Marketing Archives - Phlume MEDIA

Social media can be incredibly productive and helpful when used correctly. Nowadays, almost all businesses and professionals have at least one social media account. However, it’s important to know what’s appropriate and what isn’t when it comes to social networking.

DO

Have complete and active social profiles

The first thing you need to do when maintaining social media profiles for your business is to make sure they are complete and active. This means filling out all the business details on your profile page. This includes your website, business hours, email, address, phone number, etc.

You also want to make sure you’re posting to your accounts regularly. Even a post every few days is enough to show your potential customers that the accounts are up to date and active.

Be consistent with your content

You want your content to be consistent in every sense of the word. Not only in posting schedule but in information as well. What you post on your social media pages should match what’s on your website. This would cut down on any confusion and shows attention to detail.

Having a consistent “voice” to your social media posts is very important. It helps reinforce your business’s brand. By reading and viewing your content, your audience should be able to recognize your company’s voice.

Prioritize your social platforms

Not all social media platforms are necessary are each business. It’s important to prioritize which would work best. In general, Facebook is a good starting point across the board. Almost all businesses have a website and a Facebook page. In this digital age, it is essential to have both.

Facebook is a quick, easy way to share information, photos, and updates. Instagram is primarily to share photos. Twitter is good for sharing photos and short bits of information or links. If you don’t have too many photos to share or lots of information, Instagram and Twitter may not require your focus as much as Facebook does. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, it only means you should prioritize which platforms require more attention than others.

Regularly interact with your audience

Sharing and creating content is important, but interacting with your audience is as well. This means responding to posts, comments, and reviews. If you have a large following, it can be overwhelming to respond to everyone, so don’t feel like you have to. Choose a few public posts to comment on, however, make sure to keep up with any private messages.

Regular interactions online keep your profiles active and interactive. It will let your audience know that you value their communications, as well as allow you to gain valuable insights.

Give credit and think before tagging

If you are sharing photos that you yourself haven’t taken, make sure to give credit to those who did take them. This is good advice not just for photos but for anything you are posting that doesn’t belong to you.

One of the great parts of social media is the ability to tag other people or businesses. However, be careful when you do so. You want to make sure those you are tagging are those you would not mind professionally being associated with.

DON’T

Overshare your personal life

Professional social media platforms shouldn’t be treated as your personal ones. There is a certain level of decorum that should be followed. Sharing small parts of your personal life isn’t a bad thing if that’s something you’re comfortable with, but try to make sure you draw boundaries.

It can be very offputting to visit a business or professional profile only to be bombarded with details about the person’s personal life.

Use poor grammar and spelling

If you are using social media in a professional setting, it’s important to use proper grammar and spelling. It’s not only visually unappealing but can come across as rushed and lacking attention to detail.

To counter this, try crafting your social media content in a word document to catch any mistakes and make it easier to proofread.

Use the same wording/message again and again

It’s only to repeat your content on occasion, especially if it’s something that doesn’t change. However, you want to make sure that you don’t use the same wording or messages repeatedly. It can come across as lazy. Also, if your audience reads the same posts, they will be more likely to ignore updates or unfollow your profile altogether.

Repost other’s images or posts

This one is seen a lot on social media and is a big no-no. Never report someone else’s images or posts. Always share from their account when it’s possible. Certain exceptions do apply, such as Instagram where sharing isn’t an option.

However, on Facebook and Twitter, there are sharing options. Sharing is a great way to show professional support and help with your profile activity.

Focus entirely on follower numbers

Follower numbers are important, however, don’t focus on them at the expense of everything else. Having a lot of followers is great but if no one is interacting on your page, it’s not a very good sign.

You need to strike a balance between growing your numbers and providing your followers with content.

Incorporating these practices into your social media management can help boost your online presence in positive and productive ways. To learn more about managing social media or to discuss an in-depth social media audit with one of our marketing professionals, check out phlume.com/services/social-media.

Written by :

Posted on :

5 Basic Time Saving Tips for Social Media Posting

Social media platforms are necessary for any growing business. They’re a way for sellers to stay in contact with their consumers, share company updates, promote new services, and more. They can also be incredibly time-consuming. A common question that gets asked when launching social media profiles is: where do I start? For someone who doesn’t use social media regularly, the options and settings can quickly become overwhelming. We’ve put together a list of five basic tips to not only launch your social media but save you time in the process.

