Today’s guest post is full of tips for improving your social media presence
There is no denying that a social media presence boosts business, but this is only true if the resource is maintained and used effectively. Thankfully, cloud hosting solutions and a wide range of mobile devices mean that this process is actually easier than it has ever been before.
There is nothing more frustrating for fans of a brand than when they make an effort to find it on a social media site, only to discover that the page was last updated two years before. Conversely, nothing can build brand loyalty better than a well-timed email or a valuable reward.
Understand Your Customers
One of the first things you should do to build a better and more effective social media presence is to make sure that you truly understand your customers. This is the key to better engagement and is something that can be done easily between meetings or on the train, thanks to cloud hosting provided by companies such as principal.co.uk. Check out some of your followers’ profiles. What are they chatting about? What other things do they like?
Make the Most of Images
It can be tempting to simply post a stock picture and then leave it do the work. Yes, it may lead to a few likes or shares, but these will be nowhere near as many as you would have got if you had invested a little more time before posting. A discreet logo in the corner of an image can be really useful, especially when it comes to sharing, and do not forget a good caption and the invisible coded tags. Consider using a tagline at the top of the picture in a contrasting colour to add to the impact.
Use Platform Features
Make the most of the often forgotten features of the likes of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. The ‘Your Day’ feature on LinkedIn, for example, can be synchronised with your calendar and contacts to give you alerts when someone has a birthday or is celebrating something else. Customers will love a well-timed ‘congratulations’, and you can re-open channels of communication which may not have been used for a while.
Twitter has its recommended follow accounts to use, whilst Facebook offers a great way of finding out where your fans are with its regional information provision. This can be a real boon when organising future campaigns. Also make sure you are using Google Analytics to monitor progress and create links.
Monitor Progress
Take the time to monitor who you are attracting interest from and to find new people for you to follow. Building asocial media presence is about two-way interaction and creating a page that is worth following. No one gets anything for free, so you must provide value for followers in order to establish their interest and loyalty.
Be Social
Social media is just that social. This means that your most effective work will most likely not be from behind a desk. Events will usually have an official hashtag make sure you get involved in conversations and take heed of fellow chatters. These could well be future business partners, customers or clients.