Pick One Platform

If you don’t have time to fully devote to social media upkeep, choose one platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram) and do it well.

Planning

Choose how much time you want to devote to social media and include it in your weekly/daily schedule. Pre-write any posts/blogs and proof before sharing (spelling mistakes and grammar errors get called out all the time!) Make sure if you are posting pictures that the picture is cropped to showcase correctly. Great shots of products are only great if the product is visible!

Find Your Voice

If you have the ability to do so personify your business. Decide on a voice that fits your brand and attach your target demographic to it. For instance, if you are selling sneakers, perhaps the voice is that of a runner. If you are promoting a day care perhaps the voice is a grandma that smells like cookies. Have fun with it but really think through and commit. Consistency is incredibly important to develop a solid personification.

Target Audience Digital/Advertising

Take a look at some of the costs of advertising on Facebook. It is REALLY cheap in comparison to other avenues and it hits your target audience! Be aware that this ad needs to be less than 7 words if possible since people will view it scrolling. I would recommend an image and a punchy headline. Also, here is a weird thing…stay away from putting words on a red background. We discovered in our research that people don’t typically read words on red. Decide where your audience will be directed if they click on the add. Would you like them to go to your home page, to the actual item picture, to a lead capture form? You might have to do some testing to find out what works best. Digital add designs are one place that I would recommend consulting with an expert. Paying a little bit for an hour or two to sit down with some one and talk through what really captures people’s attention is never a bad thing.

Have Fun

Social media reaches a mass audience, have fun with it. The more interesting your business is portrayed in the online community the more followers you will. Take selfies of events you attend or places you go and tag people/places/businesses. Share posts or articles that were interesting to you and say why when you post it. Shout out to people that you meet or know publicly on social media, promote others and they will promote you!

Build A Fan Base

This is where it really gets going. If you can, offer contests for your audience and give away prizes to whoever wins. For example, who ever get’s a 100 likes on a picture of your product first will receive a free sample. Get creative with it and reward your followers that are constantly retweeting, sharing, and liking your business. Create some monthly online event that promotes your product or service — Today is donut day send us a pic of your favorite donut! Highlight local events and associate your business with them “Come on out to (event) and visit us!” The list can go on. Pretty much anything you can think of to share with your fans or get them to like and repost is where you will see fantastic results!

ROI

Because social media is so easy to track you will be able to see your return on investment and will quickly understand that spending a couple hours on social media a day will really help generate business!

Social Media Options

Facebook: Facebook allows you to post pictures and long captions. Facebook pages don’t show up in news feeds often. The best ways to get people to share your posts are to ask for people to share your posts and to promote your posts. Promoting doesn’t cost a lot of money. Seriously, it’s not expensive at all and you’ll be seen.

Twitter: Twitter is fast-paced. This platform works well with restaurants and bars especially. The key to Twitter is to not take yourself and your business too seriously. Have fun and tweet back to the people who tweet at your business.

Instagram: Instagram is great for businesses that have goods that can be photographed. Clothing, furniture, food. If it can be photographed, it can be Instagrammed. Make sure your pics are in focus!

LinkedIn: LinkedIn works similarly to Facebook, but is more professionally oriented. Ditch the casual and familiar language for more professional language. LinkedIn is good for B2B businesses and for finding new hires.

Now go be a social human!