Do you need 5 basic tips to make social media work for you?
Recently I spoke to small groups of entrepreneurs over two days bout SEO and how to make social media work. We were at the Business Start Up Show at Olympia, London and it was then I realised how much needs to be learned. This is especially true if you are just starting out on the journey and what to make social media work for your your brand, product or service. Techy types underestimate just how much basic information people actually want and need. This experience will inevitably impact on Leadamo Academy’s future blogs because we want to cover common questions and offer advice that is practical and relevant to your niche or level of experience.
So how does one go about solving the query that I heard many times in 48 hours:
‘How can I possibly leverage social media so it impacts positively in my case?’ or
‘Please help I need to make social media work for my brand.’
Well I guess we might use television as a great vehicle to understand Twitter. Please note how many television shows now include a hashtag on screen inviting debate and being part of party that’s actually going on in real time. Exactly.
How is that going to help you?
Firstly it’s worth remembering Twitter is really a global 24 hour rolling service. Stories surface and sink rapidly. It is about now; it’s slightly breathy and excited about itself and it’s also about personality. That means to make social media work for your brand you have to think about who you might be talking to and what kind of ‘occasion’ you might find yourself at.
Therefore, imagine a party.
It’s busy and filled with all kinds of fascinating guests. One person walks through periodically chuntering along to himself: ‘You got to buy my product!’ he turns up once every couple of hours and you are vaguely aware of his passing but you have no desire to interact. Why would you?
What would get your attention?
What about someone who has an attractive manner, who then looks you straight in the eye during a conversation. So you ask him what he does: ‘Oh I am a dream saver.’ He then smiles ‘A what?’ you ask, immediately intrigued. ‘Yeh, I work in finance and help people write convincing business plans to secure funding. But I do it in a leftfield way.’ That last phrase begs the question, ‘How?’
That’s an example of prompting engagement, prompting curiosity, looking like someone you might want to have a conversation with. It’s exactly the same for your business on Twitter or making social media work for your brand in general.
What’s the deal?
Well consider being authentic on social media; tell it how it is from your perspective. This makes you unique and more likely to prompt engagement. Be authentic. No one likes phoney. The tag ‘What you see is what you get’ should be an adage we might all want to remember. Corporate speak is also off the menu. Consumers are sophisticated and ask all the right questions. They have access to all the information so adding a human element to your Twitter streams can only do much good and offer something attractive.
But over and above all of this, the important thing is to:
take the ideas that work for your brand.
When you have decided what that is do make sure you’re consistent whatever platforms you are using. So a few top tips are:
Top 5 Tips to Make Social Media Work for Your Brand.
- Consider why you set up your business. What problem were you trying to solve or alleviate. Don’t forget what motivated you and it’s likely these ideas will motivate people to follow or engage with you.
- Don’t be something you blatantly cannot be. If you are a small niche then emphasise what you do well and offer a personalized service. Respond to followers individually, ask for customer feedback, involve customers in decision-making that matters, not just to look good. Ask specific people for opinions to help you improve.
- Don’t newsjack just for the sake of it. Use the news that’s relevant to you and your followers and that makes sense to post in your specific circumstances.
- Be there always. By all means schedule interesting tweets so awareness is maintained by try and respond to followers, retweet, engage at least once a day, preferably more.
- Craft your tweets and ask yourself, ‘Would I respond to this?’ or ‘Would I find this interesting?’ If you are posting just for the sake of it then don’t bother. If necessary, find someone who can post knowledgeably on your brand’s behalf. There are many freelancers out there who might provide high quality tweets for you to upload.
Further Ideas
Check out People Per Hour to find a freelancer who can help you with social media or writing tweets.