One of the most important things you can have as a company nowadays is to have an amazing online presence, especially on social media. If you’re not on social media yet, or just don’t feel like you’re using it to its best advantage, there’s no need to worry. It’s never too late to start! So, here are some hints, tips tricks to successfully launch your company on social media:

Take a moment to assess everything before deciding to dive right in.

There are thousands of businesses doing social media already, and not all of them are doing it correctly, so take a minute and create a content strategy. By this, we mean to define what it is that you’re trying to achieve on social media. Are you trying to boost sales? Boost customer loyalty? Educate your customers? All these things need to be thought through and have clear cut goals attached to them. A small side note, if the goal is sales, content that is too “salesy” can actually be a turn off to some customers. But, using social media to keep people discussing your product can have the same effect.

Keep track of how the accounts are doing.

Use either Google Analytics or the built-in analytics tools that some services like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram provide to admins of the page. This will show you as definitively as possible what is and isn’t working, what times of day to post are best for your audience etc. These platforms and tools are free to use and provide so much insight. They should be the number one stop when it comes to reassessing social media strategy and seeing what’s working best for your business and audience!

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Identify the “voice” of your brand before you launch your company on social media.

Now, you already know who your target audience is. So, the next step is to identify what they respond to the best on social media. Typically, it’s a persona, someone the target audience will relate to and find accessible. Then you want to figure out what language your audience will respond to the best. Is it something quite formal, or maybe more colloquial? Perhaps they prefer someone funny, or someone serious. This may well vary depending on the age range of the target audience. Don’t be afraid of trial and error as it may take a bit of practice to really figure out what works for you when it comes to the brand’s voice.

Appeal to your target audience.

This point is more of an extension to the one above. But, it’s more about appealing to the target audience. For instance, if you’re a tech company, you may want to use a geeky persona to represent your brand. Or if you’re a non-profit, a persona that’s open and empathetic may work better. The key, however, is to keep this persona consistent across all your social media. Don’t switch and change- that will just confuse and alienate anyone’s audience!

Before you launch your company on social media, choose the right platform.

So now you know who your target audience is, now you need to figure out where they congregate online. Now, as a rule of thumb, it’s generally a good idea to have a Twitter presence, especially considering that most companies have a corporate Twitter account. It’s also a good idea to have a Facebook presence considering they have broken over a billion users. However, if you’re a business to business company, you definitely want to do something on LinkedIn. If you have beautiful products or imagery to show off, visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest may work best for you. Also, don’t restrict yourself to just the one platform, most people have accounts across various social media networks, so you should too.

Be very visual with your content.

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and even Twitter are now very visual spaces, so you’d do well to post an image post to catch the eye of your audience rather than a boring text-only post. In fact, Instagram doesn’t even allow just text posts. That really shows how important images can be. Also, make the most of any video content you have. Loads of social media platforms absolutely LOVE video content, and your audience is more likely to engage with it too. If you really love video, check out TikTok- it may be one of the newer platforms on the block, but it’s super popular, especially with teenagers and the under-25s. If your target audience is this age group, you should definitely be on it!

For Twitter, be sure to acknowledge your peers.

This pointer is mainly just for Twitter, but be sure to retweet your peers once in a while and reply to some of their posts. Not only will this allow you to connect with people across your industry, but they will be far more likely to retweet and comment on your posts as well. Get that conversation going and you don’t know where it could lead!

Once you’ve created your content strategy and figured out the persona that will represent your brand AND where and when to post, you will be ready to launch your company on social media.  One final tip would be to always re-evaluate your strategies. Your brand will evolve over time and what worked at the start may not work later. You need to be ready and able to adapt when you need to. The biggest mistake you can make is to not have a social media presence at all. So, get stuck in and you’ll soon find out what works for you!

Need a helping hand? Visit our blog page today for more hints and tips and while you’re there why not read this blog? We also run free Social Clinics that can help you learn more about your business, social media, and digital marketing than you ever thought possible. Click here to book today!