Do you utilize social media for interaction with customers who are both existing and potential? Have you got a company page on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn? If so, there might be some changes you could do to improve your performance on these important online marketing channels. We’ve compiled this list of 10 guidelines to assist in improving your business’s visibility on social networks. We hope that you will are able to use them
Give social media the respect it deserves.
You can ask yourself… “If my best client saw this, what would they think?”
Your social media content has the ability to be read by a large number of people. Because the internet isn’t a reason to underestimate its significance. It’s still worth the effort to ensure it’s as good as it can get. In terms of cost social media marketing could be a lot superior to print ads in the right way.
Imagine how much time or money will be required in making and laying out an ad in a magazine or newspaper. In fact, any print format. But, many people make snap decisions when they’re on social media. In many cases, they find themselves compelled to publish something, even though they’ve never had anything worthwhile to say. This could lead to poor quality content that will cause doubt to your company’s image.
If you adopt a mindset that emphasizes the importance of quality and not quantity you’ll increase your online presence. Keep in mind that what you publish is an official statement made on behalf of your company. Therefore:
- Set aside enough time to plan and develop your social media posts.
- Make sure you have proofread it prior to posting it.
- If you are able, have another person read the post prior to posting.
- Make sure you use high-quality images (more on this later)
Don’t stretch yourself too thin
What platforms work best for your company… as well as what are the resources you have?
There are numerous Social Media platforms out there at present and they’re always evolving. While they’re there and easily accessible does not mean they’re appropriate for your business. Think about your customers and potential clients and which social media platforms they’re likely to utilize.
Consider the sources you’ve got. In the event that you aren’t able to afford the money for someone else to manage your social media accounts, think about the amount of time you are able to invest. It’s more beneficial to create high quality content on one platform rather than low quality content across five or four platforms.
It’s crucial not to get overwhelmed and feel that you need to publish on every platform… the majority all the time. Relax and enjoy posting on platforms that fit your company.
Be respectful of your brand
Your brand is more than the logo… it’s everything you do and say
You’ve been through the process of creating an identity, creating an identity and brand, and creating an identity for your company. Therefore, it’s essential to make use of it. However, make sure to use it correctly! For instance, if you’re designing graphics, make sure to apply the exact colours of your logo. You shouldn’t be thinking “my logo’s blue, so I’ll pick a similar blue”. Request your graphic designer to provide the right hex as well as RGB value and apply the value that you have received.
If you choose to use your logo, it’s solid and not removed or obscuring. Make sure that there is enough room around it. It requires space to breathe. “Nobody puts Baby in the corner!”
We all can think of brands with big names that have a powerful voice, identity and presence. There’s no reason to believe that your business shouldn’t be as powerful and connected in social networks.
Your branding is the image of your company. However, on the internet, your brand is much more than simply a logo and colors. It’s the way you talk and how you express it. Your voice tone is an integral part of your branding. The imagery you select. It will affect how customers are able to see the world and how they react to your company. Also, ensure your business is professional and consistent.
- Use high quality images.
- Take a look at your grammar and spelling.
- Double, double and triple-check the information. Remember it’s an announcement made by your company.
Make some rules of graphic design for your brand. If you use your branding in the same manner or using the same colors for your brand and fonts, you can create a consistent look. Also, by applying the same style of image and tone you can create an online image for your company. By establishing and adhering to guidelines this makes your content instantly identifiable and helps build your brand.
Create a content calendar
Think about how often you need to post your content… Do not over-post.
Plan out your posts. Think about whether you want to post regularly scheduled, weekly or even monthly. Do you use a calendar to record your social schedule as well as your child’s sports clubs? Create your own social media calendar for your company too. This will help ensure that you’re posting the correct content at the appropriate date.
It can also assist to organize your efforts in creating content into small, manageable pieces. It’s great after you’ve produced several weeks worth of content, and you feel confident that you don’t need to think about it for a long time.
Here, we utilize our own calendar, which we designed in Microsoft Excel, but there are many alternatives. You can look up online schedulers, calendars or other tools. It is also possible to make use of an Outlook calendar, or even one printed on paper. They all work well.
Social media platforms are now beginning to provide tools for scheduling that are free that allow you to publish your articles. Before, you had to shell out a decent amount for quality tools to accomplish this. The tools are fantastic because they allow you to publish your content ahead of time.
- Facebook: Creator Studio
- Instagram: The same is true for Creator Studio. Creator Studio (If you’ve linked your accounts to your facebook page)
- Twitter: Twitter Scheduling (Create your tweet and then hit the schedule button under)
Categorise your Posts
It’s not all about “Sell Sell Sell ‘… less than 1/3 your content must be promotional.
Everyone loves an offer for free. The same is true to social media. It’s crucial to give people something in exchange for nothing. It could be useful information that could enhance their lives by some means, crucial information or just entertainment. If you just talk about why everyone should purchase your items, you’ll only cause a lot of annoyance to your customers.
Don’t hesitate to share relevant industry content if they’re relevant and demonstrate your authority within your field. It’s possible to do this without appearing too pushy. Make sure that you’re using an even mixture of different types of posts. A few of our categories we prefer to choose from are Expert, Inspirational, News and Community, Curated Content and obviously, promotional. Whatever the category you choose, make sure that it is relevant to your target market and, more important, your company.
If you are able to create either a color-code or column of your categorical categories you can add them into your calendar of content. This allows you to be able to see in a glance whether you’re posting too many of a particular category.
Pay attention to your competition
Follow your competitors’ feeds… and stay on top of their latest posts.
