Social media is becoming an essential tool to support brand growth and connect with new markets. It is now recognised that businesses of all sizes can benefit from maintaining a social media presence, while a sound social media strategy has the potential to send your message out to your desired audience.

Establishing a community for your business on social media for the first time can feel daunting or confusing. How often should a business tweet on Twitter? Which is better – Facebook likes or shares? Should a business hold an account on all social media platforms or just one? These are just some of the questions you may be asking yourself.

It is important not to feel that you must have a profile on every social media site as some won’t be relevant to your business goals or desired audience. Consider the product you are selling: if your brand won’t lend itself to a site that relies heavily on the use of visual media, you probably shouldn’t be on Instagram, which is image centric.   You should also consider who you’re selling to – if your target audience is women you may want to sign up to a platform like Pinterest, whose audience is 90% female.

The key point here is research. The more you learn about what each platform has to offer, the more likely it is you will create the following you desire for your business.

How you interact with your consumers is important and you should look to engage with your au
dience on social media in a friendly manner. Try to avoid talking to them like a sales person and instead engage with them on a person-to-person level, making them feel that their opinions are valued by your brand.

Good ways to do this can include posting interesting facts and running online competitions. It’s important to respond to any queries that come up in a friendly, helpful manner. Remember, people use social media to interact, so it’s important to treat social media as a dialogue rather than a traditional, one-way marketing pitch.

You should always be security conscious – be mindful of who has access to your social media accounts. You should also remember as a general rule that your personal and professional social media accounts each require a different tone of voice. You only need to search ‘#socialmediafail’ to learn that too many instances have occurred where people have unintentionally sent out inappropriate content – and incurred the consequences. In short, it’s advisable to keep personal and professional opinions separate.

You should remember that creating a social media account is free, so can be a great way to raise your brand awareness and promote your products and services for very little cost. This can be especially useful to smaller businesses that do not yet have the budget for a big advertising and marketing campaign.

There’s some great advice out there for getting your business started on social media and the many benefits it may bring, so why not consider this great opportunity to reach your new audience?

Paul Bunting.

Paul is a Shake Social intern with an interest in media and marketing.