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So, you're a new business, you’ve got your new brand identity, and you’ve got your new website. What’s next? Marketing your business can take many forms and is an ongoing process, but there are some simple things you can make sure you do right at the beginning if you’ve not done them already. The next step is to setup Social Media for your new business.
Which Social Media Platforms should I use for my new business?
Few marketing tools are more important than Social Media for your new business. Social Media is part of everyday life for millions of people. It’s a useful way to build brand awareness, and engage with customers, but there are so many to choose from you should probably focus on those that will give you most value, but which ones are they?
Options include:
And don't forget the messenger apps either, such as WhatsApp Business, SnapChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram etc. more business is being conducted through direct messaging, and messenger groups all the time.
The following tips can help you decide where to focus your attention at the beginning:
- Look at your competitors, which platforms do they use?
- Look at friends or businesses who are the kinds of people you want to do business with, which platforms do they use?
Setup Social Media pages for your new business
Make the most of your Social Media for your new business, as lead generating and brand awareness tools by setting them up with as much information as possible.
- Set your logo as your avatar or profile pic.
- Set appropriate images for your wallpapers, such as images of your team, your premises or your work. (Remember that whenever you use an image of another person you should get their agreement, preferably in writing using a Release Form.)
- Include as much contact information as you can, such as phone, email, website, so customers can easily get in touch with you.
- Include your location, relevant to the area you serve, whether that's the UK, or a more local area.
- Include your business hours.
Regular posting
To make it easier to be consistent, set aside time every week to plan and create posts for all your social media platforms.
What should I post?
- Look at competitor social media pages to get ideas of the kinds of things to post about, but never copy.
- New products, completed projects, nice photographs of your work, involvement in the community, charity work, are all good opportunities to post.
- Other opportunities include responding to holidays, sales days, calendar events or times of the year, such as Christmas, 'Black Friday', 'world _______ day' or, 'Autumn Offers'.
- You can also consider sharing motivational or inspirational thoughts (provided you’re using public domain materials or have the author’s permission, or they are your own original text) in conjunction with photos of your work.
- Facebook likes posts with photos and text (not text only) best.
- Include your brand logo appropriately on any images you post to reinforce brand awareness.
When should I post?
- Different platforms and different audiences are active at different times. Start with basics such as posting at lunch time and tea time during the week, and mornings and evenings over the weekends. Over time use your Social Media platform statistics to see the times your audience is active, and then target those.
- Where the platform permits, schedule your posts in advance so they go out at appropriate times automatically throughout the week without you having to remember or be present.
Invite your friends and connections to your new business Social Media
Once you’ve got a few posts online it’s time to invite your friends and connections to ‘Like’ and ‘Follow’ all of the Social Media for your new business.
Improving Social Media performance for your new business
Things to avoid
Although it's tempting to invite readers to like and share your posts, within the post itself, it's actually not a good idea. This is called Engagement Baiting, and certain Social Media platforms will demote posts that do it. This is because it games their system for measuring genuinely popular content.
While you do want friends to share your posts to their timelines, and while you do want friends to React to your posts with Love or Wow, not just Like (because Reacts are worth more to the Facebook algorithm for giving your post a higher score), you'll have to find some other way of doing it than putting the invitation in the post itself.
Some social media platforms also limit the reach of posts which contain links to other websites. To include links they want you to use their paid advertising platform. It can't always be avoided if you want to get people to visit your site, but try a mix of posts in that case so not everything has links in it.
Best practice
Invite as many friends and connections as possible to Like and Follow your social media.
The best way to get Reacts, Share and better Reach, is to create genuinely good posts that people engage with and want to share naturally.
Make your posts as shareable as possible by including at least 2 of the following 3 elements:
- Does the post trigger an emotion when they see the content?
- Does the content help connect the viewer with other viewers or help them feel part of a community?
- Does the content help the reader in some way, or is it presented in an entertaining manner?
Know who content is for and what really matters to them, then create content to reach those people.
Monitor the Reach, Reactions and Shares of your posts in your Social Media platform statistics, so you can see what is most successful, and do more of that.
TLDR
Marketing is an ongoing process that never really ends. By doing the above you'll get a positive start and be on your way to success.
DIY, DWY or DFY?
At DigitalArena we want you to succeed online, and this can be achieved in several ways.
- DIY: You can Do It Yourself, as many small businesses and startups try to do at the beginning while they get going.
- DWY: We can Do it With You, by providing support, instructions, templates, in areas your business needs help with, while you carry out the majority of the activity yourself.
- DFY: Or, we can Do it For You as a full service, offering as many or as few of our areas of expertise as you like on retainer or project by project.
To find out more, please call us on 01530 452276 or email support@digitalarena.co.uk.
Disclaimer
This article is provided freely as a brief introduction, does not claim to provide full or complete information, does not constitute advice and is provided without guarantee. Readers apply this information at their own risk. However, we hope the effort made to provide this introduction will prompt readers to learn more about the subject as it applies to their circumstances.
