Successfully Managing Social Media

The initial importance of establishing social media accounts for any business is that each account creates a backlink from the social media site to your website. Google notices when credible websites link to yours, so these connections will help boost your rankings. It's easy to create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, and YouTube.

But now that you have the sites created, what do you do with them? Any company needs to maintain their accounts with regular posts, but the frequency of the posts may depend on who your customers are.

Post updates consistently
Business to business companies use social media primarily for the backlinks they provide to their website. It's more difficult to build a following when your customers are other businesses!

Topics that gain attention for both business and consumer companies include specials, events, contests, and showcasing customers using your products or services. Tips and best practices that are related to your business help establish your company as the authority in your field and could be very helpful to your customers.

How often should you post? For business to business companies, once a week maintains a presence. For consumer companies, posting at least once a day could help generate loyalty. Whatever the frequency you choose, just be consistent, so your audience knows what to expect.

Assign the responsibility to post to an employee, or hire an outside group to develop the posts and make sure they are completed. Of all adults aged 18-34, 95% say they are likely to follow a brand through social networking. That's the audience to target!

Respond to posts promptly
If someone does post on your site, respond quickly. If the conversation is negative, quickly take if offline. If it's positive, be concise and appreciative.

The statistics? Over 1 million people view tweets about customer service every week, and about 80% of those tweets are negative or critical of the company they are associated with. When someone complains to a brand on Twitter, 78% expect a response within an hour.

Make sure someone who will react quickly is receiving notifications of posts to your accounts.

Vary the types of posts
A post is an opportunity to convey more information than would be possible in an online ad. But it's important to vary the format of the post and the type of information included.

Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks than tweets without images. On LinkedIn, 98% of posts with images receive more comments, and posts with links have a 200% higher engagement rate. Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.

Try different kinds of posts to avoid becoming stale. Rotate the promotions you are offering. Provide related tips. Sharing a holiday greeting is always nice. How customers use your products and services is helpful and promotional. Company news is important to share, too: personnel changes, new products and services, any events you're sponsoring or participating in are all good content.

Connect with your customers—really
High quality, original content will have a much greater impact through social media than merely repeating your advertisements.

Try informing followers about everything related to your business. Show photos of your employees with interesting facts about their jobs or their backgrounds. Post customer reviews or “behind the scenes” accounts of a day in the life of your business. Relate what you sell to popular problems your customers face, and show them how to solve those problems with your products and services.

Avoid posting anything that may be sensitive. Stay away from religion, politics, and social issues. Your company is in the business of selling its products and services, and all kinds of people need them. Be careful not to alienate any customers.

If you're having trouble consistently sharing information on relevant topics, Winsby can help!