Give Your Business a Real Edge when Using Social Media Marketing!

When it comes to taking advantage of social media marketing, there are some tips that can be applied across the board, regardless of which social media outlet you're using! These are 12 tips on giving your social media marketing a boost over your competition!

1. Look the Part - Most B2B relationships don’t start until between 70% - 90% through the sales process. Often, a prospect won’t even contact you until they’re confident of your experience, knowledge and authority in your specialized field. That means, you should always, no matter what, put your best face forward. Having an unbranded business profile will only hurt your chances for being selected by your potential leads.

2. Check Spelling and Grammar – Use your spell check. Read it out loud a few times to make sure that it sounds right to you.

3. Don’t Be a Wimp – Despite the fact that you have the potential of being seen by thousands, even millions of people, there are very few social media snafus that you won’t recover from. Always strive for your best, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Stay away from social hot buttons, like religion and politics, and handle any criticism or complaints openly in a timely fashion and you’ll be alright.

4. Avoid Just Spewing Information – Social media’s purpose is to interest and engage customers. Avoid sounding like a textbook or infomercial. You don’t get your audience’s attention for long. You need to make them want to learn more about your company.

5. If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try Again and Again – Just like with anything, it’s unlikely that you’ll be a social media sensation overnight. Don’t worry. You’ll find your stride and learn the best way to engage.

6. Be Informal, but Sincere - Giving your business a little personality is the best way to catch the attention of your followers on social media. While you may want to avoid phrases like ‘I can haz computer fix?’, your posts shouldn’t be written as though you were writing a PhD. thesis on theoretical geometry.

7. A Picture Says 1000 Words – Adding an image can be amazingly beneficial to a social media posting’s engagement. The numbers speak for themselves: More than three-quarters (77%) of brand posts shared on Facebook are photos. (Source: SocialTimes) Tweets With Images Get 18% More Clicks, 89% More Favorites And 150% More Retweets. (Source: Buffer)

8. Don’t Just Sell, Sell, Sell – You probably have a website that is loaded with information on your services. Your social media profile should not be a miniature version of your website. The best social media include free, helpful tips, company announcements, or pictures that show off your company culture, just to name a few.

9. All Roads Lead to Your Website – Ideally, when someone looks at a post you’ve made on social media, (when possible) include a clear link back to your website. Ideally, they’ll click the link, head to your website and continue to get to know you and your business. It may not always happen, but you should still make it as easy as possible to drive traffic back to your website. 87% of buyers say online content has a major or moderate impact on vendor preference and selection. (Source: B2B Marketing Insider)

10. Share the Load – You don’t have to burden one, dedicated person to do all of your social media. Create a team of people who are authorized to post on the company’s behalf.

11. No Such Thing as Bad Likes/Followers – Okay, so your primary audience is not the 13 year old boy who liked your page because Facebook recommended it to him. But – when it comes to social media, everyone counts. Not only is the like or follow helpful to your page’s statistics, but you never know who has a business that suffers from a terrible case of bad IT support.

12. Boost It! Boost It Good – Boosting posts on Facebook can be a good way to have your posts seen by more people in a specific demographic. It doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor, starting at $5.00 for a boost. It’s a good way to target members of your community.