Having a presence on social media is a must for any business – it has become another place where different stakeholders can connect with you. 

Showcasing your business

Social media is also a great place where you can not only showcase your products and services but also highlight the values that are important to your organisation. This is important for different stakeholders because:

• Customers and potential customers can find out more about your business and connect on a different level than they might on your website. You can also advertise on social media if you want to target your product or services to certain groups

• Potential new employees can find out more about what your organisation sees as important – be that your social values and what you do above and beyond the products and services you provide

• Shareholders and clients can connect with your business beyond meetings or board reports and get a true flavour of what is important in the organisation

By putting together a social media strategy and mapping out your stakeholders, you can understand what content will connect best with your different audiences. It’s about knowing what they want to have conversations about - social media is all about a sense of community, so this should be your thought before sales. You build the rapport, and once that like and trust is there, then you can start to sell.

What social media platforms should I be on? 

There are now so many social media platforms and you need to work out what you want from your social media to be on the right ones for your business’s needs. Think about what your business does and who you are trying to appeal to with your social media interaction (as defined in your social media strategy). Why not do some stakeholder analysis to help you decide what is right for your business, ask your customers, employees, shareholders and clients – you can even take a look on platforms before you sign up to see how well similar organisations are interacting on their different social media platforms… you may see where you could be doing better. 

There are many organisations out there that specialise in helping your business identify what spaces your organisation will be most effective on and what to target, so if you don’t have anyone in your business whom is particularly social-media savvy, then it is certainly worth engaging with one of these business, they can even help you set up a regular calendar for what to put on your different social media channels and when. 

As a very brief run-through, here are five of the main social media platforms that you may want to think about:

Twitter: Is short, sharp and to the point and is all about topical content on knowledge and trends – what is going on in the here and now. Twitter audiences don’t want dumbed-down content.

Facebook: Users who engage with businesses on Facebook tend to like content about ‘life hacks’ and can be a more ‘fun’ side to your business. Audiences like companies on Facebook almost a badge of identity – this is the sort of organisation they want to engage with and for other people to know they engage with. 

LinkedIn: For businesses and business people to mainly talk about business – it’s a professional platform first and foremost. This platform is all about showcasing the great things your business is doing with content that would appeal to your employees, shareholders and other organisations that you work with. It is also great for knowledge sharing. 

Instagram:  Is all about looking good – this platform is for photos and videos. Audiences like to follow inspirational people and businesses; it is a platform for engaging with the things you enjoy. Businesses on Instagram need to be very visually orientated with eye-catching imagery to get noticed.

More recently created platforms such as TikTok are all about creating, or mimicking short, eye-catching videos or challenges. This platform is all about popularity and creativity. 

How do I keep content going on my social media?

As I have mentioned above, social media is another way to connect to your audience and can drive them to your website as they want to find out more about you. To be effective on social media, you will need to create a social media plan – which I’m sure all you Fans of Plans will be aware of the importance of planning by now! Your plan may include:

-       Dates for national awareness days that are relevant to your business

-       Key milestones within your business – including your businesses birthday, when major projects are due to finish

-       Events that your business is attending (look out for what the organisers of the event are putting out on social media so you can follow and use any relevant hashtags)

-       Regular checks for content from different parts of the business – is there anything worth sharing on social media from different areas that you don’t know about yet? 

-       Recruitment – you can advertise any vacancies through your social media platforms too 

By putting this plan together and adding to it as ad-hoc things crop up you can make sure you have content to keep your social media pages active for anyone looking you up. 

By setting up a monthly plan for what you want to be going out on your social media channels, you can make sure that you have a continuous stream of content. Depending on your business, you may not want to post every day, but it is a good idea to have someone dedicated to monitoring your social media channels at least on a daily basis, so that they can respond quickly to queries and interactions. They can also like and share content from people and organisations that you are also following, this will also build up your own follower base. 

What do I do if I get negative comments?

A lot of people are concerned about setting up their business on social media for fear of negative comments. Users themselves are a savvy bunch, so if some writes a negative comment about your business that is unjust, you’ll find your supporters will step in. There are also ways to block followers or remove negative comments on your pages. 

But if there is a comment that you need to respond to, make sure you do this in a private messaging space.  Send the user a message asking them to email you with further details of their issue – that way you have shown that you are listening and are keen to respond and solve their issue; while at the same time, not having all the correspondence with this particular user visible to everyone. The best resolved responses often end with the user coming back onto the social media platform to thank you for sorting their issue.

Remember it’s meant to be social! 

Remember it’s called ‘social’ media for a reason – people want to interact with you and you need to be prepared for this. It’s not about you broadcasting information; it’s about engaging your target audiences in conversations so that they get to know your brand better. Used in the right way social media can be a great tool for building brand loyalty with a variety of stakeholders. 

P.s: If you want some other free tips for your personal life, check out the Relationship With Self Series blog – out fortnightly on Tuesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Wellbeing Expert, Tamsin Cain. Browse the latest edition here: https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/priorities/