Social Media 101 – Where to Start?
Social Media is one of the greatest marketing tools that any business can do with little to no money spent. It’s a way of staying in constant contact with your consumers and get to know their wants, needs, questions, and feedback. We get questions from new businesses and start-ups quite regularly on where should I start or which social media platform is best.
Social Media helps to establish a brand and gives you the ability to share your expertise in a field.
We recommend the following social media platforms to start with and we explain each one individually. There are many different avenues now for Social Media compared to the MySpace days from Facebook to Pinterest to Dribbble.
Facebook – in our opinion this should be your first focal point. With the most users Facebook is the biggest and most relied upon. Setup a Company page for your business. After setting up email or invite your business partners, employees, customers, friends, and family to like and share the page to get the word out. Upload quality pictures for profile pictures and your Header. Be descriptive in your profile and fill in everything possible. We recommend posting a minimum of 3 times a day. Be interactive with customers. Do contests. Do not just be meinformative meaning don’t just write about yourself but be informative to your industry.
Twitter – this platform is more of a real time update of everything going on in any category you can think but it’s summed up in 160 characters. The point of Twitter is to get information across in a clear and concise manner. We recommend posting here a minimum of 4-5 times daily as Twitter is a constant feed of information. As with Facebook add value to your industry and use your expertise with your content.
Google My Business formerly Google Plus Business (GMB) – GMB is a form of Google + however it is your company’s page. This is also what controls your Google Listing in Local Results and the Google Map. You will have to apply for verification to get started with this. They will mail a post card to your business’s physical street location with a code to verify the legitimacy of your listing within 1-2 weeks. If you are not a brick and mortar business and deliver goods or services to your consumers don’t fret you can send the postcard to your home address and after verify set the radius of your service area and your home address will not be shown. As with other social media platforms follow your family, friends, coworkers, business partners, customers, and people in your industry. Post here a minimum of once a day.
(Optional) – YouTube – YouTube is your go to source for all things video on the Internet. Now owned and operated by Google YouTube is a great way to help establish your brand if you have videos. If you do not it’s not a must however we do highly recommend it. Not only is it another way to find and establish your brand but adding descriptive keywords can help your SEO.
All these Social Media platforms will not only help you with branding and customer service / communication but it will also help you with your SEO and driving traffic to your website.
Keep in mind this is just a starting point. Be on as many social media outlets as possible to continual build your brand.
If you need Social Media Management or Social Media Marketing feel free to contact us.