You’ve been plodding along on social media for a while now but you’re not sure if you’re making any progress or growing your business. If you want to amp up social media efforts in 2018 we have a few tips for you. But we need to caution you — if you don’t know what metric you want to achieve, chances are you won’t achieve it or if you do, you won’t know. Social media needs to have a strategic focus and a reason for your business being involved in it other than “I’m there because someone told me my business had to be.” You wouldn’t throw your other marketing dollars down without knowing what kind of return on investment you’d receive, right? Don’t do the same with social media. Even though much of what you do on social media is free — it is still costing you in time. What is your time worth?
Amp Up Social Media Efforts In 2018
- Be consistent. It’s not enough to have social media pages set up if you’re not consistently posting. If you set them up and post only once a month or once a quarter, your page will not be easily found and your content is not being seen. If you commit to social media, commit to a schedule.
- Share a story. When you want to grow your business you want to connect with your potential customers and the best way to do that is through story. Potential clients want to work with someone they “know, like and trust” and they will feel that connection with you through the stories you share on your social media pages and on your blog.
- Be easy to understand and follow. If a follower is actively seeking you out, make your content user friendly. Don’t get bogged down in industry acronyms — it doesn’t make you sound smarter, it makes you impossible to understand to someone who isn’t in the industry. Unless your audience is only within your industry, forgo the acronyms.
- Interact with your followers. Don’t set up auto posting mechanisms then never interact with those who comment on your posts. Social media is just that — social. If someone takes the time to comment on your post, let them know they have reached a real person and start a conversation.
- Provide value. Sure you can post funny memes… sometimes. Most of the time, though, provide value to your followers. Only you know what they will find valuable as it’s different for every industry.
The biggest thing to remember on social media is that everything you post should be about, or relevant to, the reader. It’s not about you — it’s about them.