This may appear like work but it’s worth your time to look at the activities of your competition too. Keep track of what’s working well for the company… and the things that aren’t. To make things easier for you, make an organization of your competitor’s bookmarks. It will allow you to revisit them quickly to see what they’re doing.
Plugins such as Tabs Outliner for Google Chrome can be used to save groups of tabs within your browser. It allows you to mark and organize your browser windows to quickly access your social RSS feeds from your computer.
Let’s be clear about this. This isn’t saying that you should copy or copy your competitor’s content. Instead, it may frequently lead you to seek ideas or to think about the content you create in various ways.
Don’t limit yourself to following your local competition. Keep an eye on the bigger firms in your field as well as internationally. When you find great content ideas, put the ideas in an “Inspirations” folder. It can include all sources of inspiration you’ve viewed and might want to write about in the future.
Evaluate the quality of your visual posts.
This is an official publication of your company… Are you satisfied when it appears in the form of a magazine?
Before clicking the “Post” button, you must ask yourself “Would I let this be published in a printed publication?’ If so, it shouldn’t be a bad idea to work with professionals to make sure your blog post appears good.After all, will you create the business cards yourself? Would you construct your own computer? Would you also make books yourself? Using high-quality images will boost confidence in your image. However, the reverse applies if you choose to use inadequate graphics and images.
If you do decide to make your own graphics be sure to use the top tools that are available.
Here’s a note of caution. Different platforms have different sizes for images So, make sure that what you publish looks professional on the platforms you are using. If you choose to use incorrect sizes for your images there could be crucial information cropped out of your photo. As of the writing time the sizes listed below are not cropped to fit normal posts. Make sure all your photos are saved at 72 dpi and at the following resolution.
- They are not written in the stone. We’ve just observed it to work for us.
- Also, you should be aware of the following points prior to your write:
- In the event that you’re using photos ensure that you’re authorized to make use of them.
Print-based design is quite different from creating online for platforms. Don’t simply upload your newspaper ad or your leaflet designs. They’ll not look as good on a computer or mobile phone. Take it this way… When you’re paying an expert to design something that you want printed and you want to pay the designer to make it digitally compatible?
Verify that the text contained in the image can be read on a smartphone. Send the image to yourself. Then, you can view it in your smartphone in portrait orientation to ensure whether it is read.
Can the image be seen when you use a smartphone? Sometimes, images look amazing on a desktop. When it’s scaled down to size for your smartphone, it may be difficult to appreciate the essential details.
If you do not have access to an image editing program that is professional you can try an online tool such as Canva. It might take a little bit of time to get familiar with the interface, but it can improve the quality of your images in your blog posts.
If you are able to make an account with an image bank to boost the quality of images you share. iStock as well as Adobe Stock are both reasonably priced subscription choices.
If you’re not able to afford it you can find a variety of free resources you can utilize. For instance, Pixabay, Unsplash and Freerange all offer images for free. Be aware that some of them require that you acknowledge the photographer and you must adhere to their guidelines.
Consider mobile first.
Does your content appear nice… both mobile and desktop?
Did you consider that less than two percent of Facebook users view your posts on desktops Desktop? Since this is a formal publication for your business, make sure to ensure that it appears great on every device. It’s not difficult to make a publication look great on a computer screen. But sometimes, the detail gets lost when you shrink images to the dimensions of the phone.
Be sure that the content you make is created to first and foremost appear good on mobile devices. In the end, that’s the way most people will view it.
Do not put paragraph text into images. There’s a chance that it will be too small for the reader. This means that your viewers will have to zoom and pinch in order to read it.
Make sure your images remain clear even when they are reduced to a cell phone size.
Verify your content by sending photos to a mobile phone and looking them up to check whether they’re clear. Make sure you check for clarity using portrait orientation (rather than landscape mode) since this is the way the majority of people will view them.
Demonstrate your understanding of each platform.
Utilize all the features each platform has to offer… but be mindful of any limitations.
A few points to will help you master the platforms you prefer:
Instagram: You can’t add URLs. You can, but they will not be clickable. Adding longer URLs on your Instagram posts can frustrate the users since they won’t be able to click it.
Twitter: Tweets can have only 280 characters. It’s not much and therefore anything you post on Twitter must be concise and clear.
Facebook: Are you tagging your location? If you own a local business be sure to tag your place to raise the local visibility.
Facebook: Add “Call to Actions’ wherever you are able to. *
Tag other businesses when there is a reason to tag other businesses when it is appropriate to. This can increase the visibility of your business and increase the chance of getting a response from the businesses you tag. (As you’re able to say positive remarks regarding them).
Use hashtags and research. But don’t go crazy. Some businesses appear somewhat desperate in listing every hashtag they are able to come up with. (There are limitations on every social media platform but the limits are pretty high.) Each post should do some research and make use of at most four or five decent hashtags you could utilize. Make sure they’re appropriate.
Note that social media platforms are always changing in terms of the features which you can incorporate into your content. Facebook in particular is continually changing. Sometimes for the better and often for the worse. Keep the eye on what you are able to and cannot include in your postings. If you can, make use of all features at your disposal.
Respond to all remarks and mentions
In the event that someone tags you or interacts with your content, make sure to thank them.
Imagine it in this way: It appears great when you recognize your followers. However, it also isn’t good if you don’t. You’re building a rapport with your followers which could lead to more engagement, or even more shares.
Do not be afraid to challenge an unfavorable comment. Investigate the problem and find out if it’s valid. If so, don’t be hesitant to apologize. If their tone is rude or curt Do not react in a manner that is rude or disrespectful. Keep in mind that this is a private exchange, so show your best behavior and portray your image of your business in the proper manner. It is crucial to react with professionalism.
