Great question! Social media can be a fun, organic way to engage with your customers directly but it can also be overwhelming as new platforms emerge each year. How do you know where to begin? I’m here to help jumpstart your brand’s presence on the channel(s) that make the most sense for you. Have more questions? Let me know in the comments below!
1. What is the best platform to start with?
Before you choose a platform, it’s more important to answer these key questions:
- Who is your target audience?
- What type of content do you have to share? Is your content mainly visual? Is it text-based? Will you need to show live videos regularly?
- What will your call-to-actions be for your audience? Is your goal to send them to your website to download a white paper? Is it to purchase your consumer good? Is it to call your restaurant for directions?
Identifying your key goals for interacting with your audience will then direct you to the appropriate social media platform. For example, if your goal is to recruit new entry-level employees for your business you likely already know the importance of LinkedIn but may not be aware of Facebook’s Jobs feature. If your goal is brand awareness for a consumer good, you may be less interested in text-heavy Tumblr or Medium for blog posts but may gain more attention from your professional photography and videos on Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.
I’ll be breaking down each social media platform more specifically in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!
2. How often do you really have to post?
Ah, yes. The magical question. How often you post depends on your goals and the platform. Ideally you should aim for staying in user’s feeds at least once per week. This will help the platform’s algorithms prioritize your account and increase the chances of putting your message in front of user’s when they are about to make a decision that applies to your business.
If your content is largely text-focused, like blog posts on Medium or Tumblr, you can safely stay at once per week because you have invested so much time in the piece. You can supplement it by sharing it to your Facebook or LinkedIn feed twice that same week to remind users what they may have missed on your other accounts. Remember: not every post has to be brand new original content. I’ll explain more below.
3. How do you keep posts interesting and engaging if you’re posting a lot?
Ask yourself, “What would I want to see in my social media feeds?” Is there a relevant trend that you could attach your brand to that would make sense for your product/organization/service?
It is also useful to think ahead with an editorial calendar. Pick a few essential dates where you should be the leading voice on your social media channels and start to plan around these. For example, if you offer car washing services you should amplify your voice on your channels once the weather in your target geographic area is ideal for a car detail and wash. If you are a nonprofit with semi-annual fundraiser goals, your calendar will build off supporting this campaign and allow you to then work backwards with supplemental content.
Here are some examples of calendar templates to get you started: HubSpot, SocialMediaExaminer.com, and HootSuite.
Another approach is choosing a few key categories of posts that you rotate between throughout the month to approach your brand from different angles. This will help the content appear fresh and diverse even if you are recycling portions of your messages. Some category examples include:
Informational: posts that provide facts about your product, organization, employees, etc. – content that would typically be FAQs
Inspirational: posts that inspire your target audience to trust your content and be in the mindset to want your services or product – like recent press, a recent positive review, fun trivia, or a beautiful image
Promotional: posts about active and upcoming marketing initiatives, like sales, new product launches, fundraising goals, etc. – the perfect time to share a direct call-to-action
Engaging: posts that create emotion for your target audience – either through a photo, quote, video, poll, etc. – the goal is to have them actively engage with the post through a reaction or comment
4. How do you reach people without paying?
Narrow in on who you are trying to reach and brainstorm where they are spending their time with organic content. Look for Facebook groups, Reddit forums, and blogs where your target audience spends time and wait for organic ways to engage with them and observe the resources they are sharing with each other and the hashtags they are using. Then you can implement common keywords in your own content; copy the hashtags in social media campaigns; or find brand ambassadors that may be open to publicizing your brand in exchange for product or your services.
Important Note: DO NOT approach forums and groups where you can be interpreted as spam. Nobody likes spam (although I acknowledge that some people like Spam – no judgment).
5. Social media doesn’t really interest me as a producer of content. How do I get excited about it?
Unfortunately I don’t have a magical answer for this one…but I’m personally addicted to watching the engagement. I love thinking, “What will people love to see or learn today?” But also think, “What would I want to see?” Do not worry about starting from scratch every time you create a post – build up a library of photos and videos. Graphics are also super easy to build now thanks to free tools like Canva. Maybe there’s a local photography student building their portfolio that would be willing to produce content for you to help build out their personal portfolio. Once you have a robust library you can recycle photos and videos continuously but paired with new copy.
Another wonderful thing you can do is share other people’s content (with credit of course!). Perhaps a recent customer tagged you in a photo of them in your restaurant. You can share the photo, add your own commentary to the post, and tag the customer’s handle. This is called User Generated Content and is often my favorite type of content because it’s authentic and perhaps a different view than you would typically take.
What else would you like to know?
Molly S Harrold 