Many of my prospective customers who attend our workshops on Digital Marketing ask me about “Social Media Tips for Business”. Here you go all the simple tips that you can follow on social media.
Content
Content is the KING & his Army when it comes to Social Media. Your Biggest Driver of success or failure is the content that you can create.
When it comes to content creation many of us are worried as we don’t have the time to create good content & whatever we are able to create by ourselves we perceive these as not worth sharing.
My advice to you: Get Out of that Inhibition – Period!
You never know what your audience might find interesting so keep creating & keep sharing.
Some of the Formats of Content that you can create are:
1. Images &
2. Videos
Let me share some examples of each format so this process is broken down for you.
Images
1. Behind the Scenes Post
If you are a Professional like a Fashion Designer, an Artist or a Baker etc. then you can use “Behind the Scenes” scenario to create interesting content. We all love to showcase our end product but what goes on behind is more interesting to your audience.
To showcase the story too.
2. Employees Post
If you are an SMB then it makes more sense for you to involve your employees too in this endeavor to use Social Media for your marketing purposes. Rather than take the complete ownership to create Posts for your business let your employees also use their creative skills to create new content.
So, encourage your employees to post on social media on their personal profiles regarding “A Business Win”, “A Satisfied Customer”, “A Social Activity that was conducted by your business” etc. and using hashtags let them mention about your profile.
You can also share the posts from your employee’s profiles onto your business profile.
Example: Fenway Park which is a Stadium in the US often reposts images from its grounds crew preparing the stadium for a game. Just be sure to tag or credit the individual who posted the media first.
3. Selfie with Clients
Whenever you meet your clients seek permission from them to take a Selfie with them and take their Instagram to handle so you can tag them on the post. This ensures that you also reach to their friends.
If you are a B2C company and if you do have clients who are younger audiences like 18 – 35 yrs old then the probability of they being on Instagram is higher than on Facebook so don’t ignore this opportunity to build traction to your social media account.
4. Educational Posts
Educational Posts which will add value to your user can also be used to post on your Instagram account. But make sure that the content is interesting, not boring. Don’t try to fit in all the “Gyaan” in 1 post, but break it down into multiple posts.
Example: If you are a Life Coach, don’t try to create a post which will give your followers 100 tips to make their lives happy. Start with 1 small tip that they can practice each day and slowly build on it.
Buzzfeed uses “Tasty recipes” to create interesting education post content wherein the recipe is displayed in the post along with the image of the end product.
5. Inspirational Quotes
All of us, feel low sometime or the other and we drive inspiration from a movie clip or a quote that we read somewhere. If that is the case with you too don’t be worried to share it with your audience on Instagram. This helps your followers to understand your core values too.
6. Share your News
Share your News. Success or Failure does not matter. If you have a Success story blow the horn top off your lungs but if you face a Failure, don’t curl up and sleep – Share that too.
This will let your followers know that you are Human too and it will create an emotional connection with them. Let them see who you are including your vulnerabilities.
7. Current News
Be Careful with this kind of post, you can always air your views regarding you’re a Current Affairs topic but if the topic is too controversial then let it rest, don’t try to put your opinion out there. It’s better to be silent in such situations rather than be controversial.
Because if Social Media is going to boost your post and get you new audiences quick it can also create a negative stigma regarding your business even quicker.
Remember, you are at the end of the day representing your business so anything that you say will be perceived as your business’s voice. So make sure you use the right content to comment on.
8. Showcase your Work
Don’t forget to TALK about your Work. Yes, yes we know we asked you not to talk about it too much but if you post a minimum of 4 posts on Instagram its ok to talk about your work in 1 post. After all, we are here to showcase our work right?
Some people get too riled up with following the trend that you don’t find anything relevant to their work on their profile. Their bios look like this:
“A Maverick, Love Travel, Blow candles on 2nd March”.
That’s it??? I know we are trying to make ourselves “Personable” and “Likeable” by participating on these social media platforms but don’t completely lose out on the intention of “Promoting your Business”.
9. Personal Life
Also don’t be afraid to talk about your “Personal Life”, if you went on a vacation cool, put a picture of it.
