Social media can really boost your profile, raise awareness of your services and aid the overall growth of your business.
Here are five infallible tips that will put you on the path to social success:
1. Ask questions
The quickest way to forge connections with your users is to ask them a question. As our website compares quotes on a lot of household and trade services, we ask questions around renovations. For example we recently posted a picture and asked our Facebook fans how they would make the space look bigger. This both ensures the post is related to their interests and gauges sentiments amongst our users which can be useful later as marketing data.
It is important to make sure the question is relevant and open-ended. It should relate directly to the service you offer so as to attract interaction from target clientele but worded in a way that will promote a conversation. Try to begin with “how”, “why” or “if” to avoid ending up with a list of “yes” or “no” responses on the post.
2. Know your target market
People want to read articles and tips that are relevant to them. At Service Seeking some of our most popular services are building, removals and concreting so we try to make useful posts for potential customers of these areas. We are not only trying to attract customers but we are also trying to draw in businesses and our social media presence reflects that.
The posts are tailored to educate and interest potential businesses while also offering information for users on services we offer. It is also important to also know which platform your target market are likely to interact with most; if you’re offering aged care services then you probably shouldn’t be focusing on Instagram.
3. One for you, one for me
It is a fine line between educating users on the ins and outs of your business and losing followers who have suffered from a promotion overload. However, you should always remember that people are interacting with your business on social media because they want to be updated. We strike a balance by posting one for us (an informative or promotional post) and one for our users (a fun or casual post that sparks discussion and ‘likes’).
4. The medium is the message
Rather than just blasting one update through all social media platforms it is more effective to tailor the message to the medium. Twitter users will want a more cursory interaction because of the nature of the site whereas Facebook users may want to engage in a less superficial discussion so the post will need to be reworded for each avenue.
It is also important to keep the medium in mind when deciding on the aesthetic and tone of the post. Photos draw the most Facebook interactions. Most people don’t want to have to click through to another website so if you want to grab a user’s attention post a photo rather than plain text or a link. However, individuals interacting with a blog are most likely to be doing so from a computer where they may have the desire to follow links through on the topic of interest.
5. Respond, respond, respond
As a growing business it is essential for us to build a relationship with our followers and create a discussion on all our social media platforms. We take the time to reply to all questions and comments, which both fosters interaction and boosts our profile as an approachable business.
Users are more likely to interact directly with social media if they have received a direct response in the past. It is also a useful tool to deal directly and publicly with any negative feedback, which lets potential customers know that you’re ready to deal with complaints promptly and professionally.