Social Media Best Practices to Follow on Any Platform
There are so many social media platforms today that it can be hard to choose which ones to use. Each platform has its own purpose and a different audience, requiring a different strategy to get the most ROI from each one. However, there are some general social media best practices that apply across the board, regardless of which platform you plan to use.
Have a Strategy
First and foremost, you need to have a plan for what you’re going to post and when. If you don’t plan out content for social media, then you’ll find it incredibly difficult to stay consistent. Additionally, when you create a content calendar ahead of time, you don’t have to worry what to tweet about last minute. The stress of trying to come up with something new each day is lessened tremendously when you plan it all out in advance.
Provide Value
Contrary to what you might believe, social media is not just for putting out promotional material. While this has its place, generally you should only be self-promoting one out of every ten posts. The other nine times you should be sharing valuable content (both your own and others) in an attempt to establish yourself as an authority and build trust among your followers.
Listen and Respond
In addition to sharing the right content, you should also pay attention to what others are sharing, especially when they’re speaking directly to you. For one, you don’t want to come across as distant and robotic (see next point), but you also don’t want to miss opportunities to blow your customers away. When you pay attention to what people say on social media, you might learn how to improve your product or customer service, or you might find an untapped market you can serve.
Be Human
It’s called SOCIAL media for a reason. It’s about building and managing relationships. Even as a business, you want to engage with people. Show them you’re human by adding a name to your profiles and by occasionally posting content unrelated to work. By doing this, you’ll draw the attention and trust of your followers, which leads to them buying when you do self-promote.
Following these social media best practices is easier said than done. It does take effort to make social media work for your business, but the value you receive makes it all worth it.
Are you unsure of how to get started in social media for your business? Give us a call today at 616.929.0790 to find out how we can help you.
