When it comes to online marketing, a lot of businesses are aware that they need to be on social media but they forget the importance of keeping up to date with the changing landscape.
At Tees Valley Business, we keep on top of the latest technologies and always embrace change in our fast-paced industry. We thought we would pass on a few points for you to ensure that all of your platforms are up to date and running smoothly…
Create and maintain your profile
It may seem obvious, but having a presence that looks great is really important. According to (jdgroup.co.uk) ‘63% of companies say that social media increases marketing effectiveness and 50% say it increases customer satisfaction’ meaning creating a profile on the relevant platforms is the first step you need to take. Make sure that each platform follows your brand guidelines and although there may be some differences in the tone of voice depending on the platform, that each profile is recognisable to your business. Having totally different images for each platform may be confusing for your customer, creating a negative impact on your brand awareness. Check your profile every now and then to ensure it’s looking good; recent changes to the layout of the Twitter profile page have meant that a lot of companies have been left with stretched or pixelated profile images that need updating.
In addition to this, you should ensure that all platforms are complete with up to date details of your company.
Content
When managing your social media, the first thing to think about is who you are aiming your posts at. In other words, who is your customer? You may have some common misconceptions about the target audience on social media; statistics show that the fastest growing demographic on twitter is 55-64 year olds, with this same category jumping up to 46% on Facebook (fastcompany.com). Many company’s believe that it’s just teenagers using social media, so you should rethink your content if your target audience applies to more than just the younger generation.
Hashtags are an easy way to keep on top of the latest trending topics and get involved in conversation.
Goals
Setting goals and objectives each week is a great way of keeping on top of social media and ensuring you pick up on changing trends. For instance, if you want to raise awareness of your brand, track followers who are ‘liking’ and ‘retweeting’ posts and if it starts going really well or dropping off, start questioning why.
Keeping an eye on your insights page allows you to check previous posts and see which ones received the best responses and at what times. Information like this will help you with future posts.
Scheduling
It’s important to consider that when you post your content, you again relate back to the insights section and know which posts generated the most likes at specific times. Spreading out your content rather than uploading post after post is essential. Facebook has recently changed its formula, showing each of your posts to less of your followers and keeping posts with more engagement at the top of users’ timelines for longer, so its more important than ever to make sure you are posting quality and not quantity.
Programmes such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social will also allow you to schedule content on different platforms such as Twitter and Google+, giving you the option to post similar content across all social media platforms to improve reach.
Include photos
Did you know that photo posts account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook? (bufferapp.com). You should always try to include a relevant image to go alongside your piece of writing because people like nice images showing up on their news feed. This now applies to Twitter as well as Facebook; recent changes to the Twitter feed allow more space for tweets with images in them.
More people are using social media on their smartphones. A mobile survey created by Adobe states that ‘71% of people use mobile to access social media’. Images posted on social media are becoming easier than ever for customers to scroll through on their mobile, like and share.
Social Media Advertising
The pressure of monetization means that advertising your business through social media is becoming more advanced with ever increasing targeting options. By paying just a small price you’re able to target your audience by age, location, gender, occupation, language and so much more. Investing a small amount of money is a great way to build brand awareness.