For some of us, social media can be intimidating. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how tech-savvy you are; if you’re not on social media regularly using all the features, then you know that it’s not an easy or intuitive tool.
We get it.
What if you’re a professional/ small business, and you’ve decided to use social media to increase your online exposure?
We’re here to help.
In this blog post, we’re covering the fundamentals of the four major social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn
After reading this post, you’ll be able to:
Decide which platforms are best suited for your business. Time is everything, and maybe Twitter or LinkedIn isn’t for you. You can decide where to spend your time and energy
Understand the pros and cons of each platform
Start implementing best-practices
Use hashtags to reach a wider audience
Get a handle on how to navigate on social in general
LET’S GET STARTED!
When creating content on social media – keep in mind
AUDIENCE: Who are you creating content for?
Location: Local or international
Female/Male or mix
Age group
*Tip: Visualize your ideal client/visitor/customer and pretend you are speaking to this person. Your content should be created with this person in mind.
PURPOSE: What is the purpose behind your post? Good content should provide value to your audience. Each post should ideally have a purpose. This will create trust and make you the go-to for the information. It will provide a reason for viewers to convert to followers and potentially become paid customers/clients.
CALL TO ACTION: How can your audience engage with you? The call to action must be CRYSTAL clear. What are you asking your audience to do, and how can they do this?
Asking a question in comments
Including a link to visit/register
Re-share an article/video
CONSISTENCY & ACCURACY:
If you are using multiple platforms to promote your business online, ensure your profile image and account name is consistent across all platforms.
Make sure your Instagram and Facebook pages are correctly integrated.
Verify the accuracy of your account details every 4-6 months. You may have changed an email address or a phone number, launched new offerings, or changed your business hours. Be sure to keep your account information up to date.
TYPES OF POSTS
Awareness: About your business. How you got started, about the team, the story behind the brand, purpose, goals, and intentions.
Promotion: Your products/services, value, features, and benefits.
News: Industry news and trends.
Showcase success (social proof): Testimonials, recognition, awards, partnerships.
Educational: FAQ, tips, insights, how-tos, guides, resources
Your content should include all five types of posts. You can decide the continuity and how often a post type reoccurs. For help on how to use post types to create your content calendar for the month, use this free resource; Plan a Month of Social Content in 6 easy steps.
INSIGHT: The 25-to-34-year-old demographic uses Instagram as their primary social account.
PROS: Unlike any other social media platform, (we consider Pinterest a search engine tool) Instagram allows for a visual wall or collection of inspiring images that tell the story of the brand. Instagram posts are organized by time and place and can easily be viewed in one place.
CONS: Overall engagement on this platform is lower due to the overwhelming amount of content shared daily. Users are not as inclined to engage unless the content is valuable and resonates on a personal level. Images and captions are not clickable on Instagram. The main way to direct traffic to the website is through the profile link.
Recommendations:
Be active! Use this platform often to share, re-post, comment, like and post stories. Engage with other accounts on Instagram 10-15 minutes prior to posting.
Respond to comments and DMs.
Post high quality/definition pictures and graphics.
Include a meaningful, actionable caption, and ask questions where appropriate. Utilize the link in bio option to bring traffic to specific pages.
Add a location tag and Alt text to your Instagram posts.
Review your insights to find out what time your audience is active on Instagram, and publish your posts based on at those times.
A hashtag strategy allows you to reach a larger niche audience. Try to include these 4 types of hashtag categories; high, medium, low and exclusive.
a) 4-6 extremely popular hashtags, meaning 100,000 – 500,000 existing tags
b) 4-6 moderately popular hashtags, meaning 10,000 – 100,000 existing tags
c) 3-5 niche-specific hashtags, less and 10,000 existing tags
d) 1-3 brand-specific hashtags, exclusive for you. For example, for us it’s #Fiercemedia #FiercemediaTo
Instagram Profile check:
Name:
Update the Name to Keyword friendly search words. One of the few searchable keywords on Instagram is the name section, the other is your handle (username).
Many users search for products and services on Instagram vs. your business name. Take advantage of the searchable keywords and improve your chance of being discovered.
Bio:
Introduce yourself – Who you are and what you offer.
Include a Call-to-Action in the bio.
Add a niche or specialized hashtag specific to your business in your bio.
Website link:
Create a LinkTree / Manylink.co on the profile link and access various web pages. This will make it easier to create specific posts with a link to the appropriate website page. For example, a post to promote a service can link directly to your website with more information about that service.
