1. Add Share buttons
One of the biggest mistakes many people make is not having social media share buttons on their website.
When you are writing a blog, or posting valuable information the easier you make it for your audience to share your posts on their social media the more chances you have of people seeing and sharing your information.
Depending on which blogging platform you use or who developed your website adding social media share buttons can be as simple as clicking a button or installing a plugin.
2. Find a balance
Currently Wikipedia lists 200 networks in their list of major active social networking websites. So it is understandable that many business owners become overwhelmed by the whole concept of social media marketing.
Determining which networks you should use is dependent on several factors including:
-
Where your target audience can be found.
-
How much time you have to dedicate to social media marketing.
-
What type of product or service you are providing.
My advice to you as a small business owner is to start by picking no more than three relevant social networks and get to know them well before trying to expand. .
3. Know your voice
The tone and language you use when talking to your mother is more than likely going to be different to the tone and language you use when you are talking to your best friend.
You may miss out some swear words, you may avoid revealing your true opinion and you more than likely will do your best to maintain a certain image (the kind of image that would make your mother proud)
Majority of the time you naturally change the way you present yourself to a person depending on the situation and your relationship with them.
However, your online personality is different because your reach is so broad you quite often you have no idea who is viewing your posts.
You need to determine how you want the world to view your business and you.
Are you all business or are you funny? Are you an expert in your field or do you connect people with experts? What are the interests of your business? etc.
Once you have your online personality figured out it will be easier for you to set out social media guidelines for your staff, determine who to follow and plan your posts.
4. create quality content
The internet is essentially an ocean of content.
You can have the equivalent of the Red Sea in content but if it is boring, poorly written or useless information nobody is going to care, nobody will share it and nobody will stay on your site.
You need to make sure that when you write blog posts you consider your audience’s needs, answer their questions and write well.
This may seem like some harsh advice but you need to keep it in mind. Just because you wrote essay’s in high school that Mrs McDonald marked as an A+ doesn’t mean that you are going to create quality blog content or more importantly searchable blog content.
The best way to ensure you aren’t slowly driving your readers away or killing them with boredom, due to poor content, is to hire a professional writer. If this isn’t an option then make sure you have a variety of people look over your post and provide feedback before you put it on the internet.
5. Don’t become self-involved
The biggest mistake a lot of small business owners make when embarking on social media promotion is that they become self-involved.
If all of your posts are about your business and the products you sell then you are going to drive people away.
You need to add value to your viewers lives by providing them with quality content, by asking them questions and by hearing their questions and concerns.
The best rule to follow when posting is the 80/20 Rule, where only 20% of the content you post is self- promoting.
While we are on the subject of self-promotion, I should mention that for help with your social media and communications you can contact us at Homeroom Small Business Solutions. We will make sure that you always have your best foot forward when communicating with your stake holders 🙂