Remember, don’t load your profile with continuous pictures and videos of that Vacation, that is a complete no-no but use a couple of interesting pictures, maximum 3.
This is also to showcase you as a Person “Who works Hard but is also a Human and needs to take a Break”. So go ahead break a leg but remember Maximum 3.
Videos
Types of Videos
As already mentioned that only 60-second videos are allowed on Instagram, there are a couple of Types of Video content that you can showcase.
1. Product Sneak Peek Video
Since Instagram is mostly used to market B2C businesses like Apparel, Cosmetics, Beauty Services, Organic Soaps, Bakery products etc. a beautiful video showcasing the product sneak peek is the best format for a 1-minute video.
It is just enough time to show your products and talk a bit about it, not too much remember you have only 1 minute.
Courtesy: marzena.ce
2. Customer Testimonials
Yes, 1 minute is not that short too. You can have a customer testimonial video with an interesting message embedded to showcase on Instagram.
Courtesy: epicproductionsllc
3. Create GIFs
GIFs are the format of mp4s that can be used to showcase a repetitive action. This creates interest as the action is repetitive and can also be used to showcase your products.
Example: Like the Swirling motion of a dress, The revolving table of a Cake setup, Small Make up videos etc.
Courtesy: dressvideos
4. Interesting Experimental Videos
Remember last time we discussed how we should only use 1 post to promote about our products in a week and the remaining posts should be interesting content that define the personality of your brand or YOU if you are the brand ambassador.
Similarly, an interesting experimental video that you may have conducted might be a good video to post.
Courtesy: thedadlab
5. Announcements
If you are Launching a New Product, Conducting a New Workshop or Just going on a vacation – you can always communicate better using a video.
Example: For our Online Workshop on 31st March for Branding and Personal Branding topics we chose to create a small video and post it on my Instagram feed.
Now, you know the types of posts that you can use on social media. Let us look at some tips to share them:
8 Social Media Tips for Business Owners
1. Share your posts as stories on Facebook & Instagram. Stories generally stay up for 24 hours & thus have higher engagement than regular posts due to the time-bound factor.
2. Instagram gives you an opportunity to share your story to relevant people who follow you so use that feature to make sure that your story reaches your target audience.
3. Tag people wherever appropriate. If you are doing a customer testimonial take permission & tag your customers. If you are announcing something at work then ask your co-workers to share the post on their handles too & then tag them. Your goal is to reach the maximum number of new audience as possible
4. If you are using a stock image then put a credit for the website that you took the stock image make sure the image is free to use though. Most of us think we should not give credits to websites from which we have downloaded the image as the website will know about us that is not appropriate anymore.
5. Also if you are sharing a product image or an image from somebody else’s handle use the tag “Repost” & tag them so they know you are reposting their post this will ensure that they start following you next time.
6. Engage with your audience. If somebody likes your post go to their profile & check them out like their page, if they comment on your post provided its a positive one then thank them & comment on their posts if you like something. Engagement is the key to building good relationships in the social media world.
7. Invite your friends to like your page on Facebook – Most of us don’t maybe because we think it’s bothering them or maybe we don’t feel confident they would like our page. Again keep your inhibitions at Bay invite them anyway. You might 3000 acquaintances if even 1% likes your page that is 30 likes & by this activity you can also reach their circle of influence so use this feature.
8. Become a member of relevant Facebook groups & share your posts on these groups. Each group has their own rules though so make sure you read them before sharing your posts in these. Facebook has a strict regime now regarding the various accounts that are sharing such posts on groups so make sure you don’t post all your posts on the same day in multiple groups. Post slowly but consistently.
Well that’s it folks, hope you learned some new points & will start addressing these soon. Let us know how your sharing has helped you reach more potential customers by commenting below.
Have a great week ahead.
Reach out to us for a discussion on “Creating a Digital Strategy for Your Brand” by emailing us at sirisha@brandingbypixels.com
Happy Marketing,
Sirisha Varma,
Founder, Chief Strategist,
sirisha@brandingbypixels.com
brandingbypixels.com
