The rapid rise and continuous growth of social media platforms have driven businesses to utilize this channel along with traditional advertising modes such as TV, events, and print. Social media is highly effective in sharing information with broader consumer markets based on the internet and smartphone apps.
Fortunately, social media networking sites are open to virtually everyone. This allows businesses the opportunity to find and understand their consumers, their purchasing behaviors, and potential markets that they can explore further.
More than just aiding you in creating effective strategies for marketing your business among your target audience, your business can establish lasting brand awareness among your loyal followers, as well as potential customers. Adhering well to social media usage etiquette, both published and unwritten, will potentially make or break your business reputation.
Marketing Dos
Complete your business profile and keep it up-to-date
Consider your business social media accounts as your first touch with your audience. Incomplete social media accounts, by default, give an impression of unprofessionalism. If your business cannot be bothered to take the time and effort to present itself well to the public, why then should the public put in time dealing with you? Complete your profile information and make sure you keep it updated, especially your contact information.
Separate business from personal
Keep your personal posts separate from your business page. Consistency is vital when building content on your business profile. Unless you are a small “mom n pop” shop that caters to families in a small community, perhaps the rare shares of relevant personal posts can resonate with your target audience. But do keep that to the barest minimum. You wouldn’t want to be a spam-my entrepreneur who can get annoying fast.
Accept criticism graciously
If you should ever encounter negative feedback, ignoring it or reacting defensively can just aggravate the situation. Be gracious and acknowledge all comments, especially the critical ones. Show the public that you appreciate the criticism as an opportunity to get better and that you are committed to rectifying whatever caused the negative comment and running your business better.
Be platform-appropriate
Each social media channel has a unique audience and intent. It is crucial to understand each social media channel you go into so that you can match your content and effectively reach the right audience.
- Facebook is ideally a fun and exciting venue to connect with people and communities. Join groups or forums that will welcome your business ads as relevant.
- LinkedIn is a spot for business professionals, where people connect primarily for business partnerships or employment. This would not be the best channel for, say, a live selling of pre-loved designer bags.
- Twitter is great for threads of briefly-worded exchanges of thought, opinion, or information. For example, if you have a lengthy description of technical specs of management software, post it someplace else.
- Instagram is where you want to be if you have stunning photos of your homespun baked goods or real estate properties to die for.
- YouTube could be your venue to showcase your video creating and editing skills. Short, entertaining videos can be great for virtual walkthroughs of brand-new cars for sale, instructional marketing tips for insurance agents, or even humorous FAQs for making money from cryptocurrency.
Marketing Don’ts
Be needy
Do not give in to the temptation of constantly begging your audience for “likes,” “follows,” or “shares.” While it’s okay to let your personal network know that you have a business page, it can get pretty obstructive if all you do is ask for engagement. Give attractive previews of what’s in store for visitors to your business page. Besides, relevant and share-worthy content will earn you followers organically, without you needing to be so needy about it.
Spam
A professional business page posts relevant content at least once each week. Anything lower, and you could be passing up on opportunities to keep your business profile alive. Twice or three times is still good. But overdoing it might just drive followers away from you. For instance, do not join over 20 groups on Facebook and then post the same content across all of them. Do not waste your time mass-following random Instagram members, hoping they will all follow you back. Stay with creative, relevant, credible content that will naturally draw people to you.
Complain
Complaining about or bad-mouthing unsuccessful business transactions will only make you look unprofessional and petty. You want to be known for being an excellent product or service provider and not earn a reputation as an aggressive business owner. Rants will tend to turn customers off and away from you.
Make your business profiles on social media channels a creative mix of promotional and share-worthy content. When you get the hang of sharing content online, your business will stand to gain positively, reducing the risk of earning a negative reputation for your products or services. Be professional and creative and make your business stand out on social media.