Action buttons:
You can now integrate your appointment booking software directly into your Instagram bio.
INSIGHT: A useful platform to share news and information.
PROS: Twitter has an overall high reach and is best used for conversations, listening, and creating awareness of various offers. All text is searchable on Twitter. Captions are keywords, and users can find content by using the Twitter search box.
CONS: Lower conversion rate.
Recommendations:
Be active – Like, comment and retweet often. No such thing as “too much” on Twitter.
Use Twitter to share news about your company and events you’ll be hosting or attending, as industry-related news and trends.
The best performing posts on Twitter are those with popular hashtags and when multiple accounts are tagged.
Use Twitter as a search engine to look up specific keywords and filter by location to find the right contacts and companies to reach out to.
INSIGHT: The professional community.
PROS: Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn has a high engagement rate due to a prominently mature audience. LinkedIn, in general, is less crowded since only a small percentage of users share content. This allows for more space for EVS to share pertinent information and engage with a focused audience.
CONS: Tone of voice on LinkedIn must be professional. Not all “fun” content is suitable for this platform.
Recommendations:
LinkedIn can be used as a supporting platform. Not all posts and content are appropriate for LinkedIn. Fewer posts will apply, but a more focused conversation can be had with the appropriate individuals once the connection has been made.
Invite members and businesses in your personal network to follow your business page.
Sharing industry news. Will provide added value to your audience, will start conversations that can lead to new relationships with other businesses/sponsors, investors, and service providers.
Team members should share and like all posts from the business page. These activities will appear on their connection’s timeline and feed.
Use industry-specific hashtags to find relatable content, comment on others’ posts, by the form of answering their questions, or providing feedback. This is how you can start to build a community of like-minded individuals on LinkedIn.
INSIGHT: In 2020, the number of Facebook users in Canada amounted to 25.19 million and is projected to grow to 26.75 million in 2025. The current Facebook usage penetration in Canada is about 64 percent of the population.
PROS: The 45+ age group followers are generally the audience that’s more engaged on Facebook.
CONS: Post impressions are lower compared to Twitter. Facebook is a pay-to-play platform and organic reach is relatively low since the Facebook business model is built on paid advertising and boosted posts.
Recommendations:
Post often. It’s appropriate to post as often as you like on Facebook.
Link posts to specific pages or products on your website. Unlike Instagram, Facebook allows for clickable links.
Create a Facebook pixel and add the code to the website to retarget website visitors (if/when introducing FB ads).
Join Community Groups. Some groups allow self-promotion and these communities can be a great place to present offerings to a new audience.
Monitor Facebook insights and find the best times to post
Create a FB Shop and upload your inventory to promote your products. If you need help setting up your FB shop, here is a Step by Step tutorial.
HASHTAGS
Twitter: Use one or two hashtags per tweet,
The entire caption on Twitter is searchable, so you do not need to use hashtags for repeated words. Select a trending hashtag, to receive the highest number of impressions. #mondaymotivationFacebook: Use one or two hashtags per post.
Using too many hashtags on Facebook can hinder performance. Many digital marketers have tested their content, and so far, 1-2 hashtags per post receive the best results.
If you want to learn more about best practices for using hashtags on Facebook, you can read this Sprout Social article.LinkedIn: Use one to three hashtags per post. The use of hashtags on LinkedIn can serve the post to people outside your network. It’s a great way to increase brand awareness. Use post specific hashtags on LinkedIn, users will be searching for hashtags related to their industry. #marketing #contentmarketing. Once you’ve built a community on LinkedIn you can introduce brand-specific hashtags to allow your audience to find and follow all your posts laid-out neatly in your very own brand-specific hashtag.
Instagram: You can use up to 30 hashtags per post.
Instagram is the only social media platform that encourages the usage of hashtags. Your captions are not searchable keywords, so one of the more common ways your content gets seen by those outside your circle of followers is by using a strong hashtag strategy. Revisit the Instagram section above for more details on how to create a hashtag bank. You can have multiple hashtag banks and use them on different posts to determine your business’s best-performing ones.
If you are new to the world of social media for your business, the best advice we can give you is to start small.
Choose one or two platforms that you are comfortable with and your target audience is spending time on. Book specific time blocks in your calendar each week for engagement and stick with it. Social media algorithms and their functions change frequently.
Be careful, don’t overstretch yourself, by keeping up with the latest features and functions. You do not need to create content for each platform to succeed.
If you have a specific question about a social media platform, leave us a comment, and we will be happy to answer it.