More and more companies are using social networks to get their brand message out there, but how many are reaching the right people, getting them to see their business in a positive light?
Social media is a crowded space, but there are some tricks that even the smallest businesses can use to make an impact and boost engagement with their brand.
Have a strategy
The single biggest reason brands fail in social media is that they don't plan ahead. Creating a Twitter profile or a Facebook page is easy, filling it with content day in, day out, 52 weeks a year is the hard part, so make a plan; brainstorm with your team and work out what kind of things you should be posting every day for the next three months.
Use social toolkits such as O2's Social Insights tool to monitor how your social media impact compares with other small and medium-sized businesses, in your business sector or local area.
Lance Concannon, head of digital and social media at business communications firm Hudson Sandler, says: "Think about what's happening within your company, product launches, for example, and events taking place in the wider world, such as the World Cup, Christmas, elections and so on, and plan relevant content to coincide with them. Being spontaneous and reactive is fine, but life is easier with a plan."
Make engaging online worthwhile
Running social media competitions or offering social media-exclusive discounts for your brand will make your customers feel special and more likely to engage with your product or service in the future, and share it with their friends.
"Giveaways and offers really help to build your followers and enhance engagement with your brand so think carefully about what kind of prize or offer would be attractive to your target audience," says Alison Parsons, from marketing agency Fig Creative.
Ask questions and answer questions on social media
It is one of the easiest ways of starting a conversation, as it shows both the person asking and the rest of your audience that you are paying attention and interested in what they have to say.
Keep your own questions open-ended, positive and relevant to your business, and make sure they are questions that you actually want answers to.
You can also answer tweeted questions about your industry, even if they aren't specifically for you, says Jess Matthewman, social media tutor at the Juice Academy.
"Use the Twitter search function and pinpoint users to engage with," she says.
Tweet smartly
Thanks to Twitter's retweet function, your posts can be circulated to thousands of people very quickly. But if you want to create opportunities to engage through the retweeting of your messages, blogs and other content, keep your own tweet below the 140-character limit.
"That way, if someone wants to add a few words, thoughts, or links of their own, which can add a lot of value to a post, they can do without having to edit your original tweet, which can result in the impact being lost," says photographer John Bentley, owner of FourTwoGraphs.
Share visually
Platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube are designed for sharing digital imagery, but don't overlook the impact that sharing photos and videos on Facebook and Twitter can have as well. As a social media channel Twitter is wonderful for its immediacy, but there are times when 140 characters are just not enough for the message you want to communicate. So do it with pictures.
Dez Derry, CEO at online marketing agency mmadigital , says: "If you are at a business event or awards dinner or you just see something worth capturing, then share it. The same goes for videos. It can help people see your human side and if that picture is interesting enough your followers will pass it on, helping you attract more followers."
Let the social media world meet your team
It has been a contentious issue in recent times, exactly who should be responsible for managing the firm's social media presence.
Brett Dixon, director of social media specialist DP Online Marketing, advocates that everyone in a business can and should be involved in social media, giving connections – potential customers – insight into the people who work there.
He says: "In our business we encourage everyone to post and tweet, from the receptionist to the directors. Everyone has a different approach, which allows us to extend our social media reach. However, you do have to be careful, and don't hand out passwords. With a social media management service such as Hootsuite you can give employees access without giving them passwords.
Take criticism in your stride
If one of the great things about social media is the freedom of being able to have your say, the downside is that not everything that's said will necessarily be positive.
But criticism can also be seen as an opportunity; if a customer is openly complaining on your social media channel, move quickly to acknowledge the problem and if appropriate, offer a resolution. Handled well, with customers getting the response they were looking for, this can turn negative messages into positive stories online that demonstrate how efficiently your brand dealt with a customer issue and how engaged your business is with its customers.
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This content has been paid for and produced to a brief agreed with O2 Business, whose brand it displays
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