There are many social media experts spewing daily advice and content all over the web. Yet, many small businesses I know spend time and money on social media with no confidence that it is worth the investment. And, although social media is constantly changing, there are definitely some basic guidelines that are important as foundational first steps to any small business, or Christian Business, owner’s success on social media platforms.
5 Foundational Tips for Your Social Media Account
Consistent
You need to post things consistently.
Setting up an account that doesn’t have any updates or content doesn’t help at all and could hurt you. Or having content that hasn’t been updated for 2 or 3 months sends the message “don’t come back here regularly, there is nothing to see.”
Relevant
Make sure the posts and updates are about your niche.
Don’t laugh, but I have seen some sites that are managed by outsourced social media firms that post very distantly-related content. You want to tie the content back to your core business and provide information that your target audience would look to you for.
Personal
Share posts and updates that are from you.
I agree that we need to also curate and share information from other sources, but your followers want to know what your company is doing or what you think. Going to your facebook page and only seeing random, distantly-related articles from other outside sources doesn’t build my confidence in you and your company. A combination is fine.
Visual
If you have a visual company, meaning a product or service where pictures tell the story, then post pictures of your work.
Photos are known to do better on attracting people than text alone. If you are a photographer, interior designer, builder, baker, restaurant owner or any other business that has visually appealing work….share pictures.
Connected
Send people back to your website.
Another foundational piece of social media advice out amongst the internet is that we, the business owner, do not own the pages and profiles on social media platforms. Facebook or Linkedin could shut down our profile for any number of reasons and all of our content and followers are gone. We own our website. This should be the hub of our content and connections. Send people back to your site consistently, not to someone else’s site.
I know it is still hard to focus on social media when you are wearing so many hats in your business already. Outsourcing your social media is an option, but if they are not going to follow these basic rules, then it is a waste of money in my opinion.
Whether it is your time or an outsourced vendor, it is better to do a little well and consistently than to do more that has no impact.
Check out your social media pages. Do you have consistent, visually appealing, relevant content being shared on your business pages with weekly opportunities for a follower to click on a link and find their way back to your website?
These are the basic goals all small business owners need to focus on for their small business social media sites.
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