Limit the Number of Platforms You Use

When diving into social media marketing, it’s natural to want to claim all the social accounts you can, and you certainly should. But managing them can be exhausting and time-consuming. That is why you should limit the number of social media platforms you use. To start, it’s suggested you focus on 2 to 3 sites, to begin with.

There are a few reasons why this will save you time in the long run. For one, it will help you focus your attention. While many social media platforms share the same mechanics, not all of them are the same. Taking the time to learn the mechanics is very important. True, you want to learn what you are doing, but you also want to make sure you’re utilizing every tool the platform has to offer.

The initial setup of social media profiles can be time-consuming. Before sharing your profile with the public, you want to make sure it has all the relevant information it needs: business name, hours, services, contact info, etc. Creating two or three profiles is much less intimidating than having to create five or six. Narrowing your focus to a few platforms at a time will make social media launching and maintenance less overwhelming.

Map-Out Posts in Advance

It’s hard work to keep your social media active. Too little activity can turn customers and followers away. Imagine you’re applying to work for a company, and you are researching their online presence, how would it look to get to their social media page and find no recent interactions? From a personal perspective, it doesn’t look good.

To avoid slipping into a social media slump, take time at the end of each month to plan your posts for the following month. Trying to think of what to post on the fly is stressful in general. However, if you spend the time mapping out and drafting posts in advance, it will help to remove some of that stress.

When you plan your social media in advance, you can also plan what you want to focus on. It could be a monthly theme, a new special, new project, anything you want it to be. Not only will this keep you from scrambling for content to push, but it will also give your audience a sense of voice and focus.

Build a Post Bank

Something most people don’t realize is that not all the content you post has to be brand new every time. Do you have services that never change? Or a product you’re always highlighting? If so, build posts that can be reused in the future.

Reusable content is extremely helpful. For one, it helps alleviate the stress of constantly having to create new content. The idea of fresh new content all the time is a wonderful one, but it’s also not always realistic, especially when you’re trying to push or highlight the same information time and time again.

Creating a “post bank” can come in handy when you aren’t feeling particularly creative, or you don’t have time to work on something new. It’s also a handy way to share previous information with new members of your audience. While some people do go through old social media posts, most people don’t. Reposting or sharing previous posts ensures that newcomers receive the information you’ve shared in the past.

Use Scheduling Tools

This is a big one! For some reason, not many people take advantage of social media scheduling tools. Whether it’s because they don’t know they exist or prefer to be more hands-on, the reasoning is moot. The fact of the matter is, scheduling tools will save you tons of time.

If you have already mapped out your posts in advance, using a scheduling tool just makes sense. By scheduling your posts you not only free yourself to tackle other elements of social media (messages, promoting, etc.), you also essentially set your social media to run itself.

Websites like HootSuite and Buffer are excellent resources for scheduling posts across different platforms. Facebook has its own post scheduler as well. Another plus side to using a scheduler is that most of them provide posting data, which lets you know what time of the day posting is more effective.

Focus on Quality

It’s difficult to find the perfect balance between providing content and oversaturating your audience. Having lots of content can be good, depending on the kind of content. For example, I was offered a position with a company that didn’t have much of an online presence. In researching and digging through their social media, I found a plethora of content.

However, none of their social posts had any engagement. They were sharing and retweeting stories and articles constantly throughout the day, yet not a single post I saw was original, nor did they have any engagement from their followers.

On the flip side, I have seen social media profiles with very little content, but their engagement with their followers has been phenomenal. Their posts reach and speak to their audience, and they’re appreciated for it.

Here to Stay

Regardless of your personal feelings regarding social media platforms, they are an integral part of the customer experience. Between maintaining your website and social media presence, marketing professionals are busier than ever. There are ways to manage your time efficiently, you just have to take advantage of the tools that are at your disposal.

Not just another
digital agency...
We are your
Creative Solution.

Contact Us

(603)-636-7027

sales@phlume.com

Lancaster, NH 03584

Phlume MEDIA