Plus More Hints At Navigating Your Brand through Social Media
By Adam Ludwig
Almost every brand imaginable uses multiple forms of social media to reach their consumers in a comparatively new and exciting way. But with that opportunity comes risk.
Questions pop up: “Am I using Facebook correctly”, or “Why does no one retweet my company”? The sheer amount of information can be overwhelming.
Earlier this year, WIBC hosted renowned social media expert Josh Ochs for a seminar aimed to help small businesses. His “how-to” guide included the following tips and insight.
- The goal of any business social media plan is to “reach” their target consumers and begin engagement. To do this, the brand must first meet them (customers coming into the business, business cards, advertising, etc.) and then engage them (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.). Be able to reach customer on multiple platforms, but do it on your terms.
- The importance of engaging your followers should be high on any brand’s list. With great messaging you engage your followers (liking, posting, tweeting, etc.). Their followers see the engagement and are much more likely to follow your brand or visit your website. Now the brand has new followers.
- Understand the new Facebook – starting with the cover photo. Make it a strong representation of your brand and ask yourself, “How can my brand appear aspirational to our customers?” Tech tip: Start with a graphic that is 850 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall.
- Realize there are Facebook no-no’s. Cover photos may not include price or purchase info (such as “30% OFF!”. Contact information must go in the “About” section, not in the photo. Calls to action are also not permitted – “Tell your friends about us here!” is a direct violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service.
- Keep your messaging “Light, Bright and Polite” – meaning less than 100 characters. A successful formula for most posts is to use an: [Image] + [Question] + [Call to Action] plus a [Link].
- DO NOT OVERPOST. There’s a difference between engaging consumers and overwhelming them (and ultimately turning them away)! Limit the brand to 5-10 posts per week with no more than 2 falling in any one day. Add to engagement by interacting with your followers. Check back on your post around 30 minutes later and respond to anything – kudos, comments or complaints.
- On Twitter, an “@reply” and hashtags (#) are different things and should be used different ways. An @reply (@EmmisCommunications) is when you’re talking to someone and you want them to know you’re mentioning them. A hashtag (#WIBCSpeakerSeries) are used to group conversations that share a similar event, topic or region.
- Retweet your consumers! Retweets are important because they allow us to show our followers testimonials from happy customers, customer service that benefits many users with a helpful answer and shows activity and engagement to stay front-of-mind with customers.
Social media tips, as well as what not to do, could go on for days. If you take anything away, understand that using social media with your brand is a good thing. And time spent on creating engaging social media for your brand will be well worth it.