How to Use Social Media as your Business' Best Marketing Weapon
A Social Media Starter Kit
Consider this your crash course in marketing! In this client education series, we’ll discuss tried-and-true marketing basics that are relevant to the business climate of today. Because as a business owner, it’s vital that you know how to market your company in a way that will earn you street cred (aka: brand awareness) and of course, traffic to your site and/or store. Easier said than done – after all, marketing isn’t something that can just be taught overnight. It’s a 4-year college degree!
Marketing trends are constantly changing, which is why developing an effective game plan can be a confusing and difficult challenge for many. Lucky for you, we’re going to break it down and make it a bit more palatable. We’ll start this series with social media because whether you like it or not, social media is the modern-day fuel to your marketing fire.
How to Curate Your Digital Footprint
Unlike a footprint on the shoreline, your digital footprint will never get washed away – unless you go the extra mile and scrub it yourself! In today’s world, you should plan on prospective clients finding all traces of you on the internet and beyond. Because of this reality, it would behoove anyone – politicians, doctors, photographers, students, and retail owners to clean up and curate their digital footprint sooner than later.
In the article linked below, a MojoMediaPros marketing strategist explains how to clean up your digital footprint/online reputation. She suggests starting this process by searching your name in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and even Facebook. Click on images tabs wherever applicable and find photos that are visible to the public. See any photos that don’t shed the best light on your character? Go to the original source and get rid of them – promptly. Then, dig deep into every social platform where you have a profile. Scour through photo uploads, tagged photos, and comments left on your wall. Delete anything that you wouldn’t want a prospective client seeing. Then, go the extra mile and look into your current sharing and privacy settings and be sure photo tags and even comments on your wall must get approved by you before getting published. Lastly, you may want to consider setting up Google Alerts to prevent any new photos from popping up that you might deem inappropriate or unflattering to your character.
On the flip side, it’s important to continuously share your work and stay engaged on professional networks so everyone can see all the awesome things you do too!
Top 5 Social Media Practices for Business
For many, social media is much more than passive entertainment. It’s the way we connect with friends, colleagues, and local businesses. It’s the way we find jobs (hello, LinkedIn), significant others, car repairmen, roofers, doctors, restaurants, niche retailers...the list goes on and on. For those of us who actively use it, social media is basically our lifeline to many things, both personally and professionally.
That’s exactly why embracing social media as part of your marketing strategy is so crucial. In the article linked below, one of Mojo’s digital marketing experts explains the top five best practices for social media in business.
For starters, in order to use social media as your not-so-secret “weapon,” you’ll want to learn about your target audience (aka the people who will be interested in your goods and/or services). You should discover which social media platforms they are using and also when they are most active on these platforms. From there, decide which platform(s) is best for your business – if customer service is your jam, dive into the Facebook world. If showing off stunning shots of your work is a priority, then Instagram might be better suited for you.
Once you have a general idea of your target audience and have chosen 1-2 social media platforms to get active on, create a content strategy game plan. Look at your competitors and see what they’re posting. Do some hashtag research and see what posts might be inspirational for your future content. It might be wise to set up Google Alerts to see what your target consumers are saying about you (and your competitors). It’s also incredibly important to implement branding (colors, fonts, logos, etc) wherever applicable. If you already have print marketing branding in place, use it for your digital efforts too (unless you’re considering a rebrand soon).
Finally, remember that consistency is key. Whether you post three times a week or every day, stick with a consistent schedule. Since potential clients will be finding you on social media, you want to be sure they know that your business is active and thriving with organized systems in place. A consistent posting schedule will help ensure you portray that.
A Digital Marketing Pro Breaks Down Social Media Best Practices
You’ve likely heard it before but we’ll tell you again – social media can make or break your brand. It should be at the very top of your list when starting a new business or revamping the marketing of your current business. Curating your digital footprint and developing a social media strategy is an excellent jumping-off point but there is truly so much more. Do your research and don’t be afraid to (safely) experiment and try new things!
