Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
Leveraging Social Media
Show Notes
You hear of a lot of people who spend an awful lot of time on social media and get no result, get very annoyed with it and then end up having to take a bit of a detox from online. It’s the most normal initial reaction but you don’t have to do that.
What is Social Media?
So, let’s start at the basics. Let’s talk about what social media is. Why you should be using it, how you should be using it, and what to do along the way. So, the first thing that you need to look at are the actual platforms. Are you picking the right one and are you paying by their rules because each of the platforms have a certain set of rules, and if you don’t play by their rules, that won’t stop you from posting or becoming part of it. But they won’t share either, and they certainly won’t push it out and makes you viral. So make sure that you are checking out what you can and can’t do on social media.
Things You Should Not Do on Social Media
The biggest thing that most social media is hate. In fact, all social media is hate is when you’re trying to take them away from their platform.
It’s like going to a party and then trying to get all the guests to go down to the party down the street. Not a good look. People don’t like it. And the social media platforms definitely don’t like it. So think about when you’re putting the links in your posts, when you’re sending people to other places, that is taking them to a different party and they don’t like it.
They also think about using content from their opposition. So Facebook in particular, if you are uploading a YouTube video, YouTube is a direct competition to Facebook. So no worries about using the video, but just do it natively. Don’t put any YouTube first and then use it. Put it straight into Facebook, upload it natively and upload it natively to YouTube and then you’ve got it in two places, not just the one.
Getting the Message Out There
So why are we on social media at all? What are we doing? Why are we there? What is free? With social media, it can get you to places you’ve never been before. Yes, the reach is getting smaller and smaller on a lot of the platforms, but it’s still a lot more than what you would have if you just walk at the front door of your house or your office.
You can reach people that you’ve never reached before, utilising things like groups means that you can then reach even more people, and particularly people that have never heard of you. So, it is a fantastic place to spread your message. But it is about making sure that message is what it needs to be. So think about your audience.
What Are Your Audience Looking For?
What do they want? Are you giving them the right sort of information? So you need to have a good mix. You need to have some education. You need to have some fun. Even if you are a very conservative business, you can still have a little bit of fun. For example, adding a post like Friday funnies or Wednesday hump Day or just occasionally a bloop. You can show people that you are human and that it’s all part of your brand but you still have some fun and you are a person behind that brand.
You are telling them what they can buy. So, whether that’s a free discovery call or consultation, whether that’s an actual go to some way to buy, but remembering being careful about how you’re doing it because asking them directly to go to a link to your website is not going to get a very good response. But occasionally it’s okay.
So whether that’s a free discovery call or consultation, whether that’s an actual go to some way to buy, you can tell them what they can buy. However, remember to be careful because asking them directly to go to a link is not good but you can do it occasionally, just make sure that that you are mixing it up with that different type of content.
Use Hashtags
The social media platforms love them, but you need to make sure that you are using them in the right way. So Instagram, Instagram loves hashtags. So you can do lots of hashtags on Instagram.
Anything up to about 28 or 29. Fabulous. Make sure that you do have a bit of a formula so you’re mixing them, using them for different reasons, and you’re not just spamming, but on Instagram, lots of hashtags. Facebook and LinkedIn, they only like a few about five maximum, particularly on Facebook. Use them as emphasis and not in your text but just at the end.
LinkedIn likes them because that’s another way they can work out how to do your URL. So you might notice that if somebody sends you a link that quite often the URL will have some of those hashtags in it as telling you What’s that stories about what that article that post the content of it. So definitely use them, but use them the right way.
if you are sharing between Instagram and Facebook, make sure that you do it in the media suite so that you can change them. You can customise them to have less hashtags on Facebook and more on Instagram. If you’re sharing them straight across and you putting the exact same hashtags on. People don’t like that particularly on Facebook.
So check out the rules and see what it is that people like and what the platforms will like withregards to hashtags.
Choosing The Right Platform
What is the platform that your audience is on? Where do they like to go? What type of content do they like to consume and what do you like to do? It’s absolutely pointless trying to be consistent on a platform where you don’t like the content and it’s going to be difficult for you to continue to do that.
The right social media platform will depend on your kind of post. If it’s video and you want to do YouTube all loading those into Facebook or Instagram, if video is not something you can do consistently, it’s going to be really difficult. So think about where your audiences are. Also, think about what you can do and what you can create.
Be Consistent
The most important thing is consistency – making sure that you are doing it regularly and with these scheduling platforms, then Facebook and Instagram have their own scheduling platforms. So now you need to use third party one. You can do it all in one go. You can do your whole week, your whole month’s content in one go, but then have it drip fade out throughout the week or the month.
Now, I wouldn’t suggest you go a whole month unless you’ve got a few spaces to add some things that happen to make sure that you do have that spontaneity and a little bit of fun and vigor. And it’s not just the same things being regurgitated. So definitely link doing it and scheduling it for a week in events is great.
Tips When Scheduling Post
Scheduling post ahead of time is good but not too far out so that you’ve forgotten what you’ve done. Here are some tips for you when scheduling:
1. Be Sensitive. We don’t want to put out a nice happy post is there’s something terrible that just happened in the world, in your environment or your location, if that’s relevant to you.
2. Check them a few times. You think you are set for a month only to find out that you haven’t scheduled anything or the ones you scheduled are not getting publish at all. Yes, it can happen – due to some glitches.
3. Watch the comments on your post. You need to engage with them back If you’re not engaging with you, then the platforms are going to say, Are you really there? Are you just automating this whole thing? And therefore there’s nobody there. So just make sure that you are commenting. And even if it’s a negative comment, just think of a creative way that you can maybe answer that or just thank them for it and say difference of opinion.
Leveraging Social Media
Think about what you can do consistently and most of all, think about your audience. Social media want you to be social. They want that interaction. They want people to talk to you. They want it to be a conversational. So when you’re leveraging your social media, keep those things in mind.
Listen to the full episode of Small Business Talk episode 203.
You can also find the video versions of the Small Business Talk Episodes on YouTube.
