Social media marketing is an essential tool for building your brand. It will drive traffic to your site and increase brand awareness.
You have to participate in the social media landscape because all businesses are establishing a presence and you will stand out if you don’t.
But what can you do right now to get started?
1. Sign up For All The Major Social Media Accounts
Sign up for a business page on Facebook because it is against Facebook policy to represent your business on your Facebook personal profile. It will also entitle you to some benefits like targeted marketing, sponsored contests, and promotions.
Sign up for Instagram, you can use your Facebook credentials to start your account. Instagram is the hottest network at the moment.
Don’t forget to sign up for that blue little birdy, Twitter. Even though the conversion rates are low on Twitter, it has the potential and can do wonders when you do it right.
Create a company page on LinkedIn. You are essentially establishing a presence for business connections because LinkedIn doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. But you do want to include as many keywords as possible and join all the groups that you are a member of offline.
Sign up for Google Plus. You can sync it with your Gmail account. Google Plus is indexed high on the Google search engine. Another Google benefit? You can have multiple pages underneath one administrator.
Last but not least, Pinterest, sign up for it as Pinterest can drive loads of free traffic to your blog/website.
2. Clean up Your Blog/website
You want it to look as professional as possible because you will be directing a lot of traffic its way. If you have a WordPress site you can add plugins that will automatically update Facebook and Twitter when you add new content.
WordPress has many other plugins to make your page look professional, if you looking for a good hosting company, you can view our short list of the best WordPress host (link coming soon).
3. Think Seriously About Customer Service.
Develop an FAQ list. Everyone in your company who answers questions on social media sites should be giving the exact same answers. So take the time to come up with standard answers and then train your employees on how to respond.
You don’t want multiple interpretations being sent out from different sites or your company will end up having to make sense of it all later- when customers begin picking up on any inconsistencies.
Establish a system to handle customer service issues in real time. Customers are used to things being taken care of quickly. And it doesn’t take long for a negative comment about your company to be posted everywhere, leading to a backlash.
Be ready to deal with customer service issues as they arise. Remember, you are increasing your company’s presence in a major way with social media and will be exposing your company to situations you may not have had to deal with before.
Your goal should be to educate, entertain, and establish yourself as an expert in your niche.
4. Establish A Publishing Schedule For Your Content Topics
A content calendar is a simple way to keep everything in one place and create consistency for your visitor. They should expect that certain days will include certain topics. For example, every Wednesday may be Wardrobe Wednesday with tips to enhance the items in your closet. Then they will go to check your content every Wednesday.
Tools like EasySocio makes it easy to schedule your content to multiple social networks. It helps you execute your social media plans with ease.
When you do use it correctly, social media will help you to grow traffic and build your brand by attracting the right kind of attention to your company.