Social Media Beginners Guide

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When starting, or maintaining, your social media strategy make sure you have a plan. This sounds rather obvious, but it is often overlooked when it comes to social media. Know which channels are best for your company and only join as many as you can handle. I suggest sticking to about 3-4 of the most popular channels (my picks would be Facebook, Twitter, G+, and Linked In).

Once you know where you are going to join make sure you set up the right type of account. For example, make sure you set up a business page on Facebook as well as Google Plus. Be sure your settings are correct (don’t set your account to private, if you are trying to share it with the world). Also, do a quick double check that you don’t already have an account when you are joining a social network, it is a rather common mistake setting up two accounts. This will split your strength and confuse people searching for your company. If you do happen to have two, I highly suggest merging them into one account.

Another common mistake we see is duplication of posts. What I mean by this is writing one post, then copy and pasting it to all your other social pages. Typically, you will have overlap with your followers, you don’t want them to get annoyed seeing the same message in two places. Also, don’t post the same thing several times a day, this comes across as spammy and can even lose your followers. Similar to this, make sure you avoid automated “Thank You” messages to your followers. No one wants or needs an extra email to delete. If you are going to reach out to someone make sure it is a genuine message, people are smart and they will know the difference.

5 Ways That Will Help Improve Interactions:

1. Get a program to schedule your posts
   – I suggest Hootsuite.com or Bufferapp.com
2. Follow / connect with local companies
   – This will help you get local information and stories, which will be helpful for posting ideas. I recommend Local News/Weather
3. Have your team and friends help spread your message
   – Have them not only like your pages, but interact with you regularly.
4. Monitor your account on your cell phone
   – This is vital to prevent negative feedback/comments. The faster you react the faster you can resolve any issues.
5. Create and join groups and communities
   – Find people with similar ideas and goals, they will help you grow your account if you help them.

Since you have made it all the way to the end of this article I am going to reward you with a few bonus tips as well.

• Posts with Images, Videos, Hashtags and Links! You will get a better response than just text (about a 50% increase)
• Don’t use your social pages to sell!
• Post Regularly (obviously)

I hope these tips can help you make the most of your social media accounts. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me or anyone on the Bizcor team.