When you’re just starting out on social media, where do you begin? It may seem daunting that companies you see yourself competing with have a large following, but they were in the same position as you at some point. We all start at zero. But where do you go from there?
Crucially you need an objective as to why you want to start social media. It’s not just the time and financial commitment, but ultimately what you want to get from it. Our client’s objectives range from brand awareness, fast & fun communication with their audience especially with new products, gaining a competitive advantage over their new rival and even purely to target a new demogaphic of clients for business continuity. You need to create targets to achieve these objectives, which will be portrayed in your copy.
Social media should be a massive influence in the thought shower process of naming your business. It’s important to check whether your business domain is available across all social media channels. Even if you’re not planning on opening an account on a specific channel now, it is important to create an account to secure the name as the opportunity of using it may arise in the future. Social media channels should work in integration, so the names of all accounts should be the same to make them easily recognisable and avoid confusion with your audience.
So which social media channel is right for you? Take your time to research this. Ask your clients which channels they use, how they use it and what they would like to see from you. See where your competitors are and how they use it. Don’t forget to look at their posts critically and observe which type of posts create the greatest engagement. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes, a post you personally think is great get’s no engagement, and conversely the posts you think are naff, score with the audience! You will need this to build your more engaging content.
Another point to consider here is the tone of voice used. Check your competitors, is it formal or fun? Does it come accross as personal and engaging? What is your brand’s tone of voice and could you have a different one across social media? Maybe think about a different tone of voice per channel; targetting different audiences. Read more about the importance of your tone on social media in our Top Tip #6 Switch Up Content Formats blog.
Here we give you some more pointers on the key channels:
Facebook
Top spot for most popular social media network is Facebook and it is also continuing to grow and boasts the highest time spent on any channel. Facebook has some great features to help drive audience in a key direction in every post, from pushing people to find you, message you or buy a product. This is pretty much the ‘must have’ of any social media and really useful as your main ‘news’ stream.
Getting Started on Facebook here.
TOP TIP: You need to gain a minimum of 25 likes to claim your names url. We suggest getting your family & friends behind this to get you over this first hurdle!
Instagram
A favourite of team hype, Instagram is visually-led and boasts having the highest engagement rate for brands in a 2014 Forrester study was 58 times higher than on Facebook. It’s a mobile site only so download the app (and a repost app too) to get started. Get yourself familar with Stories here too as a different dimension and a great way to show personality. Instagram works really well with a ‘behind the scenes’ focus to your content.
Get started now.
Twitter
It’s no longer the business to business sphere, but a main stream channel and great for capturing journalists, bloggers and millenials. They are also great for Twitter Chats so if you have a local one or industry specific version, get yourself invovled to network away and have some good old fashioned banter! You might find the 140 characters a limitation at first, but once you get into it, it makes your chat more interesting. Twitter are also rumoured to be lifting this limit soon.
Get Started on Twitter here.
Pinterest
The mood board for everything. When it is about inspiration, Pinterest is the platform to use. See the Pinterest mood boards we have created for bespoke stationery and illustration client, Wagtail Designs.
It also boasts great results to purchasing products, with rich pins linking straight to locations or online shops. We use this with our more creative clients and it makes good content to cross over and promote on other platforms.
Get going on Pinterest for Business here
LinkedIn
Well known for it’s networking abilites and potential for nurturing leads, we would recommend you put yourself on as an individual as well as creating a business page.
Get started here.
SnapChat
This is a mobile-only social network with a key demographic of Generation Z’s. With the original ‘Stories’ concept, deleting your image after just 24hours, and selfie’s as their focus, brands have carved some unique strategies to make the most of this platform. Mystery and competition work well here.
Get started here
If you want to check out some of our social media clients that we have taken from zero, then please check out Remi Cachet (all social media channels), Greenwoods Butchers Facebook and Wardrobe Facebook. Go give them a like or follow.
Our next blog will talk a little more about getting going to grow your social media organically so stay tuned.