How to smash Social Media as an SME
At a recent networking event, something that one of the attendees said with reference to networking really hit home with me when you apply it to Social Media. She talked about being INTERESTED in your fellow attendees, ahead of being INTERESTING as a person. You need to ask questions and take the opportunity to learn about those around you. One of the topics at this event happened to be social media and how a lot of us have become a bit passive in our engagement. How many times do we ‘like’ or view, compared to how many times we ‘comment’ or actively ‘share’? It struck me that there was a clear parallel between these two areas; social media is basically a way of networking, but online. As such, it’s even more important to actively participate when you’re online, as people otherwise don’t know you’re there!
CHANNEL REMIX
Throughout my years on the planet, I have watched the world go from analogue to digital (yes I am old enough to remember life before the internet and mobile phones!). I have watched the digital revolution unfold in front of my eyes. In the field of marketing, this has meant that our channel mix has literally exploded in the last couple of decades. There are so many options available to us that it can often be quite daunting to know where to start. The great thing about social media is that it is an instant two-way channel. You have the opportunity to get to know your audience at a one to one level and understand what they want, without having to invest much time or money.
GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL
So where do to start? First things first: a reality check. Social is probably not going to drive you a tonne of sales. I’m sorry, I hate to put a downer on this, but it’s just not. Think of Social Media as sitting at the very top of your funnel. It’s about brand awareness but it’s also about giving your brand personality and showing your audience what you stand for. It’s about conversation. After all, why are your audience there in the first place? I don’t go on Instagram to buy products, I go on it to look at nice pictures and chat to my friends. Remember it is SOCIAL media. This leads into point number 2 which is… Who are your audience? Where do they live? What do they do? What motivates them? Think about your target audience - you can use your existing customers as a starting point. If you’re literally just setting up shop, then ask your friends, your neighbours, anyone: who would buy your product or service? Once you have some working theories about the key attributes of your audience, then ask yourself where they are active online. Let’s say you’re an interior design business - do your target audience scroll through Instagram drinking in pictures of lush room layouts? Do they dreamily craft their ideal home on a Pinterest board? Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and think about why they use social media and what they do when they are on there. This gives you direction in terms of which platforms to prioritise and what your messaging will be.
GET THE BASICS RIGHT
Whichever platforms you are using, it’s a good idea to ensure that you have the basics covered before you embark on a big social push. Consider the value of setting up separate business accounts, so that your bio or profile can feature a short description of your business and a link to your website. You can then use your company logo as your profile picture. A word to the wise though, not all logos work in a square format, so you might need a submark of your logo or a different format. Ensure your account type is set to ‘Business’ - this will open up different options in terms of advertising and analytics (especially on Instagram). As always, check that you have up to date contact details on your profiles such as your email address, location and phone number (if you are happy to share it). If you already have a good following on your personal accounts, you can then use your personal account to share your business content and drive your audience to business accounts.
FOLLOW YOUR PEOPLE
Once you have set up an accounts, get following. For instance, if you are a B2B service provider, you’re probably going to be doubling down on LinkedIn, so find the companies you are targeting and follow them. Follow industry leaders and publications, follow thought leaders, speakers at conferences, follow anyone and everyone that has an interest in your field. Another important exercise is to think about related fields. Let’s say you’re a personal trainer - how does that link into other areas? You could search for hashtags such as ‘wellness’ or ‘wellbeing’ or ‘self-care’ and find people blogging on these topics to follow.
GET CHATTING
The next step is to get chatting. Don’t worry too much about posting anything yourself - initially you could keep this fairly brief and just introduce yourself and your business, to help new followers understand what you’re about. Really the most important thing you can do is start understanding your audience and what they are posting, sharing and engaging with. What trends can you see coming through from everyone you’re following? When people post, make some time to ask questions and reply when you get a response from someone. This is an opportunity to show some of your personality, as well as get feedback from real people on what they care about.
CONTENT WITH CONTEXT
Next stop is to get writing, snapping, videoing and to start producing relevant content based on what you’ve learned. Think about what is going to add value to your audience’s lives. What are the key questions trending right now? What problems can you help other people solve? Try not to think of each piece of content as a lead generation tool because your audience will see through it in a heartbeat. Don’t forget you can re-use and repurpose content too - a change of image or a cutting down a large blog post into bitesize chunks can make it work across other platforms and save you a tonne of work. Build yourself a content calendar for the next couple of months and schedule writing, reviewing and posting on certain days so that you keep your commitment to it. Remember to go for quality over quantity - you’ll see much higher engagement from your audience. Don’t worry too much about fine tuning, especially when you’re starting out, they key thing is to try stuff and see what works. You could even run a few little tests or polls to see what seems to resonate with people, and best of all you can ask your audience for feedback right then and there. More to come on content strategy and production in a future post, but for now, just try being INTERESTED and see what happens…