Social media and successful businesses go together like salt and pepper. They are a match…
Is your business presently on social media?
Do you want to see more success with your social media marketing efforts?
To say that social media has revolutionized how we do business today is understatement. Right now many businesses have moved beyond considering social media as just a fad. Many now take social media marketing as an integral part of their marketing strategy.
For example, a recent report by SocialTimes indicated that social media marketing budgets were projected to double in the next five years. Also according to Social Media Today, 83% of B2B marketers now invest marketing budgets in social media to increase brand exposure; 69% to increase web traffic; and 65% to gain market insights!
But these stats are only indicative. Businesses who use social media need to make sure they’re using it properly, otherwise they might just be wasting their time.
If you will want to experience success in your social media marketing efforts it is important you stick to the rules outlined in this post:
Rule 1: Keep Your Brand Voice Consistent Throughout
Come up with an appropriate brand voice for yourself and keep it consistent throughout your posts and advertisements. It can be difficult to come up with one, but you need to ask yourself a few questions first. What relationship do you want your business to have with its customers? How do you want your audience to view you?
You can be funny, serious, motivating…you name it. Just keep it consistent and appropriate.
Rule 2: Post during Peak Times
To get the most from the things you post, you should always post during peak times. Different social networks have different peak times. In general, you can post between 10am-4pm and feel OK about it. However, networks like Instagram have a sweet spot at 6pm-8pm. Do your research and stick to the timings.
Rule 3: Respond in a Timely Manner
If your audience is engaging with you, that’s fantastic. But you should do your best to respond to them in a timely manner. If somebody inquires about something with you on a Friday, you can’t respond on Monday. You’ve left it too long. The quicker you can respond to your audience, the better.
Rule 4: Post Quality Content
The content you post should be high quality, and original. If you post half hearted content, people will feel it. Post quality content of your own and of other businesses/people if you find them relevant, just make sure you credit them. If you don’t think you can manage this, you should have a chat with a company like Ice Breaker.
Rule 5: Be Social and Engaging
You can’t expect to sell, sell, sell on social media and get a huge response. People don’t like that kind of thing. Be social and engaging; that’s the whole reason people sign into their social profiles, after all. Talk about things in the news, holidays, and topics you feel will get people talking. It’s always beneficial to talk about things everybody else is talking about, as you’ll get spotted by more people as they browse.
Rule 6: Follow the Rules of Each Platform
Each platform has a sort of ‘etiquette’ that you should try to stick to. For instance, you can pretty much post as much as like on Twitter. However, Facebook should be less frequent. Instagram can be tricky; don’t post enough and people will unfollow. Post too much and people will unfollow. Try to gauge the etiquette of each platform you’re using and stick to it.
Rule 7: Remain Positive
Positive posts are always better than negative posts. You don’t want to be associated with any negativity.
Rule 8: Watch What You Post
Be careful of what you post. Make sure it’s appropriate and that you aren’t going to offend anybody. The last thing you want is to be in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Live by these social media rules and you’ll find you get much better results!
