Did you know that according to a recent Mashable report, the number of people logging onto social media around the world is now at a whopping three billion? That’s three billion, or about 40 percent of the global population!
That’s an awful lot of people, in other words, that you might be missing if you run a business that isn’t active on such sites. Even the smallest and most niche firms now depend a great deal on social media to get the word out about what makes them such a good option for their target customers.
So if you want to do the same and build some serious traction on social networks this year, what can you do that doesn’t require too much effort?
Flaunt your personality
Social media is one of those things that you can often do best by simply being yourself. That’s the case even if you are commenting and sharing in the guise of a company rather than an individual – although of course, it’s important not to stray so far into the ‘personal’ that you come across as unprofessional.
Still, social media followers like to know that there’s a human being behind your profile, and if you are running an especially small firm such as a high-street coffee shop or niche restaurant, they will probably only expect a very modest number of people to be manning your social media accounts anyway.
So don’t be afraid to talk about those unmistakably human, personal things – your favourite hobby or book right now, or maybe the products that you’re presently loving that target customers in your industry are also likely to be interested in hearing about.
Post frequently and to schedule
So many company owners trying to ‘crack’ social media start a few profiles on Facebook, Twitter and the like, and fire out a flurry of status updates or tweets, only to then fall silent as they are suddenly distracted by more obviously pressing day-to-day business matters, such as client work and recruitment.
All of this is very understandable, but it doesn’t lend itself to building a steady and strong audience over time. People like to know that you will always have something new and relevant to share with them, so it’s really worth posting frequently and at predictable times, even if you have to schedule everything in advance.
Repurpose your content for different platforms
So you’ve come up with a brilliant ‘listicle’ article for your LinkedIn account, and it’s getting a lot of good responses there. Should you post a link to it on your company Facebook or Twitter page? That might work, but you may get better results if you convert much of that content into an eye-catching infographic for these more, shall we say, ‘immediate’ platforms.
Another idea is to simply fashion new articles, images or videos from those that you might have created one, two or more years ago, albeit freshened up in some way. Perhaps you could update the content with information related to how things have changed in your industry since the original piece was published?
Remember that repurposing is all about getting more out of your existing content, so that you don’t have to spend quite so much time thinking up entirely new content to share with your followers.
Link up with an ecommerce marketplace
Social media success, paradoxically enough, owes a lot to a truly holistic approach embracing so much more than social media in and of itself.
After all, you might run out of really interesting things to share, or struggle to build any real sense of authority for your business in its field, if you don’t have a regularly updated or insightful blog, or never upload anything new to your company’s YouTube channel.
Along similar lines, it really pays for your social presence for your company to have a partnership with a relevant ecommerce marketplace like Groupon. Use Groupon’s retail marketing solutions to create offers and discounts that will entice not only those using a site like Groupon, but also those already following you on social media when you refer to such deals on your Facebook and Twitter pages. Ultimately, everyone’s a winner.
Often, you’ll find that by doing the ‘easy’ stuff to build your social media traction first, the ‘tougher’ stuff suddenly no longer looks quite so tough. Before you know it, you may have a company social media presence that is whirring away like a fine-tuned machine, giving you plenty of traffic, interest and sales.
