Guide to social media

Facebook

Benefits: Numerous social benefits including easy interaction with friends and the ability to tag people in photos and posts.

You can create a Facebook profile for your business by ‘creating a page’. To do this simply visit facebook.com/pages and click the Create Page button in the top right corner.

You will then be presented with a list of options on what sort of page you would like to create.

You will then be prompted to choose a category and enter your business name and address.

You can choose a profile picture and write an ‘about’ section for your business.

You can then friend request all of your friends online. An easy way to do this is by importing your e-mail contacts to see who you know on Facebook.

You will then be taken to the admin panel where you’re able to edit your page.

Your audience – Target your audience specifically making sure you really reach out to them. Having a clear idea of who you’re talking to will ensure that you are generating more relevant traffic to your page.

Content – Producing consistent content is a must if you want to succeed on Facebook. The topic of your content not only needs to be relevant to your company but also engaging and interesting for your online readership. This is what is needed for interaction and high response rates. Create content with images and videos – these are more likely to be shared.

Including questions is a good way to spark debate and get people thinking. Remember, you need to put across a personal voice so that your fans feel like there is a human tone behind the posts. This will encourage them to respond and interact with you.

Tag – This is a great feature and allows you to connect with your fans in a unique way. You can tag fans in both images and posts at the click of a button. Avoid being spammy by tagging everybody you know. Instead, tag people that you think would take a genuine interest in your post. They may even be directly involved in the post, for example, a photo from an event. This can then be shared with others.

Manage your account – Once you have everything set up, it’s easy to manage your account. A lot of posting on Facebook is down to trial and error approaches. You’ll be able to gage the sort of content that is popular by how many Likes, comments and responses you get.  You can also use the insights feature provided to see how much traffic your page is getting. This feedback is great for planning future posts and improving your Facebook page.

Twitter

Benefits: You are able to tweet numerous times a day while keeping it short and sweet. The live nature of the network means that all information is instant.

You can create a Twitter account by signing up with an e-mail address and password. You’ll then be asked to select a username which should preferably be your company name or an abbreviation. The final step is to confirm and validate your account – after that you can start following people!

Bio - Your Twitter biography is really important as this is the only part of your profile which gives anything away when a visitor first lands on your page. This will also allow them to determine what your business is about in a few seconds. Make sure you add links to your website or blog in the bio so that the user can get more information about your company at the click of a button.

Followers – Building up a group of dedicated followers is crucial for online success. Use online tools such as Follower Wonk which will find potential followers. It does this by finding people in your area with similar interests.

You can also use the search bar at the top of the screen to look for trending topics. This is a great way to see what everyone is talking about and also provides potential people to follow.

Tweets - You only have 140 characters to construct your tweet so you need to make sure that you make the most out of every word you write. Your tweet could be a link, a question or an image. Hashtag keywords so that you tweet will appear in keyword searches.
Get into the habit of tweeting at around the same time each day. You’ll soon learn when people are more responsive so you can work out the best time to tweet. You can also plan future tweets – use online tools such as Hootsuite to help you manage and plan your tweets.

Sharing – Sending out tweets is only a part of Twitter marketing. You’ll need to follow-up, respond and interact with every single tweet you send out. Try and build relationships through your tweets and keep conversation and engagement flowing.

Pinterest

Benefits: You are able to organise all of your images and posts into boards. This makes it easy to organise and for other users to browse through.

To create a Pinterest account visit http://pinterest.com/ and request an invitation. Once you receive your invitation and sign up, you’ll just need to wait for your account to be approved and then you can begin.

Pin boards - It’s really easy to create multiple pin boards to showcase images and posts. You can categorise these under different headings to keep them organised. For example, if you’re a florist then you can create different types of boards for different flowers and bouquets.

Pin and share – You can add pins either by uploading them from your computer or using the ‘Pin it’ button which can be found under most posts and images. This will then link back to the original source.

You can repin images and posts from other boards which will appear on your own boards. These will still link back to the original source and give it full credit.

Interact - Follow boards of similar interests so that you’re able to see what others are sharing. You can either follow individual boards or multiple. You could leave comments and start up conversations with other users and followers.

Use the power of imagery – Don’t forget to take advantage of the fact that Pinterest is a website rich in imagery and and is the perfect platform to show off photos and pictures.

Google+

Benefits: You can create different circles of people to control who sees your posts.

You’ll need an e-mail address to sign up with Google +. Use a company or shared e-mail address so that more than one person can log in and contribute to the page. You should provide a profile picture and a tagline – use logos and brand related content where possible.

Share- Google+ is a great place to share and means you can post in a similar manner to Facebook. Images always prove popular on the site so it’s worth including an image with each post. You can then ask people to share your posts so that you get more exposure.

Circles - The circles feature on Google+ is pretty unique as you can create your own circles. For example, you may want to create different circles for friends, family and colleagues. You can then determine which circle sees which post. This is handy for specific posts that you only want selected people to see.

+1 button – You’ll have noticed the +1 button is attached to a lot of content on the web. This means that if you find something interesting you can simply +1 it. This will show up on the post and generate interest towards it.

LinkedIn

Benefits: You are able to connect to a large amount of people on a professional level all within relevant fields.

All you’ll need for your LinkedIn account is a name and e-mail address. The next step is to fill out your profile as thoroughly as possible. This will make your company look trustworthy and reputable.

Connect - Once you have completed your profile, you can start to connect with people that you know on the network. You will start to build up a network of connections and start to find other connections through recommendations. You should also join groups to expose yourself to even more connections. You can also join in with discussions within these groups to build relationships and generate more awareness for your business. You may want to consider creating a group of your own so that you can host the discussions.

Answer questions - You can answer questions in LinkedIn Answers. Providing valuable answers in your field will help you to gain an excellent reputation for your business.

Recommendations - Customers and clients are able to leave you recommendations which can then be seen by visitors to your profile. There is no harm in asking for recommendations and they will serve as an excellent source for potential new customers and clients.