Improve Your Social Media in 11 Easy Steps
Babes who learn together, build empires together! Let's talk about 11 things you can do today to improve your social media presence. Whether you just started a few social media pages for your new brand or your business has an established following, there's something you can pull from these tips that'll make you feel even more confident about continuing to grow your audience authentically.
Match Your Handles
Ideally your business would have the same handle on each platform. Match your handles across all platforms & make it easier for your audience to find your page, ‘like’ your posts, & follow your feed.
#HashtagStrategically
Hashtags are perfect for live-tweeting during events. Be clear on what your business’ official hashtags are for an event or campaign and be sure to let the rest of your team know!
- You don’t need more than 2 hashtags at a time on Twitter.
- Hashtags on Facebook are good for branding purposes (if you want to drop in branding language you want to be associated with -- for example: #TampaWeddings), but they're not meant for tracking. The tags only stay live temporarily.
- For Instagram, use up to 30 relevant hashtags below the text in your caption and try to be consistent with which ones you use so your audience can find you.
Give Your Profiles a Makeover
Make sure your profile photos & headers are quality images that are relevant to your business. They should be a high enough resolution that they don't pixelate after you upload them. You can change them for holidays, special events, or any time you want to mix things up. Also, while you’re in there doing updates, make sure your business hours & contact info are up-to-date, too!
Make Social Media Somebody’s Priority
Decide what your business' commitment level will be for social media. If you have a budget for a part-time or full-time team member to manage it, that’s great! Work with them to set measurable goals for growth. But if you or someone on your team will be taking on social media as an additional responsibility, make sure to carve out a reasonable amount of time & set realistic expectations.
Create & Share Video Content
Don’t be intimidated by the idea of creating videos! Facebook Live is a great tool because it’s built-in & easy. You can also shoot video directly in Instagram. If you want to get fancy and do some editing or add music & transitions, apps like iMovie and Magisto make editing video easy when you're on the go. Why bother? Because video almost always draws higher engagement than photos or plain text. ;) Also, by 2018, almost 80% of all online content will be video. Get ahead of the curve, Babes.
Start a Content Calendar
Don’t just “wing it” – plot out what you’re going to talk about and when. You can download free content calendar templates, create your own in Excel, or use a computer/mobile app like Trello (we keep track of all of our notes, content, and to do lists with this app). It’s easy to engage your audience around holidays & events, but never miss out on an opportunity to be relevant with top headlines or trending topics (*cough* Lemonade *cough* Cash Me Ousside *cough* The Oscars). You can even reuse content that’s still relevant! Win-win.
Make it Facebook Official
If it wasn’t shared online, it didn’t happen (you know it's true). Create a Facebook event (it’s basically free advertising!) & populate it with details & photos. Post about your campaign or event before, during, AND after to complete the story you're telling. Some people’s first experience with your company will be on social media, so be sure to make a good impression.
Experiment with Advertising
Facebook & Instagram ads are within your reach, even with minimal resources. Built-in templates make it easy to build your ad, include photos, videos, music, and even identify your target audience. You can also opt to skip the official ad design process and just “boost” a post or event page. Even a budget as little as $10 will still see results in reach & engagement. Throw the equivalent of your weekly coffee budget behind an ad & see what happens!
Be a Good Social Citizen
Seek out the business pages of Boss Babes you love & follow them. “Like” all of your partner & sponsor pages. If they’re hosting a cool event, amplify their post by sharing it on your page & they’ll do the same for you. You can expect to see some negativity cross your feed now & again, but don’t feed the trolls and don’t be one either.
Read, Respond, & Repeat
Make sure you keep an eye on your feeds. Respond to people who tweet at you & comment on your page. Follow up with people who send you messages. These people care about you & your brand and they want to hear from you, sugar.
Enjoy Your New-Found Fame
Most importantly, don’t forget why you’re doing all of this. Growing your business' influence by making connections with your fans & followers takes lots of time and skill, so celebrate your successes & have fun stepping into the social spotlight!
