10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE USING SOCIAL MEDIA
Apr 30, 2014
Social media has become one of the best ways to draw customers to your business, through inviting them to visit your website, read your blog or sign up to a newsletter.
The great thing about social media is that there isn’t too much to lose if you get it wrong. But get it right, and you could see your sales flourish. Whatever your plan is for social media, here are 10 things you should know before getting started.
Social Media is not about metrics
Once you have set up an account on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else, it’s easy to get obsessed with how many followers you have. But these statistics mean nothing if you are not seeing these people take the next step in finding out more about your business.
Social Media is not about hard selling
Like cold calling, it’s quite off-putting when someone is pushing you to buy something. It’s fine to inform people about what you do, but don’t bombard people or they will switch off.
Social Media is not cold and corporate
You can’t appear to be distant on social media. The clue is in the name – it’s social! You still need to be professional, of course, but if you reveal the personality of your business, people will respond really well.
Social Media is not all about you
Before asking, “What shall I post on Twitter/Facebook/Google ?”, a better question would be, “How do my target audience use Twitter/Facebook/Google ?” If you think about yourself all the time, you will fail to see what everybody else is talking about.
Social Media is not always easy
Unless you are a nationally recognised brand, you are not going to get overnight social media success. It takes time and effort to build a following, but it’s worth it!
Social Media is about engaging with the community
Before you set out on social media, one of your main objectives should be to engage with your community. Get involved with discussions started by others, start them up yourself, and take a genuine interest in people.
Social Media is about building a following of potential customers
Set an end goal for your followers, whether it’s about getting email sign ups, memberships or purchases through your website. This will not necessarily happen directly through social media, so you need to be directing your followers to your website or blog where they are given more direct calls to action.
Social Media is about being yourself
If you want to get the most out of social media, be yourself. Share office antics, talk about things that you’re really passionate about and let people know what you are like as a company.
Social Media is time consuming without a plan
Without a plan, social media will start to take over quite a lot of your time. Ordinarily, three tweets a day would interrupt your other duties, but there are scheduling tools such as Hootsuite that can save you precious time.
Social Media is rewarding in time
Although you may not see it straight away, social media will serve your business really well if you stick at it. It can be a great tool for customer service, as well as a great way to find new customers. You may not see this straight away, but give it time!
If you need any more information before you start out on social media, just contact us or leave a comment below – we’d love to help!
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