Social media has become a beneficial marketing tool for large and small businesses alike. It’s effective for both increasing website traffic and engaging customers. Before you dive into an organic social media campaign, read through these dos and don’ts of social media marketing to give your brand the boost it needs.
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Before you begin scheduling posts, it is important to have a social media marketing strategy. Identify your goals upfront. Are you aiming to grow your brand’s presence, engage customers, increase sales, or build your social media following? Whatever your goals are, make sure they are trackable and attainable.
Once you’ve set your goals and developed your social media marketing strategy, stay consistent. You want your brand voice and company image to meet your target audience’s needs, and if you are deviating from the brand you have established, then you are altering the image you have presented to your customers. For example, if your brand is built on trust and authority, then it doesn’t make sense to use humor and topical cultural references in your posts.
As soon as you make the decision to use social media for marketing, you should set up a separate social media page for your business. One reason is because this helps to protect the business owner’s privacy. There is a lot of personal information on your personal account that followers and customers do not need to have access to. Additionally, a business owner’s personal opinions and social media activities can bring controversy to their brand. It is best to leave your personal and business social media activities separate.
Remembrance days like Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day are not meant for promotions and deals. Be attentive of your posting schedule and adjust as necessary to ensure you are being respectful and not capitalizing on the occasion. Your customers and followers will respect your thoughtfulness.
Your posting schedule will depend on the social media platform you are using. If you post too often, your followers may begin to be inundated by the number of posts in their feed. If you don’t post often enough, your followers may forget about your brand. Think about where you will be posting. A good starting point with Facebook is 2-3 posts per week, but with Twitter you’ll want to tweet or retweet daily.
In social media marketing, consistently high-quality content is vital to keeping the attention of your target audience. If your followers and customers are not seeing quality content, they will eventually stop following you. In other words, don’t post 30 tweets a day if you don’t have worthwhile content to share.
Don’t sign up for more social media accounts than you can handle. Focus on one social media platform to start and eventually you can start accounts on other platforms if needed. It is best to start with a platform that you feel you will be able to best connect with your target audience. If you have a younger target audience that’s primarily on Instagram, it might not make sense to start posting on Pinterest or Twitter. No matter which social media platform you start with, make sure your posting schedule is manageable—you can always ramp up the frequency of posts later if you’re not getting the engagement that you’re looking for.
It is common to establish a social media presence on multiple social media platforms, which will increase visibility for your company. However, if you only post on one platform and begin neglecting an account you established on Twitter because you are solely focused on Facebook, you may be missing out on connecting with users who have followed you.
Ignoring negative reviews and comments gives customers the impression that you don’t care about their opinions. Take time to look over negative comments and consider how you can turn the conversation around. Some customers can’t be pleased, but the fact that you are taking the time to acknowledge them or inviting them to contact you directly can be a step towards repairing the business relationship. It also shows your other followers that you are focused on providing excellent customer service.
You don’t have to respond to every comment or question that your customers and followers post, but part of social media is interacting with your followers. So do respond to at least some of the comments and questions that pop up on your posts.
Be sure to proofread all social media posts and shared content before posting. Grammatical and spelling errors can affect your brand’s credibility with your target audience and possibly draw unwanted attention. However, don’t feel the need to be overly formal and stuffy. You can still have fun with your brand voice, just make sure you use proper spelling and punctuation.
Hashtags are useful in social media posts, but the overuse of hashtags will clutter your posts and make them appear less authentic. Be mindful of hashtag trends and cautious of using a hashtag just because it is popular. Be sure any hashtags you use are relevant to your brand.
If you’re ready to build your company’s social media presence or want to learn more about your marketing tool options, Group6 Interactive’s qualified team can help you develop a social media marketing strategy that works. Contact us today by calling (802) 342-4656 or sending us an email via our contact form.
