Social Media Tips Your Business Can Implement Now
Social media is constantly evolving, as is the way we use it. This is why the White Communications team are continually learning and expanding our skills based on the channel developments. From LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to Instagram and Tik Tok, we want to know how we can increase engagement, social media followers and achieve our clients objectives and goals.
Vicky’s Top 10 Social Media Takeaways
As the head of a marketing agency I am always on the look-out for new and improved ways to serve our clients which is why I take every opportunity to get up to speed with the latest insights and trends.
This month, I decided to complete HubSpot’s Social Media Marketing Certification. While many of the lessons were familiar to me, I also learnt new skills and have come away with renewed enthusiasm for the power of social media and using it to help our clients achieve their goals.
Here are my top ten takeaways from the course which I hope you will find useful for your business too –
💥 Narrow down your buyer persona → Brainstorm how your ideal customers are using social media channels, what their interests are, their personality type, their age and location etc. You want to identify any traits that will help you to better understand your customers and their needs.
💥 Do a competitor analysis → Look at how many followers they have, which types of content they share and which content is seeing high engagement. This is not so you can copy your competitors, but to be aware of what they’re doing, get ideas and ensure that what you’re doing stands out.
💥 Plan! Create a schedule of activity each month → This should include your post copy, graphics, hashtags and anyone you should be tagging in your posts to increase your reach. Fail to plan, plan to fail…
💥 You don’t need to be on every social media channel → Think about where your audience spend time online (this goes back to the buyer persona) and focus your efforts there. For example, if you’re a financial services firm you might want to focus your efforts on LinkedIn, but if you’re a restaurant, you might want to focus your efforts on Facebook and Instagram.
💥 People like to buy from people → Forget business jargon, be human and be yourself. Social media is social for a reason so show your face, introduce your staff and allow your company’s culture and values to shine through.
💥 Use hashtags, but don’t overuse them → Hashtags are great when used correctly. Use hashtag tools to see what your audience are searching for and get involved in relevant trending days and themes. Choose a few that are relevant rather than overloading with lots of vague hashtags. I suggest using 2/3 on Facebook and LinkedIn and including more for Instagram and Twitter.
💥 You can compete with bigger competitors on social media (and it doesn’t require a huge budget!) → Do this through ‘user generated content’ where you encourage your customers/clients to share content about you and your business. Influencers can also support your efforts.
💥 Video, Memes and GIFs are seeing high engagement for many businesses → Create them yourself by using free online software such as Canva or use a service like Fiverr to find freelancers to help you.
💥 Measure, measure, measure → Measuring ROI is important or you won’t know if your efforts are having the desired result. How you measure ROI will differ depending on your goals but you can use various KPIs such as post reach and engagement, website traffic, event sign ups or purchases – make sure you have the right tools and tracking in place to save time.
💥 Use social media analytics tools → This is key to understanding how your activity has performed. Try out different things to see what works and what doesn’t and then refine your strategy accordingly. Using social media management tools like Hootsuite will help when it comes to reporting.
Carylle’s Top 5 Social Media Takeaways
Our Marketing Coordinator, Carylle, also completed the HubSpot Social Media Certification. Carylle works closely with our clients to manage their social media platforms and implement the strategies we devise.
As a fresh 1-year marketing graduate, Carylle has shared her top 5 takeaways from Hubspot’s Social Media Certificate that she will now be confidently applying to our clients’ social media strategies –
💥 Know your business’ goals → Your social strategy should be based on your business model and goals. By pinning down your business’ goals, you can then focus on understanding the priorities and needs of your audience and create a social media strategy that markets your products or services in the most compelling way.
💥 Strategy is extremely important → Build a unique social media strategy that fits your business by taking into consideration your goals, measurable objectives and the outcomes you want to achieve. Ultimately, you need a strategy that will help you work towards your vision for the future.
💥 Humanise your brand’s voice → Consumers are more attracted to brands they can identify with. This means speaking to your customers on a personal note which can be done through tone and humour. Customers are more likely to engage with brands that are down to earth and personable rather than brands that are overly formal and robotic. Of course, there are limits on how ‘down to earth’ you should be with your customers, and this will vary depending on your industry and who your target audience is.
💥 Listen and monitor before acting → Pushing out content with little to no awareness about the subject can cause a backlash to your business. Instead, it’s important to review the conversations and trends that are taking place in your industry. Social listening will also allow you to better manage your reputation by encouraging you to think before you act.
💥 Experimenting is key to success → Just because something is working for your competitors, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you. The best thing to do is experiment with limit, try different methods of content or platforms to identify which one is worth your time and financial investment.
Are you looking to work with a marketing agency to run your social media campaigns? Or maybe you would like to invest in 1-1 training to improve your social media performance. White Communications have been working with SMEs and charities for 10 years helping to increase social media engagement and interest into their organisation.
You can contact us by completing our contact form or emailing info@whitecommunications.co.uk.
