Social media has rapidly become an integral tool for most businesses. Due to its unprecedented reach and its amazing growth, it is easy for small business owners - and even some larger business owners - to be overwhelmed by all the options. Plus, even if you choose the one or two platforms you think are the best fit for your brand, how do you approach them? Below are the top four social media guidelines for business owners.
Remember, people post their best in personal profiles - the latest selfie that looks particularly dashing or the most recent family portrait. However, just as you shouldn't compare your family to someone else's, don't compare your business either. There is always going to be an organization that is better, older, younger, smarter, better looking, etc.
This is a pitfall you must avoid. You don't get any points for comparison. Avoid letting doubts creep in and overwhelm your brain. Just because company X does one thing, doesn't mean it's right for you. And that's okay.
Most of all, remember why you started your business. Be confident in what you do.
Social networks need to be managed - post and pray isn't going to get you far. Managing your networks means replying to and giving feedback to people, removing inappropriate comments, setting ground rules, answering questions, generating leads and more. This is where the 'social' in social networking comes in.
A big question that people ask about managing social networks is whether to reply to everything, even negative comments. Chloe, our SEO and Advertising Lead, wrote a great article on our blog about the “BEST 7 WAYS TO DEAL WITH NEGATIVE CUSTOMERS”. Click the link to find out more about handling less than positive feedback. Here are the two main takeaways:
Remember, saying “I hear you” does not admit fault, you are just being proactive.
As an agency, we suggest using the following networks: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
When building your organization's social networks remember to put time into them. Don't feel like you need to do all of them at once. In addition, it's important to only select the networks you can think you can handle. Your social networks sites (SNS) should be managed or monitored to make them most effective.
It might also benefit your business to consider a mix of first, second and third tier networks. Each requires its own amount of attention and strategy.
First Tier Social Networking Sites
Second Tier Social Networking Sites
Third Tier Social Networking Sites
There are a handful of other tertiary social media networks that are worth mentioning. However, none of them has the traffic yet to provide significant impact to your social media strategy.
Find your biggest, loudest, best fans and ask them to write a testimonial on your social networks. Think of testimonials as digital word of mouth - still one of the most effective forms of advertising. If used correctly, testimonials illustrate someone's personal experience working with you and their brand.
When you are asking for a testimonial, make it easy. Give customers a link to where you want them to write about you whether it's your website, product detail page or one of your social networking sites. Also, check out these tips on customer testimonials.
To find out more about social media guidelines and how to best manage it for your business, we invite you to contact Energyhill today. Also, follow us online. Our handle is @energyhill. And, if you follow us on Instagram during the months of October, November and December, Energyhill with give you $100 in Google Ads credit.
At Energyhill, we are always looking for ways to expand our imaginations, learn something new, and innovate. Not only does this help us become better designers, marketers, and advertisers, it also helps us become better client partners. Recently, the design team at Energyhill participated in the international 36 Days of Type. Two graphic designers (Nina Sans and Rafa Goicoechea) from Barcelona first conceived the event. Nina's last name is Sans... born for this! Their goal was to challenge themselves to create one new thing every day while still balancing their normal responsibilities. And of course, they had to post these new creations to social media. Through the help of their friends, 36 Days of Type became a global event. Now, multiple participants around the world take the type challenge every year. In 2017 Energyhill joined the fray.
The type challenge is essentially a 36-day commitment to think outside the box. The goal is for designers to create a new letter or number every day. It can be as abstract or literal as the designer wants - the point is simply to imagine these familiar characters in novel ways.
The creative team wanted to participate because it was an interesting side challenge. However, our designers discovered that a friendly environment of competition was quite productive and fun. Our team made friendly bets over morning coffee. Likewise, our creative team was very inspired by interacting with designers across the world.
Our designers learned quite a bit by participating in the type challenge. We learned about ourselves. Our internal processes are fairly structured. We also have a clean workflow with project management playing a role. This challenge was open ended. Working without guidelines or parameters was challenging, but also invigorating. The passion was real when we started combining organic and graphic elements. Even Ryan, our president, joined in and helped with the stop motion piece.
All of our design team's entries can be found on our Instagram page. Also, we invite you to take a look and see what you think of our type challenge entries. We'd love to hear from you! Contact us today for information on how our creative team can go to work for you.
