Social media can be a scary thing, especially when it comes to putting your business or organization out there in hopes of gathering public interest. Sure there are major companies that have social media followings in the millions, but starting small is better than not starting at all, right? RIGHT! Here are six things you should be doing right now on your social media sites.
1. Know your Platform I cannot stress enough how important it is to know the capabilities of each social media outlet you use. Knowledge of social media sites and each of their purposes is vital to any social media campaign. It also helps to research how regular users of these sites utilize them. Do you need to use hashtags? Do you only have a limited amount of characters? Should you use tags? What are other people in my field doing on this social media site? These are all things you should know before you take on a social media platform. Another part of preparing for a social media campaign is figuring out which platform(s) are best to use for your specific organization. Not all businesses are going to have a need for Snapchat, and some might have a really good use for it. Take the goals of your organization as well as your audience into consideration when deciding which social media platform(s) to use.
2. Posting Posting is the most obvious thing you can do in order to get attention on social media. People are never going to know you exist unless you show up on their news feed. The main key to posting content is to find, what I like to call, a “happy middle.” This happy middle is posting just enough to grab people’s attention every once in awhile, yet not so much that you are filling their feed. Once or twice a day is normally deemed to be acceptable. The purpose of posting every day is to keep the attention of your audience, yet not to overwhelm them with information that after a while will seem irrelevant or unnecessary.
3. Interacting Social media users love – I repeat LOVE – to be interacted with. People want to see comments on their posts, likes, favorites, retweets or literally any other form of giving them attention. In the same way, users want answers! If someone leaves a comment on one of your business’ post, reply! There is strength in engagement, and engaging with your audience is going to gain respect for your organization. Social media is such a unique medium that can allow a business interact with the individual customer one-on-one. This interaction is important to many consumers, so take advantage of it! Don’t let publicity that is essentially free go to waste. Interaction on social media is going to bring your organization a lot more attention and appreciation for next to nothing price wise.
4. Sharing Another part of posting is sharing. Find something your organization is interested in and let your followers know about it by giving them your own take on the subject.
5. Making Connections There are two parts of making connections on social media. First, if one of your platforms allows, use pictures. Social media is about making something visually appealing enough for someone to take the time to stop and look at your post. Adding pictures to your posts is a great way to accomplish this. Second, people are the biggest connectors on social media. If there is someone in a picture you are posting, tag them. If there are people involved in something you are writing about, tag them. You would be amazed at the traffic that will be brought to your social media sites by just tagging people in your posts.
6. Involving As we all know, people greatly enjoy giving you their opinions, so involve your followers with open-ended questions or discussion topics. Make your site somewhere for them to leave their ideas. Another part of involvement could be contests. Have your followers share a post in order to win a fun prize. Involving is different from interacting in that it requires you to go out and grab the attention of your users rather than just responding to their needs or concerns. All people have the desire to feel involved in something. The point is to not sit around and wait for those people to come to you… grab their interest and bring them in with some interesting posts.
Implementing these six things on your social media sites will help you connect with your followers, as well as allow them to become more aware of your organization or business, all while gaining new interest in your company. Good luck and happy posting!