Using social media for business is a great way to grow your business in nonconventional ways. Social media allows you to connect with your audience without the traditional hurdle of brick and mortar stores, large tv commercial budgets or pricey print advertisements. In 2020 approximately 3.8 billion people use social media, which is more than half of the world’s population. Even though social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more have become a large part of our daily routine they still require an ongoing strategy if you plan to leverage them for your business.
According to Broadband Search, in 2019, the average amount of time spent on social media was 144 minutes per day. This number is significant because it helps identify the fact that you are marketing to a captive audience. People are already using these social media platforms and with the right plan in place you’ll be able to position your brand in front of them.
GLBAL media has been fortunate to manage over $50,000 in ad campaigns and work with clients that have more than 3 million followers. Through these experiences we have developed a unique approach to running social media for business.
Step 1: Create your social media goals
Start by deciding your post frequency. How many times a week do you want to post? This can be a combination of articles, posts, stories, videos etc. Take in to account the amount of time needed to create each post and set a realistic number that you feel is instantly attainable. Hubspot recently shared that:
“Companies with less than 10,000 followers that post more than twice a day receive 60% fewer clicks per post than those companies that post 5 or fewer times a month. Pages with over 10,000 followers were the only ones for whom posting more often increased the number of clicks per post.”
Step 2: Identify your audience
Now that you’ve created your post goals it’s time to identify who you’re talking to. Before you start creating content it’s important to understand the type of followers you’re hoping to attract. Most likely these will be potential clients so start by looking at your current clients and their interests. Once you’ve narrowed down if it’s business owners, entrepreneurs, students, etc. it’s time to start creating.
Step 3: Develop creative content and messaging
Before opening Photoshop, Canva or any other design programs we recommend starting with a list of ideas. These can be as basic as:
- Client review
- Photo from a recent job
- Video tour of the office
- Holiday post
Once you have your list of “big ideas” you can start designing the media elements and messaging to accompany them. Try to avoid including links with ever post. Social media platforms reward organic material that starts a conversation. The algorithm typically punishes posts with outbound content.
Step 4: Plan and schedule your posts
Your final step is to create your social media calendar. We recommend using a tool like Loomly to schedule all of your content which will allow you to map out your content a week or month at a time without having to remember to post each day. Although scheduling can effect your post performance it’s better to be consistent than not post at all. This is also a good time to evaluate whether or not you will boost any of your scheduled posts as most platforms will allow you to do this ahead of time.
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