It’s just another job to add to the list of things you have to get right for your business. Ten years ago, a social media strategy and reading blogs for social media ideas were not on most companies radar, but now it’s expected of all but the tiniest of businesses. If you’re not on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest you’re losing out, and once you’ve found out where your clients are hanging out, you’ll naturally want to be there and catch any passing business.
But while an engaging Facebook feed or Twitter conversation can do wonders for your visibility, you have to use social media wisely or you could turn off more potential visitors than you encourage.
If you want to lose followers and bore people, here’s how to go about it…
Ignore your followers and fans
Yes, I get it, you’re busy doing REAL work. But there’s a clue to how social media works in the name…and if you ignore the social part of it, you won’t get anywhere. Posting images, statements and updates and then running away to do something else is OK as long as you come back occasionally to see what people are saying. Interacting with your followers is a massive part of making social media work for you so don’t be afraid to ask questions . They don’t have to be involved or serious. A few ideas:
“If you could choose any colour, what colour would you dye your hair?”
“Acrylic nails, gels or neither?”
“What’s the most relaxing spa treatment you’ve ever had?”
You can share other people’s articles too and ask what your followers think. Find something that could get people talking, a controversial opinion piece or a new product launch and ask for thoughts and opinions.
Sell Sell Sell
Ugh, just don’t do it. It’s fine to drop in the occasional promotion or offer but of your feed is just one long list of deals, it will turn people off. Not forgetting that Facebook has a sneaky way of not showing people things (unless you pay for them) that don’t get much engagement. Not only will your followers ignore it, but Facebook will too.
The same goes for Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest… If all people see from you is special offers they won’t bother to ‘talk’ to you. The idea is to get people commenting, sharing and following you because you’re interesting, and a constant stream of money off deals is frankly very dull.
Be too busy to reply
Set your phone or a tablet up to let you know if there’s a message on any of your social media accounts. I manage a couple of accounts for a client and was chuffed to bits that our customer service was recently called ‘amazing’ – and we were praised for the speed we reply to messages.
You’re missing a trick if you don’t keep on top of what people are asking about, it could be potential business you’re ignoring. It’s so easy just to set notifications up. You can even set up auto-replies now on Facebook business pages so that if someone contacts you outside your normal hours they get a response telling them you’ll get back to them as soon as you’re back in the office/salon/shop.
Do it now. Set it up so that you don’t miss out. You might also have noticed that you get rated on how fast you respond to messages, so make sure you keep your inbox up to date!
Post any old rubbish
You’re trying to project a personality, a brand even, so make sure that when people look at your page or feed it’s consistent. On Twitter, if you’re a salon or beauty business try to retweet beauty-related tweets, talk about celebrity hair and looks, interact with beauty bloggers…(or whatever your business niche is)
Social media is great but it’s also is full of nonsense, trolls and argumentative people who love to stir things up. Avoid politics and anything controversial that isn’t related to your business or interest because although you might get a lot of people talking, it could backfire. Most current affairs is a no-no for business sites if you want to appeal to as many people as possible. Stay neutral, it’s the best way.
There are times when current affairs works well on a business page; congratulations on a famous marriage or birth, tributes to much loved celebrities who’ve passed away (it’s been a year for that, hasn’t it) and that sort of thing DO engage people but always be very wary.
Don’t plan anything – or plan too much
It sounds like a faff but if you have your main social media posts planned in advance you can get them all scheduled in free software to go out, and only have to do it once a week. What could be easier? Get into the habit of scheduling updates regularly and you’ll free up a lot of time.
Another issue is over-planning. You have to mix it up, planning every single post and rigidly sticking to it is great but it takes away some of the spontaneity. The best way is to plan your core posts out in advance, and make time daily to pop in and interact with people, share things from other groups or pages and generally be seen to be social.
If you need a helping hand with ideas for your social media, contact me…