4 Ways To Sharpen Your Social Media Presence

Posted on 9 March, 2016

4 Ways To Sharpen Your Social Media Presence

The world is going digital and small businesses need to up their game on Social Media. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn can be awesome tools to get your business out there, but so many aren’t using them to their advantage.

Start Replying To Your Followers

This is a major point that many small businesses tend to forget or overlook, Social Media is about being SOCIAL. When you reply to someone and they get a notification, a small shot of dopamine is released into the brain and they experience a feeling of euphoria and it makes them feel like they are important. People love it when brands mention them, no matter how big or small.

If somebody mentions you on Twitter, reply to it (unless it’s spam of course) and try to start a conversation. If you get a comment on a status, start a conversation! You have no excuses not to be speaking to your prospects because and if you’re really that busy, consider hiring a Social Media Manager.

Your prospects are free to say whatever they want on Social Media, and sometimes there is a need for some damage control. If you do receive a negative comment or mention on Social Media, don’t ignore it. Instead, try to turn that frown upside down (AKA – improve their experience with your brand!).

Stop Using Terrible (Or No) Pictures!

Social Media is becoming more and more visual every day, with 39% more people on Facebook interacting with posts with pictures compared to those without. If you’re not a confident designer, you can either try using Canva which is a simple to use graphic tool or you should consider hiring a freelancer. Always create images that are within your brands guidelines and keep them consistent across platforms. Make sure you create an image in the correct size that the Social Media platform supports.

If you’re using stock images, make sure you’re not picking out terribly cheesy ones. There are lots of options for free stock photos, and they all have a great selection of photos that look the part. If you’re unsure whether or not to use it, don’t.

Tip: If you have the necessary resources, try using videos instead of images.

Schedule Your Posts

If you don’t have much time for Social Media and forget to post fairly often, don’t let your business suffer! Use a Social Scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite (we <3 Buffer!) and you can schedule a days worth of content on in the morning so you can almost forget about Social Media for the rest of the day (or more if you go for Buffer’s Awesome plan). You can input RSS feeds of your own and your favourite blogs so you can post them directly from Buffer, or install the browser extension and you can pop any article into Buffer as soon as you’ve read it. Social Scheduling can save so much time and will help you keep in your prospects minds.

Try to schedule more of your content per day compared to curated content, however, this is not always possible – especially when you’re new to creating content. You should be posting on Facebook 1-2 times a day, Twitter 4-8 times a day (plus retweets) and LinkedIn 1-2 times a day.

Tip: If you do start scheduling your posts, don’t forget to check in a couple of times a day (easy to do on mobile) to reply to any comments and don’t forget to retweet other people’s relevant content.

Pin Your Important Announcements

On both Facebook and Twitter, you have the option to pin your posts to the top of the profile page, this means that people will see this post straight away as they click on your page. This is a great tool for promoting company announcements, sales or events. This stops your most useful content from being drowned out by the rest and will increase the amount of views on that particular post.

4 Ways To Sharpen Your Social Media Presence