How to get the most out of social media

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15/06/2017

We’ve talked recently about why your business should use social media for marketing. Blindly spending hours on social media is not likely to be effective though – you need to be diligent about how you spend your time on social media. After all, you still have a business to run.

Social media top tips

You need to familiarise yourself with the different social media channels to get the most out of each one. They all have their own individual strengths and weaknesses. Here are some quick tips that can help you boost your social media efforts.

• Twitter lists – keep on top of the discussions relevant to your industry. Twitter lists help you monitor your competitors and connect with industry leaders, and the Social Media Examiner can help you build and organise your lists.
• Join a Facebook group – this provides you with better engagement levels with the kind of people who are interested in your business. It can also be a great way to network with other professionals in your industry
• Focus your efforts – pick one or two social media platforms that serve your business well and focus on them. When you’ve got those ticking along nicely and it’s not taking up too much of your time, you could consider branching out.
• Use Facebook to target your advertising – this is a great way to reach a larger audience, and increase engagement with your Facebook posts. You can optimise adverts to encourage more clicks, likes, or get new fans.

Get everything working together

Whether you use one social media platform or several, it’s important to make sure they’re co-ordinated and are driving traffic towards your business website. You will generate better results if all of your channels are working in harmony towards the same targets.

Depending on what platforms you’ve chosen, here are a few tips for getting them working together:

• Your website – all your social media output should be focused on driving traffic to your website, because this is where potential customers can find out about you and your business. This is especially important if you’re selling directly through your website.
• Blogs – a regular blog helps to define your voice and is a great way of sharing information. You can engage with your customers even more if you allow them to comment on the blog. Creating a dialogue with your audience helps your brand become more attractive.
• Advertise your social media profiles – make sure you have a section on your website where you can prominently display your social media icons. If you want to attract followers, your profiles need to be easy to find.
• Mobile – people are using their smartphones for everything these days. That’s why is essential that your website is mobile-friendly. If it’s not, then you’ve got a problem, because since April 2015, websites that aren’t mobile-friendly don’t appear in Google mobile search results. There’s a simple test you can run to find out how your website compares to mobile standards.

Review performance

It’s essential that you monitor and evaluate your social media activity. Tools like Google Analytics measures how many visitors each of the social media platforms are bringing to your site, as well as actions they perform. Facebook Analytics can help you work out how successful your posts have been – this is especially useful if you’re doing something like a competition.

All of this will help you make sure your efforts aren’t a waste of time. When you’re using social media as a marketing tool, you need to constantly monitor how successful it is. Online analytic tools are one way, and another is using social media to talk to your customers about what they think.

The effective use of social media can build trust in your company, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and raise awareness of your products or service. And social media is one of the most cost effective forms of advertising when used properly.

Advice and resources

• Check out Forbes’ article on How to Make Social Media Work for Your Business.