5 Social Media Tips

Every business needs to have a social media presence, but it’s really easy to run into difficulties implementing it.  You can cause serious problems if you post something that hasn’t been thought out properly even if it’s just a comment or a response to a message, and posts about political topics will generally create a perception of you aligning to a particular group regardless of your intent when you posted. Then, if you manage to ace the posting topics and your comments, you can find you’re spending a large amount of time on social media and not spending as much time as you’d like on your core business.   Finally, you can spend time creating content, posting awesome posts and developing great relationships that don’t actually go anywhere because they’re not with “your” customers.

5 Social Media Tips - Sharyn Munro Virtual Assistance

To help avoid falling into these traps, and to make social media a relatively painless part of your business, here are 5 social media tips to help you get the best out of your social media time:

Use technology

A service like Hootsuite or Buffer or any of the many alternatives is great to schedule posts. You can also use HootSuite to keep track of all your news feeds in one place. It’s a good idea to also have your newsfeeds set up on your mobile devices so you can check them while you’re waiting or at a loose end for a couple of minutes.  That way you can keep the time you spend on social media down and use it to fill up small bits of time that would otherwise be wasted.

Target your actions

Figure out which social networks your customers use most and concentrate your efforts there. There’s no point spending hours on a platform that your ideal customers don’t use, keep that for your personal social media. If you’re using social media to market, then be active on the platforms that your idea users are on.

Be yourself

By all means be professional, but social media isn’t a super formal communication medium. Use the tone that talks to your ideal users, have a little fun and let your personality shine through. You’re far more likely to attract and keep active followers if you have a consistent voice and that won’t happen if you’re trying to be someone other than yourself.

Take it slowly

If you’re new to a platform take note of what others are doing and how it’s being used. If you have any great ideas, by all means do something new (it’s encouraged) but, for example people sharing Facebook style posts on LinkedIn just appear unprofessional. So see what the pros are doing first and take your cues from them.

Branding, Branding, Branding

Have a good head & shoulders profile photo and use it, your logo and your business colours to brand your social media pages. The more your social media sites look like something from your business, the more likely it is that your fans will stop and read, like & comment on  your posts. 

So there are 5 social media tips that will help keep you on track. I’d love it if you’d share your own  social media tips in the comments.

If you’d like some more ideas, check out my previous social media posts

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