Over the past couple of months social media has seen a huge boom in users and activity – not unexpectedly with lockdown pretty much in place across the world. We’ve seen the increase from a business point of view too, with more interest and enquiries in digital marketing, how best to use social media for business and generally, advice on the platforms we recommend.
It seemed fitting then to use the EGO article this month to share my favourite social media tips and advice with the readers!
The important thing with social media is a lot of the ‘rules’ and advice work across most platforms. As a business, you might be using more than one platform to get exposure, this could be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and perhaps even TikTok!
Content Ideas – A Quick Fix
One of the most common complaints I hear is that clients can’t think of anything to post. My advice is to really explore all of the features a platform gives you to post. So for example, if we’re looking at Facebook pages you can share pictures, videos, slideshows, create polls, go live, check into a location, share your feelings, share your activities, tag people, create a watch party… the list goes on. So, my advice always is, if you’re struggling to come up with a varied list of content for the week, see how you can utilise the features available to you. It’ll instantly help you create varied content.
Another quick fix for content ideas is to use the “Days of the Month”. There’s literally an international or national day every day of the month, and it’s great if you can find one that works well for your business. In June we’ve got things like Child Safety Week, World Oceans Day, Adult Learners Week… even Wallace and Gromit’s Wrong Trousers Day (that’s the 28th of June in case you were interested!).
Content Plan
This is a tip I often give to people too – plan your content. I tend to go week by week, because anything longer than that becomes a bit stale. The biggest plus for having a plan is that you won’t feel overwhelmed if you’re having a busy week, by having to make sure you’ve posted. If you start to feel overwhelmed by it, you’ll really struggle for ideas and end up not posting. Sit down on a Monday or any day that suits you, and plan content for the next 7 days. You don’t have to post every day on some platforms, but having a rough guide or plan will really help, and save you time in the long run.
Which Platform?
I always get asked which platforms a business should go on. It’s a very fair question, some do better than others depending on your type of business. However, never feel that you should go on all of the platforms because others are. It’s far better to do very well on one, than spread yourself too thin and barely keep up across 3 or even 4.
Linking Platforms
Never link your platforms (this is where you post to one, and it automatically shares on another). I still see businesses doing this even in 2020, and it’s long been a big no-no! Yes, it seems like a quick fix to get your posts out there on maybe Facebook and Twitter (two birds, one stone) but it’ll only annoy your followers. Each platform was created with a purpose in mind, and every platform has different users. Different users are different audiences, and you might find the audience on your Twitter profile is hugely different to that on your Facebook or Instagram. Your followers want to feel valued, and this won’t happen if you’re not putting the effort in (remember what I said about spreading yourself too thin?). Also consider the different social media rules, for example, Twitter has a 280 character limit. Any longer posts you share automatically from Facebook to Twitter will cut off and add a Facebook link – very frustrating if your follower isn’t even on Facebook. Another example – Instagram posts generally have anything up to 30 hashtags, which isn’t the general rule over on Twitter or Facebook. The only linking I’d ever recommend is Instagram stories over to Facebook stories and that’s only because Facebook own Instagram, and endorse this themselves.
I’ve given Facebook its own space here simply because I often refer to it as the bread and butter for businesses looking to use social media. It has so many options if you have a business page, and it tries really hard to work with business owners to make the most of the platform. With a business page, you can make use of the Shop feature (visitors can buy from you directly off Facebook), create call to actions, use the Appointments feature (perfect for hairdressers for example), grow a community around your business with the Groups feature, advertise Jobs and take applications in, create and advertise Events and there’s even more on the way. Taking it a step further, Facebook has an incredibly comprehensive Advert Manager too, so you can run a number of advertisement campaigns and manage every aspect in incredible detail.
Conclusion
The world of digital marketing and social media is always changing. In the past 6 weeks alone there have been so many announcements of new features coming to all of my favourite platforms. It’s impossible for me to put everything I’d like to share in one EGO article, but I’m always open for questions so please do get in touch. We’ve also got a range of webinars on every week at the moment too, and always open for suggestions or requests.