter) – great forum for marketing, sports, political & entertainment based business
• Pinterest – if your audience is predominantly female this could be for you
• Snapchat – this is where the young teens hangout so if that’s your market...
• Reddit – being one of the top 20 most visited sites with acres of diverse content, ideal for niche markets!

Top Tip

*Use an app such as IFTTT (If This Then That) to repost your content to multiple sites and save yourself time!

Getting social

There’s mixed opinion on how much of a presence you should have on social media, the general rule of thumb is that its better to be on one or two platforms with really good & regular content, than to spread yourself too thin – after all, although these platforms provide a fabulous, free billboard, you still need to factor in your time!

Remember that each platform needs a slightly different approach when posting, so one post doesn’t necessarily fit all!

Keeping regular

Once you’ve decided where is the best fit for you and your business, you need to do a good bit of background research and make a plan of how often and when to launch your posts.

There’s nothing worse than carefully curating some wonderful content, only to see it languish for want of impressions & engagement, just because you posted it at 10am Wednesday, when actually 6pm Thursday would be optimal for your audience and line of work! These times will likely vary for different businesses, audiences and for each of the platforms.

Social Media is run by Algorithms - broadly they all reward invisible brownie points to those who follow a regular posting routine, who engage across their whole platform, who post varied content, who use great, well edited images & who change up their use and number of hashtags. The more the algorithm likes and understands who you are and what you do, then generally, the more it will reward and promote you!

Top Tips

1. Research and make a posting plan for each platform.
2. Keep a list of well researched hashtags in your notes and vary their use and number posted.
3. Find an editing tool or preset that you like and stick with it to produce a branded, consistent and curated feed.
4. Allocate some time each day to engage with each part of the platform – be careful you don’t fall down a rabbit hole though – use a timer!
5. Keep an eye on your best performing posts and take note of when it was posted, what sort of post it was (i.e. Video, Article, Promotion etc), what hashtags were used, who engaged with it.
6. Be consistent – if you decide to post once a day, 3 times a week or once a week – stick to it!
7. Remember no one wants to be bombarded – keep your main feed for well crafted and edited posts – anything else less considered or informal should be on stories or not there at all, its always best not to over-post!

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