Take Advantage of Social Media
When reaching out to your markets, customers, potential or existing employees, your community, even the financial institutions, social media can give you direct contact with the people who make a difference to your business. Usage of social media continues to grow and grow each year. Not surprisingly over 90% of all 18-29 year olds are on social media daily but did you know that 77% of the age group 30-49 uses social media, as do 51% of 50-64 year olds*. Even more than a third of 65 year olds and up are now on social media as well … and all these numbers keep growing year after year. *Pew Research
There are literally hundreds of social media outlets available today. It’s one of the most powerful marketing tools of the modern age, giving your company a human voice. But which ones you choose to employ vary by industry. For the manufacturing and industrial industry the four that have the most positive influence on business activity are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. But, if you are in the retail industry for instance, you’ll want to utilize Instagram, Pinterest and SnapChat.
What a sound Social Media strategy can do for you:
* Build your personality and voice
* Engage with your audience
* Generate more business exposure and increase your traffic
* Add a new dimension to your business (e.g. visual)
* Engage customers in your products/services and allow them to be brand evangelists by sharing your content
To be competitive and contemporary with social media, you need a competent content manager with a clear strategy for your content. You can find these specialists within your Marketing Agency, among free-lancers, or by developing your own internal social media capability.
When you connect your business to social media, you want to make the best first impression that you can. Make it simple to contact you. Include easy to find links to your website, email address, phone number and blog if you have one. Use a strong cover photo or graphic to support your message. Tailor your URL (internet address) to reflect your business name. This will help people to find you and improve your Search Engine Optimization (direct internet contacts). Add “like” and “follow” buttons to your website and other marketing materials so readers can connect easily with your social media channels and follow your progress.
Social Media is interactive. It changes every day. Every minute. When you commit to a social media strategy, you also have to commit to keeping your content fresh and engaging for your audience. Learn about your social media followers by looking at the many analytic features that are available – such as Facebook Insights to understand who is liking you, when they are online with your pages, etc. Identify text, photos and videos that put your best foot forward with the people you are reaching, and include those materials in your social media messages.
There are several tools available to measure your performance on social media. www.google.com/alerts is a free, versatile tool that lets you know every time your brand or keywords appear on online forums, new sites and blogs. Tools like www.hootsuite.com provides weekly social media analytics reports and also offers publishing and engagement features.
If you have not yet brought your company into the world of social media, there is no time like the present to get started.
Andrea Siy
S!Y Communications, Inc.