No Budget No Problem? Social Media tips for new businesses – help create an effective social media strategy at no cost!
Determine appropriate platforms
Research the social media channel you think will be the most effective platform to reach and engage with your audience. By doing this you will start to determine where your target audience is most active online. Start slowly, don’t create multiple accounts on different platforms and barely use them. Focus initially on a select few appropriate platforms and build your following here. Having numerous different inactive social media accounts defeats the purpose of creating the account in the first place! If you’re not going to use it – take it down!
Express your message
What is the key message you want to express to your social audience? Once this is decided, communicate it via your chosen social media platforms. This can be done either through simple posts, introducing yourself or through content creation to really maximise your post reach. By posting images or video it creates the potential for a higher audience reach, users will be more likely to interact and share visual content, helping contribute to your brand’s exposure.
However, be careful to not OVERDO this. If you choose to use Twitter to only tweet your message it may become too ‘salesy’. Users don’t want constant sales pitches, they want a balance between what you do and your interest in the industry. You can achieve this by sharing other people’s blog posts with your thoughts and industry insights from influential people within the sector.
Build your following
This can be a frustrating stage when building your social media presence, don’t expect thousands of followers within the first couple of days. Allow time for your following to grow, keep your updates regular and not sporadic to demonstrate consistency. Ensure you start off by following influential people within your industry for example when using Twitter, search for keywords and terms and follow the accounts associated with these. If you choose to use Instagram, incorporate hashtags related to what you do to attract relevant followers.
Remember to include your social media accounts within your website! By doing this it can help drive traffic from your web page back to your social media profiles.
Original content
Posting your own images, posts, blogs, video or any other form of content will help build your brand. This is because if it is original, users will not have seen it before and may be interested in finding out more. Whereas if you are continually re-posting others work, your audience is less likely to interact because they may already be familiar with it! The key is to find a balance between posting your own original content and engaging with other users by posting their work.
Choosing to cross-promote the same content for each social media channel does not always work. The audience for each platform requires a different social message and regurgitating the same posts isn’t always effective. Your following may also be effected, for example, a user may think ‘why should I follow them on Instagram and Twitter if they post the same thing?‘ Make your audience feel special and post unique content to each individual platform.
Interaction
Interacting with your audience is key to build a solid formation between your brand and the consumer. Any mentions of your brand online, or questions you are asked via social – always reply! With the power of social – you can form strong relationships with your customers, your audience and industry experts through online interaction. An essential opportunity that would have been missed if you had chose not to create a social media strategy.
It is also important that you know your audience for each individual platform. Understand who you’re talking to and keep the style and tone of your social voice relevant to the audience you are interacting with.
Keep it simple
Start off by creating simple posts that will reduce the risk of confusing your audience about who you are. You want for any social media user to visit your page and understand who you are and what you do. You can achieve this by keeping your posts precise, to the point and keeping technical jargon to a minimum. If the readability is straightforward it can ultimately help users understand your brand better and create the ability for them to recognise it again in the future.
Track your progress
There are plenty of free analytical tools such as Google analytics and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have a built-in analytical software. Whilst you don’t need to be an analytics whizz to understand these, they can be very helpful in understanding your audience. As well as your post reach and click through rates. It is important you monitor your progress to help determine which posts and campaigns were successful.
Whether you’re a savvy social media expert or you’re interested in learning more discover other social media blog posts here
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