Social Media

Get Social. Yes, you may need to get out of your shell, but you need to join the social media party to win fans and customers. Interactions are personal and social media platforms allow your business to show your unique personality. Connect with consumers and audiences with similar interests, needs, and values. By interacting with your social connections, you develop a feeling of loyalty which will turn into sales.

E-Word of Mouth

E-word of mouth drives social media. The internet reaches billions of consumers, people are talking, nd it doesn’t take too long for news to travel. Social influencers can rapidly bring attention to products and services. Retweets, reposts, and shares spread information driving more traffic and sales to the company.

Market Intelligence

Market Research is up front and center with social media. Many businesses fear a negative review or comment. If you are quick to address comments you can use this valuable information to improve your product and operation. You will know very quickly what is right and what is wrong. Making quick adjustments and thanking the customer and or resolving the issue will establish loyalty and trust. People get that mistakes happen, but they want resolution, and in today’s age, many people take their complaints online. If you have a winning product, business or service you will be rewarded with positive reviews and business. Reviews drive business, and if you are absent from the social media world, you will lose out to your competition.

Public Relations

Social Media channels allow business owners to talk directly to their customers. Social channels are communication vehicles that give entrepreneurs a platform to tell their story without waiting for a potential article release by traditional publications social platforms release breaking news and is quickly disseminated. It is an excellent idea for businesses to encourage customers to interact to express their feelings, ideas, suggestions or remarks with new product releases or concepts.

Social Media Plan

Let’s face it; there is a lot of work and preparation to develop good social media content. You need to establish different marketing strategies for different channels. Get organized and create a plan.

• Define the Channel:  Determine the social channels you want to target.
• Define your Targeted Audience:  This will help establish your voice and content.
• Establish your Goals: Determine if you are targeting sales goals or developing a brand image.
• Content Strategy:  Decide if you will use images, videos, informational text, inspirational quotes, customer stories, cartoons, sharing industry posts.
• Brand Image:  Define your overall presentation look and feel.  Define your voice.

Time and Frequency of Social Postings

There is a fine line between posting too much or too little and finding the right time to get exposure.  While there are industry suggestions that are an excellent guide, each business will determine what works and by all means experiment.  Understanding your audience may determine the best time to post.  You want to stay top of mind without driving your fans crazy, and you want to have quality content to share. If you don’t have quality content that will bring value to your audience, then do not share.

• Facebook:  Due to the mass popularity of Facebook worldwide, algorithms have been put in place to filter out posts and display what Facebook feels each user would want to see. Simply put, if users are not engaging with posts from a business, then they will stop seeing the posts altogether. For businesses, Facebook is phenomenal as an advertising medium.  Without advertising you may not get many likes or shares, it is important to keep up-to-date content since your customers will look at your page to understand your brand.
  • When to post:  1 -2 posts per weekday and one post per weekend.  Best times Thursday and Fridays between 1 -3 pm. 75% of your reach potential for post engagement happens in the first 5 hours; some say it could be as little as 90 minutes.  You might want to try early morning posts to catch the morning scrollers.  Motivational quotes are good early in the morning.
• Instagram:  There is an unspoken rule that you should not post more than one time per day on Instagram, but some sources report there is no drop-off for posting more.  Add images of behind the scenes and include your customers & employees.
  • When to post: 1 time per day. Best time to post is anytime Monday to Thursday except for 3-4 pm.
• Twitter:  75% of a tweet reach potential  2 hours and depending on the traffic it could be reduced to minutes. Sharing the same content, with new text, at multiple times is a great way to get more exposure.  Mention influencers, individuals or companies that you mention for retweets.
  • When to post: 4 – 15 tweets per day, lean towards the higher number if you want to reach different time zones. For maximum retweets, post at 5 p.m., noon, and 6 p.m. The best days to Tweet for business-to-business organizations is Monday through Friday, for business-to-consumer, it’s the weekends and Wednesdays.
• YouTube:  YouTube is the second largest search channel.  Make sure to add great titles, meta description, and tags for best search results.  Add your YouTube to all social media channels as soon as you publish on YouTube. You want to get likes asap.
  • When to post:  As often as possible.  Videos are great for SEO, and social viewers will love a good content mix.
• Linkedin:  Linkedin is a B2B site and if you are targeting this social channel, make sure your content is relevant to this audience.  Avoid too many promotional posts on this site.  Share industry and company news.
  • When to post:  1 post a day Monday to Friday.
• Pinterest: Pinterest is where pinners post their inspirations.  If you’re engaged, you will post inspirational wedding photos, if you’re designing a new room you will post inspirational pieces and design pictures.  Pinners search categories to find pins to add to their inspirational boards. It is important to SEO your boards and posts so that your pins will be found.  Pinterest generates sales, and this is a social media channel that cannot be ignored. Make sure to post high-quality images and take advantage of vertical photos. Vertical photos take up a lot of screen real estate and are proven to have higher engagement. 70% of the pins are clicked on the first day, but with proper SEO techniques your pins will have longevity.
  • When to post:  Post a minimum of 5 pins per day; if you have more content, post up to 30 times per day. Spread your pins out over the day, don’t add all at once.  Saturday is the best day to post and during the week 8 pm to 11 pm.  If pinners have identified categories where they have interest, Pinterest will recommend new pins. Peak engagement times can vary by industry; fashion and retail are Friday at 3 pm, foods and crafts on Sundays and fitness pins perform best on Mondays,
• Google+: One of the most important reasons to keep Google+ on your social media plan is for the mere fact that Google is the dominant search engine.  When your brand is searched notice the right sidebar, this is where your Google My Business information appears, as well as Google Maps. Continually updating posts to Google+ will give this sidebar more weight, and it will fill with content.  Some refer to Google+ as a mini blog.  Make sure your headlines include a good headline.
  • When to post:  1 – 4 posts per day.  Consistent posting is recommended.