Social media networks are great resources for all businesses looking to promote their brands and gain more business. However, it’s important that you choose the social media platforms that work best for your business. If used correctly, social media can bring significant success to your business.
Various social media marketing sites will require different techniques, so you will need to develop a unique strategy tailored for each platform.
Facebook
Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active strategy. You want to pay attention to text layouts and visual components such as images and videos. Social media marketing for business pages revolve around furthering the conversation with audiences by posting industry-related articles, images, videos, etc.
DO
• Keep your status updates brief; the longer your updates the fewer people will read them
• Vary your posts — the more different and varied your posts are, the more people you will appeal to
DON’T
• Overshare or post on your page too often — this is the main way to lose followers; if you flood your page with dozens of posts about the same thing, you’re going to wear people out
Google+
Whether a lot of people use Google+ or not, the truth is that Google loves it when you use their platform. Everything you post on your Google+ for Business page is immediately indexed by Google. Therefore, the content you post to your page can rank in search results even if your website doesn’t. This is huge for companies and professionals, because the websites that appear on the first page of Google.
DO
• Incorporate your G+ page in your other social media pages
• Promote your website and products on G+
• Make sure you keep up to date on your G+ page
DON’T
• Post bland, boring posts
Twitter
Twitter is the platform that lets you broadcast your updates across the web. As a business, you should be following people and companies in your industry or related fields. The more people you follow, the more followers you gain. You should be posting links and plain text posts about your business and your field. You can also share other people’s posts on your page.
DO
• Keep it short and sweet — there is a reason you are only allowed 140 characters on Twitter
• Engage with followers; to build a community for your brand, you need to connect with your followers, retweet them, ask questions and reply to their comments
DON’T
• Overuse hashtags — don’t use more than 2-4 hashtags in a single tweet
• Tweet more than 8-10 times per day; you can start losing followers if you spam them all day
LinkedIn
Don’t overlook the power of LinkedIn company pages. They have huge potential. Creating your own LinkedIn company page gives more exposure and visibility to your business, products or services — enhancing your online presence.
DO
• Treat your profile like a professional brochure
• Engage with other people’s posts and interact with other LinkedIn members
• Avoid sales pitches
DON’T
• Send spammy messages
— Paige Knific, Vibrant Media, can be reached at 810-240-2191 or Paige@VibrantMediaServices.com
