Know your audience.
Identify your audience and buyer personas. Know who you are trying to reach, what platforms they prefer and tailor your marketing creative and messaging accordingly.
Know your platforms.
Not all social platforms are created equal for all businesses. What works on Facebook doesn’t necessarily resonate with TikTok users. The same holds true for other popular platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. Familiar yourself with the platforms your audience prefers. Before diving in from a business perspective, set up personal accounts and see how other businesses use the platforms and monitor how users engage with those businesses.
Optimize your profiles.
Align your social media profiles, images, and colors with your brand to make them easily recognizable. Complete as much information on your profile as you can and be consistent with your social media account names so customers can easily find your business on different platforms. Don’t forget to connect your accounts to your website by adding social media links at every opportunity.
Plan your content.
Use a calendar to plan your social posts in advance. You don’t want to be scrambling for content at the last minute or worse, forget to post altogether! Know when and what you want to post and get it scheduled. There is no magic number as to when or how often businesses should post to their accounts. Generally speaking, it’s best to post fewer highly engaging posts consistently than a high volume of less engaging posts. Closely monitor your accounts to determine when – and with what content – your audience is most likely to engage – and do more of that.
Show your human side.
Develop a social media style guide to help identify your brand’s voice, tone and personality. No one is more you than you. Let that “you” shine through in your social media voice and tone. Be authentic, be transparent, and most importantly, be yourself.
Listen and Monitor.
What are your customers saying about you? What are they saying about your competitors? Where are there gaps in service and how can you fill them? Monitor social media for mentions about your business, your competitors and your industry as a whole. Conduct a competitive analysis of the social media accounts of others in your industry to learn what’s working for them – and what’s not. Take this data and use it to set your business apart.
