Sometimes it doesn’t matter how great your product/service/offer is – you need an audience to respond to it and people to talk about it. Getting to grips with social media is one of the best ways of reaching new customers, so it’s important to build a community to help build your business.

Where do I start?

First, decide which platform is best for you business. Facebook has the largest reach of any, but if your business is centred around services such as consulting (advice, knowledge etc) Twitter or LinkedIn may be a better way to connect.

If your business is in a trade (shop, products, services etc) then Facebook allows much more dynamic and ‘relatable’ content. By relatable – we mean ‘those clothes look great/that food looks delicious’ – something your audience can feel empathy with, and Facebook allows you to like, tag people and share the content.

We work on specific categories to help define the content:

Knowledgable

Show your audience and potential customers that you are the experts, and by following/liking your page, they will benefit. When posting, as yourself the question ‘would I like/share this?’. Also, slightly broader topics might help reach further. If you’re selling dog grooming products for example, a topic on pets, in general, will garner a further reach, shared by a ‘cat’ person and is then seen by a ‘dog’ person for example.

Inspirational

People like to feel good about themselves, so think about how your product/service could be inspirational to others. ‘Start XXX today’ – inspire people without overtly selling your products – this can help with brand awareness and attract likes to your page.

Conversational

Start a discussion – get people talking and watch the page hits start climbing! Again, you can range from specifics to your industry to broader topics that could have a further reach. Ask questions ‘what’s your favourite XXX’; ask opinions ‘would you do XXX?’ and join in the results. This is a great way of building your community because people will like your page and return for more discussions – just be careful to keep it on topic and moderate any trolls.

Promotional

Of course, amongst the should your promotional content – if it’s relevant to your business, make it humorous. Who knows, it could go viral! But the key is making it relevant – no point sharing a cute cat video unless you can link it with a headline to your law firm/gym/estate agency.

Seasonal

Continuing from ‘promotional’ and ‘inspirational’ – make sure you link to annual activities if it’s relevant – new year, Christmas, summer etc. This is all ‘relatable’ content too. If your business is international, be aware of worldwide events – Black Friday, International Women’s Day, Pride, International Poker Players Day or whatever will be relevant to your business!

Testimonial

Get some of your favourite customers to write a short review – even a sentence is fine – to make into a graphic to post and share.

Dedication

Regular, relevant content will keep your profile buoyant and increase the likelihood of it being found/shared and ultimately leading to revenue. This also means being consistent with posts – it’s not great to see 4 one week and then nothing for 2 weeks. Try and post 2-3 times a week at least.

Professional

Don’t fall into the easy pitfalls of spelling / grammatical mistakes – and take time to make it look good too. Contact a graphic designer, use online templates to make sure what you’re sharing looks great too. Of course, there is humour in tacky memes too, but it’s a fine line!

 

We offer a range of services, from social media planning, copywriting, graphic design and web services to support your business. Get in touch if you’d like to see how we can help your business.