Keep your social media strategy strong with these 4 tips

If your business isn’t on social media, then you’re making a mistake.  And if your business is on social media but it’s not active, you’re also making a mistake.

Social media plays a critical role in more areas than just marketing.  A consumer might visit your Facebook page looking for directions before they visit your website, and they might reach out to you on Twitter before they contact your customer service line.  This is because it’s much easier to open an app and search your name then it is to Google your business, sift through the results, and wait for your page to load.

So to ensure you’re always there for your consumers when and where they want you to be, here’s what we suggest.

Post Regularly

If someone jumps on your Facebook profile or takes a look at your Twitter page, you want them to see something other than nothing.  When they see nothing, it’s easy for them to assume things – like that you’re not a legit business or that you’ve recently gone out of business.

To avoid negative assumptions, make sure you post content on a regular basis.  If you use an app like Buffer or Hootsuite, this shouldn’t take a lot of time.  These apps allow you to post to multiple social platforms at one time.  You can even preschedule posts in a customized calendar.  For example, you can create a month of content, input it into your Buffer account, and then schedule this content to go out every weekday at noon.

Assign Someone

It’s alright if you have multiple people contribute to your social media content, but you should definitely assign one specific person to be in charge of responding to all comments and messages.  If you don’t assign someone to this task, a few things could go wrong.

For starters, it can lead to unnecessary confusion.  No one’s quite sure who should respond, so no one responds.  Or, what could potentially be worse, is when multiple employees respond to the same message.  Each employee who responds might offer up different information, which will only make your business look disorganized and unprofessional.

Respond Quickly

You should always respond to comments and messages as quickly as possible.  These days, people are all about that instant gratification, and if it takes you three days to respond to a Facebook message, you might face some hostility at that point.

If you do have someone assigned to social media responses, give them a timeframe.  The sooner they can respond, the better.  So if at all possible, have this person respond to everything within a day.  It also doesn’t hurt to list this timeframe on your social profiles somewhere.  It could be something like this:

All messages are responded to within 24 hours.

This just helps consumers feel more comfortable reaching out to you and gives them an idea of what to expect from your business.

Pick Two

One platform simply isn’t enough.  Your business should be on as many platforms as possible, strategically speaking.  Keep in mind that Snapchat isn’t for every type of business and neither is Instagram.

A good rule of thumb is to have your business on at least two platforms, and Facebook should always be one of those.  Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the heavy hitters.  Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and YouTube follow closely, but they only make sense for certain types of businesses.  For example, Instagram is good for fashion, food, and photography, and Snapchat can be used by educators, lawyers, or makeup artists.