Does Your Business Need a Social Media Presence?
Article by Jessica Struzik, Owner, Green Web Design
TL;DR: Gain valuable backlinks from social media and social networking websites for free, and drive traffic to your website, by making posts to your business’s social media pages.
The bottom line is, even if you don’t like social media, it’s still a must for any business that is actually serious about promoting their brand.
Why Does My Business Need a Social Media Presence?
Do you want to gain backlinks and drive traffic to your website without spending money? If you said yes, then it is necessary to have a free social media presence of some type for your small business. However, it won’t do you much good if you don’t use it correctly.
Having a social media presence and keeping it up to date is essential for creating backlinks to your website. Social media is a great way to engage existing and potential customers with your brand. For example, you can showcase your products and services, receive customer reviews and referrals, and more.
Whether you love or hate social media, the truth is that it’s here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. Although it can be quite divisive, if you learn to ignore the unimportant chatter and focus on running your business pages, it’s a valuable asset.
What is the correct way to use Social Media for Business?
First, you need to decide which social networks your business will have a presence on. You will need to identify which social networks are most relevant to your business needs. What is your demographic? Which social networks are they most likely to use? This will vary according to your industry and target audience.
Here are the most popular social networking sites in 2021:
After you sign up and create a business page on the sites which you want to use, it’s time to make them look professional. I make a folder for each business I work with, which contains copies of their logos, several images for marketing, and a text file with various pre-written “about” statements. This comes in handy in several ways.
For example, if I’m setting up new social media profiles, I can quickly pull up that client’s folder of logos, pictures, and text, and use it to create a uniform and professional look that mirrors the client’s website and brand across their social media profiles.
In the same way, if I am working on an SEO project for a client, I don’t have to scramble to find their product images, logos, or preferred text. It’s all in one central place.
What Should I Post to my Business Pages?
Post early. Post often. Learn to automate some tasks. Specifically, using tools like the Facebook Creator Studio to pre-schedule 3 months worth of posts for my pages saves valuable time. Twitter and other sites also offer pre-scheduled posting.
I make a document that contains all of the links I intend to promote in that session. Then, I write a sentence or two for each link, composed around the keywords and phrases that relate to that page. I schedule a dozen or more posts over the course of 3 months.
Meanwhile, the client can still make posts any time, but even if they don’t, they’ll still have those pre-scheduled marketing posts showing up at regular intervals. Consequently, this helps keep their users engaged.
Then, whenever I notice those scheduled posts popping up in my feed over the next 3 months, I will randomly like & share them to my own business pages. Thus increasing the reach of my clients’ posts.
Ask Your Family, Friends, and Others to Like and Share Your Posts
One helpful way that your family and friends can support your small business without spending a cent, is to like and share the content from your business page regularly. The more people react to your posts and share them, the more of a reach those posts will have over time. Let them know you would really appreciate the support.
Similarly, if people “care” react or “love” the post, it carries more weight than just “liking” the post does. Therefore when your friends and family “love” and share your posts frequently, it can have a significant impact on your social media marketing strategy, all for free.
Keep It Short and Sweet
This next one may be hard to hear, but it’s important. Do not -and I repeat DO NOT – mix personal posts with business pages. Resist the urge to post your personal opinions ANYWHERE on your website, your social media pages, or anywhere at all that is officially associated with your business.
Mixing your business with personal and political opinions or controversial subjects is a surefire way to alienate 50% of your potential customer base instantly. So just don’t do it. As my little sister used to tell my parents when we were teenagers, “Keep it in your head”.
When it comes to social media, it’s best to keep things positive, professional, neutral, and informational. It’s OK to throw a little humor in sometimes too, but keep it clean.
Here are some examples of things that would be great to post to your business’s social media pages:
- Link to professional articles on your website
- Post different pages from your website throughout the month
- Articles relevant to your industry and business from reputable 3rd party sources
- Stories of interest from your local community
- Shout outs and promos for your clients and peers
- Pictures of your products and facilities
- Descriptions of your services, products, and other offerings
- Praise and recognition for your hard working team
- Marketing and promotional materials
- G-rated jokes and memes that are relevant to your industry
Don’t forget to link to your social media accounts from your website, and vice versa!
If you don’t have time to post regularly to social media on behalf of your business, you could consider delegating that job to a tech-savvy employee.
You could also hire a professional to manage your social media presence for you!