2020 has been a right old shit show eh.
Covid-19 has had a significant impact on small businesses in particular. Amid so much uncertainty, stuff like social media planning has probably gone out the window.
Here are a few top tips from us to get you started on your social media presence, from our Social Media Strategy workshop host, Jen Tree:
1) Understand your objectives
If you know what your goals are as a business for the next month/quarter/year/overall, then that should help you outline what your objectives are regarding social media. Do you want to build brand awareness and become a hub of info with lots of followers? Do you want social media to act as a sales-person and track clicks to a website? Is there a particular product or range of upcoming products that you want to launch on a campaign basis? If you can understand what you need social media to achieve for you, you can put together some KPIs and track your success
Golden nugget: Likes and followers are often viewed as surface-level metrics. Tracking figures such as link clicks, shares and comments/DMs will usually give a better indication of how your content is doing.
2) Know your audience
This theme comes up time and time again over a range of subjects, from social media to web design. Understanding who both your current audience and potential audiences are will help you plan what content to create, and which platforms to focus your energy on. Basic demographics like age, location and gender might be useful, but you should also be looking at what they like, who they follow, and how they behave online.
Golden nugget: Get a sneak peek at your competitors and keep an eye on what's being said about topics and search words for your sector. Use listening tools to help you.
3) Decide which social media channels will work best for you
You don't have to pump out content across every single social media channel. It's time-consuming. They require different approaches; they're home to different audiences; you need different assets; the list goes on. Once you understand your audiences and objectives, you can figure out which platforms are best suited to your targets and start with those. Got a teenage clothing brand? Think TikTok and Instagram over Facebook and LinkedIn. Got a community-based organisation aimed at 50+ aged women? Think Facebook over Snapchat.
Golden nugget: Having a 'directory' type page can be useful even if you're not generating regular content for that channel. Facebook, for example, is often searched by sector so you should have a branded page, assigned to the correct industry, which includes your website and contact details.
4) Create that content
Have you ticked off 1,2 & 3? If no, then you don't get to start on this bit yet. It might seem like the easy part, but it comes at a price - your time, with little results. Content is king, but knowledge will sustain it. Sure, you could flukily end up creating banging content and stir up a frenzy of new followers within weeks. But that's rare for your regular small business. When you can write your copy to your audience it'll resonate, and you'll not only gain new followers, you'll keep the ones you achieve. When you know what platform you should be using, the digital assets you produce will work better for you. If you get this right, you'll create a loyal following that can be converted to customer status.
Golden nugget: While your approach, tone and regularity should be consistent (unless the analytics tell you it's not working), your content should be diverse. Video is the future of social media, and people may disengage if you don't use it at all.
5) Look after your channels
Community management is just as important as creating content. Keep an eye on your notifications, respond on time, check your DMs, follow and engage with relevant accounts, listen to what's happening, and analyse the data. There are great analytics tools on each of the social media platforms themselves and many more free, cheap or in-depth tools to choose from to help you.
Golden nugget: Hootsuite is a great tool to start you off. It's free for up to three accounts, and you can schedule, listen and analyse.
You can add social media strategy or social media management as a bolt-on to any of our existing services. So if these tips don't quite cut it, get in touch to have a chat via hello@bravand.com or via the form below.
