5 Tips from a Social Media Consultant
Social Media technology changes daily. In my 5th year in Business, I wanted to share with you one of my strategies that I discuss with my clients as a social media consultant.
Small Business owners learn how to use social media to increase revenue, or sales per customer. Speaking of customers, perhaps even add more customer loyalty. While others use it for competitive differentiation. As a consultant, my services decrease operational expenses for my clients by hiring me on a hourly basis vs having my client hire another employee and their employee benefits.
Regardless of what your goals are for taking the commitment of Social Media. Here are key points touched upon during initial meetings or phone consult:
Have a Plan/Goal(s)
Let’s be honest. How much time do you have to allocate to Social Media? More precisely, who will be managing your pages? Which platforms? Finally, what are your Goals?
Big takeaway: Find out what your work style is and how you want to manage your social media. Do you want Increase Followers/Likes? Increase Sales? How will a “like” increase your sale?
Define Brand
Do you want to ___ your audiences? That could mean different posts such as educating, informing, inspiring or entertaining them.
Big takeway: Follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of your posts should consist of non-sales pitchy updates vs 20% of posts with links to your website to learn more or a call-to-action.
Target Audience
Where will this activity all happen? Have you tried experimenting with different platforms?
Do you have different personas for different plaform?
Me, personally? Facebook Business Page: post five minute read or less for small business owners. Twitter: for reading relevant articles about Social Media and posting it for other marketers to read. LinkedIn: I post about general articles related to Business, how Social Media can help business, or career related posts for other women and millennials. Finally, I use Instagram to share motivational quotes, funny mom-related memes, and my obsession with succulents. That platform is usually just for fun not for business. I do follow my potential leads and clients diligently on Instagram since it is less invasive and political.
Big takeaway: experiment and focus on the platform that provides the biggest engagement. On Facebook, organic reach is about 6% or maybe less. Spending money on paid advertisement is key. I use PowerEditor to really target the audience to whom I want to market.
Post Consistently
I set away time on Friday afternoons to find posts that I’ll be sharing on Social Media throughout the weekend/week. I schedule them on Facebook (for Facebook related news), on Hootsuite if I plan to be on vacation and I want to make it seem like I’m working) and Tweetdeck for Twitter only. You can use Hootsuite to schedule your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and/or Instagram posts all at once or whichever platforms you want.
Big takeaway: dedicate time on a weekly basis to schedule your posts to stay consistent, especially if you are slammed during the holiday season.
Stay up to date, follow influencers
I always recommend to clients to follow my posts on the platforms that they are interesting in growing their audience. Breaking news, trends, How-tos, or any latest changes on Facebook Business Page will be included on that platform and on Instagram. If there are any updates on LinkedIn, I strictly post them on my personal LinkedIn profile.
Big takeaway: Follow individuals who are the gurus in your industry to stay relevant about trends and share their updates (give credit) to build your audiences as well.
With the changes constantly occurring on Social Media you want to stay ahead of your competitors with the latest tools.
About Valentina
Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, MBA is an award winning young professional. She has a background in sales and has been using social media platforms professionally since 2009. Her experiences stem from years of staying current on the latest in industry news, handling customer objectives, and creating a solid social media marketing plan.
Call 855-880-5082 or email at Valentina@Beyond-Engagement.com to learn more about her services.